LG is upgrading its latest three portable Bluetooth speakers and launching its first two-speaker Blu-ray-equipped HTiB.
Three new Bluetooth speakers include the $99 P5, due in October, and the $149 P7, which is already available. The price and availability of the company’s first tall cylindrical model, the SoundPop 360, hasn’t been announced.
All three speakers are the company’s first Bluetooth-only speakers with these features:
Dual Play: With this, two paired speakers can be turned into separate left-right speakers to widen the soundstage. In the related Twin Mode, each speaker plays the same information simultaneously to increase output.
Auto Music Play: The speakers automatically begin playing music when a Bluetooth source, such as a smartphone, gets within range. In homes with a Bluetooth speaker in two rooms, consumers can therefore walk between the rooms and have the speakers in each room automatically play back their phone’s music. The Bluetooth feature already appears in the H4 tabletop speaker, which also features LG’s Wi-Fi-based wireless multiroom-audio technology.
Multipoint Bluetooth: This lets the speakers connect to two Bluetooth devices at once instead of to just one at a time, to eliminate the need to turn one device off and pair the other, which can take a few minutes, a spokesman said.
Sound Sync: A speaker connects to a Bluetooth-capable LG TV to enhance TV-sound quality.
The Music Flow P7 is a 20-watt speaker with up to 10 hours of battery life. The Music Flow P5 is a 10-watt model with up to eight hours of battery life.
In its HTiB lineup, LG is adding the $499 LHB675 X-Boom theater, which features two subwoofer-equipped left-right floorstanding speakers flanked by a 3D Blu-ray player that includes LG’s Smart TV services and sends audio via Wi-Fi to the company’s wireless multiroom-audio speakers. Music sources including CDs or USB can be sent to the speakers in other rooms. Smart TV services include Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video and YouTube. It’s due in October.
Another new product is the $449 floorstanding Cube Speaker System, which plays music stored on Bluetooth devices or on USB. It also features NFC and is available in October.
