LG’s newest soundbar showcased at CES, has been dubbed a 4K speaker, something which doesn’t make any sense. The SJ9 soundbar has been given the label of 4K high-resolution audio, which did not exist prior to LG’s surprise announcement that it does.
For those who are unaware, 4K is a term that usually refers to the resolution of a screen. The ‘4K’ refers to the amount of pixels of the screen, with roughly 4000 pixels spanning horizontally and 2000 pixels spanning vertically.
When LG say that their newest soundbar is ‘4K high resolution’ they are actually referring to the data stream. If someone were to listen to two audio channels of 24-bit/96kHz on the SJ9, then there can be a data stream that exceeds 4,000kbps.
With the 4K craze getting a bit more steam after a rocky start a couple years ago, the term ‘4K’ could become the newest buzzword that tech companies will use to get people to buy their products. We’ve already seen Sony create a brand-new 4K compatible version of their already existing PS4 to capitalize on the market.
Technically the term makes sense because there is 4,000 of something present in the device, but this claim only stands to confuse the consumers and drive up sales with a gimmick.