At CES 2026, LG introduced a brand new wave of audio system in its xboom vary, as soon as once more produced in collaboration with will.i.am. Final 12 months’s fashions produced some actual hits – we gave the xboom Stage 301 and the xboom Seize glowing evaluations, so I used to be wanting ahead to seeing the brand new vary.
LG has talked quite a bit about how the sound profile was actually tuned and determined with will.i.I’m, and I acquired to speak to him on the present about what that actually means – what sort of technical involvement he had with the audio system, and the way he approaches sound tuning.
But it surely’s not simply will.i.am’s music background that pursuits me – he is been an enormous know-how man for over a decade. He was one of many key influences and traders within the unique launch of Beats, and has launched a bunch of his personal tech merchandise, together with audio tech within the type of Buttons, and extra just lately, an AI-based customized radio service referred to as RAiDiO.FYI.
That is your second spherical of audio system that you’ve got executed with LG. Did you will have something in thoughts for what you needed to do with a brand new vary?
The Stage 301 was for me the hero final 12 months, so [I wanted to] develop that POV – that design aesthetic, the place it is positioned like your conventional stage monitor, with the precision and audio dynamics of a studio monitor, and the portability of a Bluetooth speaker.
So for the buskers on the market, we’ve got a much bigger xboom from the angle of the Stage 501. Increasing that’s what I am actually enthusiastic about.
This assortment we’ve got, I discovered quite a bit from, just like the xboom Frab and how one can personalize it and decorate it. Normally, audio system are put in baggage, so this 12 months I’ve a capsule assortment of ‘boombags’, to hopefully encourage different designers on the market to see audio system as one thing to put on.
And we have skilled that previously. My different go round in audio with Beats, individuals wore their buds. They simply did not put on the buds; they put them round their neck like jewellery – and so borrowing from that, I’ve my boombags, and we’ll do the identical for a brand new merchandise, the xboom Mini. The xboom Mini is highly effective, it is cute, and it permits for different methods to specific the way to put on it. I’ve a boombelt coming that is designed across the Mini.
What is the course of like of working with LG, telling them what you’d wish to get out of the collaboration, and the way do they feed stuff again to you?
That is an superior collaboration the place we fine-tune, co-design, and have iterations. On the subject of the audio tuning of the speaker, me and my crew, that is our experience. I’ve executed 20-plus years of sound design and EQ-ing and mixing, not only for Black Eyed Peas however for artists from Mary J. Blige to Mariah Carey to Whitney Houston to Michael Jackson, John Legend, Rolling Stones, U2…
My audio engineering crew actually will get in there to verify all the things sounds proper, and to outperform the opponents so far as [recreating] the studio expertise. How will we give that studio expertise and permit everybody to really feel the way in which we really feel once we’re within the studio – particularly on the Stage 501 and 301.
LG has talked quite a bit about engaged on the sound profile with you, and also you’re speaking about making it sound ‘proper’. So what does that imply to you, making one thing sound correct? What’s the type of profile you are on the lookout for?
Whenever you’re making music, it is just a little totally different as a result of it is about what you need it to sound like. After which while you end singing, you go into the studio and also you A/B it. A/B it means you play a tune and you are like, ‘Hm, I like this kick drum. I like this bass.’ You have got the liberty to make it sound the way you need, with the guardrails of life. These frequencies needs to be ignored. These frequencies needs to be heightened.
Now, while you’re making a speaker, you gotta consider all songs, all genres. You’ll be able to’t consider simply, like, ‘Yo, that is gonna be nice for entice music,’ trigger it is gonna sound horrible for classical music.
I imply, there are individuals who make a speaker that method. You are able to do it if you need.
Yeah, however you should not. It is best to have some perspective.
That is the explanation why I preserve everybody in thoughts that I labored with, from the Rolling Stones – thanks a lot for letting me work with you guys – U2 – thanks, Larry and Bono and Adam – thanks, John Legend, Britney, you already know.
So after I’m making the speaker, I consider all of the artists that I’ve ever labored with, I can not simply be genre-specific. That hasn’t been a mirrored image of my profession.
So your crew who works on the suggestions on the audio system’ sound profile is like additionally a part of your crew for producing and mixing music?
Yeah, so there’s a complete science to spectrum analyzing and listening to the competitors’s audio system. Like, seeing ‘Oh, what frequencies are they placing out in bass, what are they doing over right here with the treble? What are they doing right here on the highs? What are they doing right here on the compression? What are they doing on the limiter? The place’s the facility going to, how a lot energy goes to that freaking magnet pushing it.’ We all know all that shit, after which we evaluate it.
My go-to tune is Take 5. I begin with this tune. It is the perfect tune to tune any audio to.
Is that this one in all your favourite songs, or do you simply notably assume that is the candy spot for tuning?
One: It is my favourite tune. The rim, the trip, the acoustic drum package is essentially the most excellent recording of that smooth drum taking part in, remoted by itself. After which the piano that is available in, after which the bass – however it’s not low bass, it is an acoustic bass, so I get to listen to it nicely. It is so nicely blended. After which the sax feels prefer it’s… like I can hear the spit on the reed.
Even after I do Black Eyed Peas music, that is my tune for getting the ear and the room tune.
Is that this a tune the place, when you’re listening to a speaker you are evaluating to otherwise you’re testing one thing you are to listen to, you may inform inside three seconds whether or not you just like the signature as a result of you already know the monitor inside out?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, however after I get that for the highs and the mids, then I will go to the lows. I choose a tune for simply increase and bass. Then I will search for distortion – like, what tune is distorted, so to ensure that while you flip it up, you are not including additional distortion to it.
Then I do my rock songs, after which what songs have a distorted SM57 mic, the place that does not mess up the mids, particularly on a mid-range speaker like this. After which how does that switch into how we tune into the xboom Buds.
With the spectrum analyzer, it is not simply your individual ears. Thomas and Dylan and our crew are coming with the spectrometers and bringing that frequency math. They’re like, ‘I do know you want that, however look what’s occurring over right here on the information. I am like, actually? All proper, however what is the medium right here?’ You are coping with issues that you simply can’t hear, however the spectrum’s telling you.
I have been coping with that my entire whole music profession, and bringing that data to the xboom sequence is improbable.
So while you and the crew are working with LG, it is in-depth, frequency-level technical suggestions?
Yeah. For instance, earlier than we got here to CES, I went to Korea. I flew to Korea to do the 501, and I am like ‘Wow, that is nice’. You take heed to the 501 that sounds superior, however you then take heed to the xboom Mini, and also you wanna apply the identical kind of images, like frequency language, just like the persona of the 501 and 301. How does that translate [to the Mini]?
And a number of occasions, when you dial [the 501’s signature] in and also you carry it right here [to the Mini], this begins to fart. To get it proper, Thomas must carry his freaking spectrum tools. I’ve already did my half, however there’s some data that my man wants to use right here. I’ve acquired it thus far on the 501, the 301, however to translate that to the Mini, I would like Thomas.
It is expertise. These guys are like musicians, and it is the explanation why sure issues have a persona. It is expertise.
Me, Thomas, and Dylan, you already know, it is like a special Black Eyed Peas, the place it is concerning the curation of three totally different POVs. Experience, style, and technical, you already know. LG trusts our POV.
It is why Marshall is Marshall, Sennheiser is Sennheiser, why B&O is B&O, why Beats have been Beats, and why xboom is xboom.
This 12 months is 10 years since Buttons got here out, and it is longer than that since you have been working with Beats. Has your notion on the way you make these items modified in that point?
To my head, it has been three years. It nonetheless feels it was yesterday.
I can inform you what’s modified: Shenzhen.
This place is… Wow. This place is wonderful, bro. Like, the issues that may be made now. I get goosebumps simply fascinated about it, how superior Shenzhen is.
I want London had a Shenzhen. I want France had a Shenzhen. Each nation’s inventive hub wants a Shenzhen. One thing that may get these items made, get it on the market.
It is an injustice to the inventive neighborhood within the UK that London would not have a Shenzhen; that LA would not have a Shenzhen; that New York would not have a Shenzhen is that place the place you may simply make one thing. Each place you go to, you are feeling like that potential to search out this new {hardware} and develop it’s like providing you with extra alternatives as a creator.
Earlier than, in 2016, going to Shenzhen wasn’t as straightforward as it’s now. Shenzhen wasn’t the Shenzhen that you already know now. It is tech metropolis, bro.
That is what’s modified, for the entire shopper electronics world, and we might study from it. We might all be impressed, each mayor, each freaking metropolis developer. Like shopper digital studios – in an age the place you would 3D print, and 3D printers are wanting dope; within the age the place I might vibe code, I can not vibe create.
Fast growth – that is what I am, that is what I am speaking about. That is what I am so enthusiastic about to be inventive proper now, as a result of again then, not a number of of us that come from my world have been making and dabbling in shopper electronics. Nonetheless proper now, individuals aren’t – like, there’s lots of people who choose style.
They’re all doing alcohol manufacturers.
Yeah, like, ‘Ooh, we acquired a brand new alcohol!’ Client electronics is the world. And also you imply to inform me there’s not a Shenzhen in each dope metropolis? The world wants that.
3D printing does look like the type of factor you would be into, since you wish to provide you with these, these concepts for style, for know-how designs.
Effectively, I’ve acquired a 3D lab.
In fact you will have!
OK, this is what occurred: July of final 12 months I went to Shenzhen. And we’re working on this one spot on some stuff, and I seemed round like, ‘Eddie, have a look at their freaking speedy machines over there, work out what they’re and organize them, get them to LA’.
And so we acquired like a few them in a room making speedy prototypes. After which I am like, ‘Yo, Eddie, we’d like extra machines. Extra machines, bro! This is why: We’re in an agentic world now. We’re in a vibe code world now.
We used to hang around in studios to make music. The studio become a laptop computer. Now telephones.
The brand new studio’s coming for {hardware}, round brokers, and we have to have speedy prototyping the place individuals can materialize concepts shortly. The place they simply get superior stuff regionally… like, the Kinko’s for shopper electronics would not exist, my dude.
Particularly if we get to the purpose the place describing one thing to an AI is ready to make a great 3D mannequin of it. Then you do not want elaborate design abilities, you simply want concepts.
And also you want the Kinko’s for shopper electronics,
Proper, and that.
That is all believable stuff, however in an effort to do this, we have to have a lab.
However shifting again to xboom, what’s additionally modified between 2016 and 2026 is rocking with LG.
Once we had Beats, we have been supercharged by the facility of Interscope. Jimmy Iovine ran Interscope. He took my wild thought, like, ‘Hey Jimmy, let’s make our personal {hardware},’ and out got here Beats.
From there, I began I.am+ and Buttons. Discovered quite a bit, did not have the facility of Interscope. Rocking with LG is like the finest shopper electronics firm. They supplied the freaking displays for Apple to do a number of their computer systems. They’re the displays in Mercedes. They’re just like the substances for lots of corporations to perform, technically. So to rock with LG is like, what an honor.
You are massive in on generative AI, particularly with RAiDiO.FYI. As a musician, what do you consider AI-generated music? It actually looks like we’re on the level the place individuals are gonna have to consider whether or not they need that of their music streaming companies, and the way they really feel about it being served to them.
I do not have a look at it like that. This is why.
AI-generated music is superior. Actually superior. So far as like, ‘Wait what? You did that? How lengthy did you sit and render, render, render, render until you bought what you bought? Oh, you have been sitting there for an hour? Let me hear the primary one you probably did. Effectively, why do not you want that one? OK, it was not what was in your head. Acquired it, however nonetheless it was dope.’
Any person’s nonetheless producing it. So I am not apprehensive about that. When the machine’s simply fucking doing it by itself? Discuss to me once we get there.
So long as somebody is having an thought that they are expressing via music, whether or not it is via AI or not… I make music for remedy. So, if an AI was in a position to stretch, I do not actually care as a result of I have to stretch. If an AI was a yoga teacher, that is cool. If an AI was, like, an incredible sneezer or cougher, I do not care, trigger I cough. I have to cough to clear my throat, so I have to make music to clear my soul.
I feel it is a liberator for folk that at all times needed to make music that did not know a ability, could not sing, could not play an instrument – however now their concepts can materialize. That is superior for them, you already know, as a result of the true performers want to go on the market and carry out.
However then on the identical time, has TikTok ruined music so far as our consideration span, and within the high quality of music chasing its algorithms… that is the one.
AI music – that is individuals nonetheless expressing themselves.
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