Creative Stage Air V2 2.0 Portable Bluetooth Sound Bar Speaker - 10 W RMS - Black

Lots of strange reviews on this Blaster. The product is purpose built designed for one purpose. A below monitor, monitor. The higher voltage power supply adds headroom and girth where USB power is great if you have a C port delivering rated current power. But that's the problem, the C spec. can be a range where charging power is great but most notebooks are not at that rating. So, the soundbar doesn't distort and clip starved for power. That's a good thing. The lack of an analog input is common across the industry. You get much cleaner sound processing with an internal DAC vs amplifying a pre signal (with noise). The design is slick from the vol knob feel to the remote features and operation. The term sophisticated comes to mind using this thing. The dreaded banner 'item is often returned' is tagged on this unit. I think I know why. Out of the box, it's well, boxy. Two 'race track' oval drivers, a center diaphragm, and a side port that's flared to prevent 'chuffing'. What did you expect from a 16" brick? Seems kinda mid rangey, a tad nasal, basically a $25 squawker! Back in the box she goes! They missed the secret in the instructions. Download the Creative USB Host Driver. Once installed, go into Control Panel - Sound - Creative (tab) - select 'Wide Mode'. This opens up the stage and is very noticeable. Now poke the remote sound expansion button. The two effects combined change the 'box' to an EQ'd sound stage. Well worth the effort and rewarding to hear as definitely more HiFi. I normally don't like 3D Space Sound, but this one is a game changer. The design is for near field monitoring not a juke box for a room. A two inch diaphragm and 3/4 inch port ain't gonna pound you with bass. It is clear and doesn't suck reproducing audio. If you want a more open sound or boomy bass, get a 2.1 speaker pair (with sub). If you want desktop compactness and clear audio for YouTube reviews or instructional videos, here ya go. Don't think it's a party dance machine. For what it does, it does it well. But understand it's not ideal for music listening or bass rich gaming audio. Used as a portable outside could work, but would sound very thin compared to devices made for that use. It's simply to live under a monitor and what the design was all about. Is this better than a $30 USB powered soundbar. Yes, for the bucks it's well engineered, robust, sophisticated, and not junk. Unfortunately, others can have more bass, flashy LEDs and more stars. To me, for my use, those are disposable LED gimmick toys. Point - the SE is not marketed for teens or gamers. It's a tool more than show. Thus, 5 Stars.

Be aware, the sub isn't very powerful and the bass is mostly for movies orTV, not music. The speakers are alsodramatically better for tv and mobies than music. As a replacement for the tv speakers its amazing, night and day difference; its also good for using with my computer to play World of Warcraft. For music they are, and I don't say this lightly, profoundly underwhelming. But for the price they are very , not much better than he widest soundboard without a separate sun you can buy from Walmart as ONN brand (for music, not video or games); but I assume Creative will last better. For music that sound bar was arguably better with louder bass, for everything else this one is way better. Only other thing is that the cord for the sub should be longer. Super easy to install and connect to, super easy interface to deal with. The "surround" doesn't work like a full set of speakers but if you sit in front of it, it does dramatically increase immersion. The dialog setting improves the experience way more for video or games. The volume control is very easy to use and accurate (it doesn't get very loud, if that's important to you). Connectivity is great, super easy to connect to, sync to my router tv controller. Bluetooth works great with my computer. For the price, I'd buy it again, if it was for a space like mine. If you have a big room, want very loud noise, or are trying to get quality sound for music; spend more money and get something with more power and a better sub. Very good value for the money. But very lackluster for music. I think it would be a lot better for classica, jazz, or like acoustic music than hip hop/rap or harder rock, it's essentially useless for listening to electronic music. The less hard bass you want the better this system is. If you live in an apartment and want quality sound but don't want to piss off your neighbors, I'm not sure this could be beat. Which is my position currently. It's not too big, looks very clean, and unless you want to place the sub fairly far away it's easy to install.

Don't use the driver from Creative Labs, but instead use the driver that is built in to Windows, and then enable loudness equalization, and bass management in the Windows sound control panel. Then using the remote, enable surround sound and adjust the tone until you reach a level your ears can handle. This will produce better sound, for music and games. The driver from Creative Labs is pure junk. This way, the Creative Stage SE sounds like a more expensive soundbar, even though it isn't a more expensive model. This soundbar is a powered usb soundbar, and I really love it.

Hesitant at first since it was advertised as refurb. Once received, it looked brand new because all the wrapping was still there. Once I set up (the easiest installation), it sounds great. Having blue tooth connection, I use two pcs side by side using this one speaker clearing a lot of desk space not to mention all those wires that I don't have to worry about

I purchased this speaker system in January 2024. I specifically purchased this set because it came with a subwoofer, and we wanted some spice to our listening experience. I don't consider our listening habits to be particularly crazy loud, and I was very careful to place the subwoofer somewhere it would be safe, but effective. On the floor. Out of the way. We have had some experience with Creative in the past, and I had high hopes that this set would be sufficient for use with our computer, in that we typically use it to watch movies and listen to music. The last Creative product we got had issues with the cable going to the subwoofer, and would often shift, causing loud feedback. This previous system we got from a thrift store, and so determined that might be a contributing factor. In September 2024, the subwoofer began generating feedback for no evident reason. The speakers worked, but we wanted bass as well. Keep in mind, Creative also sells a soundbar without a subwoofer for fifty dollars less. Since we had purchased through Amazon, and were within warranty, I decided rather than trying to diagnose the problem beyond some cursory examinations, I would contact Creative customer support and try to get the matter resolved through official channels. Having my RMA request approved, it took me about a month to actually send the speaker to Creative, mostly because we did not have the original packaging, and would need to find something the soundbar would fit in without jostling. As per the RMA processing requirements, I had to send in the whole system. Creative opted to use FedEx for the shipping carrier, which, as a former employee, made me a little leery. I purchased heavy duty packing tape in preparation. I used a large box with thick walls that had formerly housed a wooden play set, and cut it down to size to minimize movement of the soundbar during shipping. I packed the box full of crumpled newspapers. I used half the roll of tape just to make sure it was securely fastened. It didn't look pretty, but it was a really good packing job. I almost didn't have enough space to write out the RMA at some points, because I was a little paranoid that it might not fare well. I took it to Walgreens and dropped it off. And waited. A couple days later, I got a notice warning me I had fifteen days left to get the package to Creative's offices. That's okay; I already sent it in. I waited. Fifteen days rolled around, and I received another notice that my support ticket was cancelled because they hadn't received the shipment. At that point, I gave the speaker system up for lost; it got chewed up in the wild land of FedEx, and there was nothing I could do about it. Then, yesterday, I received another email letting me know they found it! It was damaged. The soundbar, which I had meticulously secured, did not survive the trip unscathed. The mesh was crushed on the front. "What happened to it?" They asked, "Did you package it securely?" Feeling joyful that my speaker had been found, I responded, and was admittedly more self-deprecating than I needed to be. "It didn't look great, but I was pretty confident in my work packing it up." I went on to ask if the speaker still worked. If not, I didn't want it back, but if so, I at least wanted them to check on the subwoofer, the actual reason for my request in the first place. "...due to the physical damage, our Service Centre did not test the unit anymore. We seek your continuned understanding that having a physical damage on the unit, it voided the warranty of the product." The email they sent goes on to state that if I want the speaker back, I would need to pay for shipping. To recap: I bought a product from Creative. It failed within seven months of purchase. I tried to get it serviced. It was damaged sometime in transit. This voided the warranty. I can now pay money to get it back in worse condition than I sent it out. I found the whole experience working with Creative's customer support to be demeaning and unsatisfying. I assumed there would be some degree of human warmth to the exchange, but no such luxuries were allowed. If they had shown they held me in good faith, any sort of offer. Anything. A coupon? A rebate? Just plugging in the speaker to see if it still worked would have taken five minutes tops, and then I might have had that assurance I'm not wasting money paying for shipping back. At this point: I paid fifty dollars extra for something that didn't last a year. When I tried to, in good faith, get it repaired, they told me to get bent. I had a warm regard for Creative in the past. I don't anymore. Not worth the extra $50. Do not recommend. (An extra nitpick: I don't like that in order to adjust anything on the speaker you have to use a disconnected remote. We kept losing it. I actually forgot to put it in the box, and now it's all I have to remember this horrible experience by)

I bought this as a replacement for my 2015 2.1 PC Speaker setup, also from Creative, with a new PC (with a Gigabyte motherboard allegedly more capable in the audio department, but with some serious caveats). The new PC has S/PDIF out and, sure enough, this sound system supports that. The subwoofer doesn't need its own power supply, instead being powered over the 3.5mm from the sound bar (a reversal from the typical 2.1 setup), and it's certainly neater when it comes to cable management for it. It has a remote (supply your own two AAA batteries), which is good because the soundbar controls are extremely limited. The audio was a modest improvement from the more conventional 2.1 speakers it replaced, I think. Unfortunately, it has one (perhaps two) features extremely unattractive as a PC sound speaker option: upon your PC powering down, or restarting, the speakers go into "sleep". And when your PC turns on, they go into standby (as indicated by the permanently-powered LED in the front of the soundbar). So, unlike every other PC speaker system I've ever owned, you'll have to manually choose your input every single time you restart your PC. "Maybe that's only over optical input?" No, apparently not. The Creative Stage 2.1 is permanently set to power-saving mode, Creative is aware of the feature, and even updating the firmware makes no difference. Despite clearly being able to detect whether or not an S/PDIF device connected to it is on or not, the system doesn't act on that fact. To make matters worse, reviews seem to suggest they go to sleep after inactivity. So every time you restart your PC, or every time you leave it idle. If constantly turning these speakers back on doesn't bother you, it's probably worth a purchase. For everyone else, even at this competitive price point your better buying some more conventional 2.1 speakers. I'll be looking at other S/PDIF options (like from Yamaha) that are PC suitable and don't constantly go into sleep mode.

Perfect to value/quality ratio

Great sound for music connected to Mac mini. Ok sound for watching YouTube. Product did not come with a USB-C to USB-C cable, so I had use my own. Power brick is bulky to plug into a power strip.