Bringing down the house

Designed for parties rather than quiet evenings at home, the super powerful LG CM9730 X-Boom mini Hi-Fi system is likely to get you in trouble with the neighbours.

That’s because it produces 25000W PMPO sound at 2300 RMS, has a throbbing bass and blows out such intense sound that the whole house is apt to shake.

Ideal for party organisers with soundproofed walls, the CM9730 comes with DJ sound effect that allows you to simulate a club ambience..

With the volume control at the fourth level – a mere 10 per cent of the max power –the X-Boom was so loud that my large living room was vibrating. To be fair to LG though, the X-Boom is designed for use for outdoor parties so it needs the power.

The credit for the house-shaking bass and good-quality sounds goes to the X-Boom’s large speaker cabinets. Each speaker cabinet is so large and heavy that it requires two people to carry it and makes you wonder why it’s called a “mini” system. Each of the two speaker cabinets weighs 35.5 kilogrammes and measured at 520 x 720x500mm.

The X-Boom uses three-way speakers to reproduce highs, mids and bass sounds. That powerful bass is driven by a 15-inch metallic subwoofer in each speaker. The mid-range sounds are reproduced by an 8-inch woofer and the high pitch sounds are driven by 1-inch compression horn.

The X-Boom is comprised of the two speaker units and the main control unit, which measures at 542x308x421mm and weighs 9.85 kgs.

The main unit is where you’ll find all the control buttons and it also boasts two USB ports, a CD tray, and a microphone jack. The X-Boom can stream music via Bluetooth connection from a smartphone or other Bluetooth-enabled devices. There’s also an FM tuner.

I had the most fun playing music from the USB because this allowed me to enjoy the DJ effects.

These automaticeffects, known as the Smart DJ playback function, are optimised only for two music genres – Electro and House.

When you play music files from a USB drive, you can select the Smart DJ from either the remote control or the Smart DJ button then choose between the Electro or House DJ effects. 

Smart DJ offers 5 types of voice effects, 6 samples of beat box, and 7 kinds of DJ effects including. cross fade, back spin and loop. The level of effects can also be increased or decreased.

Apart from the having the system play the DJ effects automatically, you can have fun controlling the effects on your own by using the left jog. Four of them– scratch and voice samples 1, 2 and 3 – can be played manually though it’s better to get some practice in before unleashing them on the party crowd.

The X-Boom also has Auto DJ playback function, which blends the end of one song into the beginning of the next while equalising the volume across tracks for uninterrupted playback. You can choose this function for playing music randomly or sequentially.

Or you can use the Jukebox playback function to make a playlist for your party using each USB drive and a CD for up to 100 tracks.

To control the tracks use the right jog dial to search for the next song in the device then press enter.

The X-Boom LCD screen also displays the track title being played and the next track’s title so that you, as the DJ, knows what’s coming up next – useful if you made the playlist a couple of days before.

To add to dancing mood, the X-Boom comes with dancing red LED lighting, which changes according to the beat.

Apart from having very large subwoofers to reproduce powerful bass sounds, the X-Boom also has the Bass Blass equalizer effect to increase the bass level.

There are several pre-set sound effects from which to choose, among them MP3 optimisation, Natural, Auto EQ, Pop, Classic, Jazz and Rock. 

I tested the X-Boom with some albums of dance music and found that even with the Bass Blast off, the system reproduced very powerful and deep bass sounds. The beats of dance music were also intense and fun.

I also enjoyed playing rock music on the system using the MP3 Optimisation option and was delighted by the solid bass especially on tracks by Peter Gabriel and Sting. Although the music was very loud, it was not distorted at all.

The X-Boom also reproduced the mids and highs of sounds very well. For example, I enjoyed the Sax for Sex – Beautiful Night album on the system. The saxophone sounded very sweet and loud on the system.

If you think your neighbours can stand it, you can snap up the LG CM9730 X-Boom for Bt39,990.

 

Key specs

_ Power Output (RMS THD 10%): 2,300 watts

_ Speakers: 3-way with 1-inch compression horn, 8-inch woofer, 15-inch metallic subwoofer, 8 ohms impedence

_ Audio in: Bluetooth, 2 USB ports, 1 portable in (3.5mm stereo jack), 1 AUX in (RCA ports)

_ CD player: 75 dB signal-to-noise ratio,, 80 dB dynamic range

_ FM tuner: 87.5 to 108.0 MHz or 87.50 to 108.00 MHz

_ Control unit’s dimension: 542 x 308 x 421 mm

_ Control unit’s weight: 9.85kgs

_ Each speaker’s dimension: 520x720x500

_ Each speaker’s weight: 35.5kgs

_ Power consumption: 180 watts