Creative A35 Speaker Price

[Emmaline]

Whetheryou are an Android or an iPhone user, the Sound Blaster Roar has got it covered. Offering support for aptX and AAC, enjoy the wireless bliss of listening to your music with no worries. For a bigger bang for your buck, the Sound Blaster Roar doubles up as a MP3 player, battery bank and a Bluetooth speakerphone.

The Sound Blaster Roar is a masterpiece of audio innovation. It features not one, but two high performance amplifiers, and five speaker drivers (which includes a built-in active subwoofer for kickass thumping bass.) No other battery-powered portable wireless speakers of the same size and price can even come close to the Roar's acclaimed audio performance. The compact speaker powerhouse is designed to punch way above its weight in sheer audio power, filling an entire room with BIG non-sweet spot-dependent sound. It is further enhanced with proprietary ROAR, TeraBass, and MegaStereo technologies.

We razed through countless designs and built several prototypes before we finally achieved this award-winning design - a speaker that plays great audio, houses convenient features and comes with multiple connectivity options, without compromising on its industrial chic look.

Creative seems to have moved to a good-better-best paradigm for its Pebble speakers. The Pebble V3 and Pebble Pro have 2.25-inch drivers, while the new flagship Pebble X have 2.75-inch drivers, with each model also featuring different peak power numbers. (The Pebble X is rated for 60 watts of peak power if plugged into a 30-watt or higher USB-C power adapter, which isn't included, but more on connectivity options in a minute.)

The entry-level Pebble speakers have fared as well as they have because they manage to sound OK for their low price -- and by OK, I mean they sound substantially better than the speakers built into your laptop. The key difference with the Pebble X is that they're legitimately enjoyable, offering good clarity and a reasonable amount of bass.

You can do better with the bass by stepping up to the Pebble X Plus, but the Pebble X speakers on their own aren't bass-shy to the point where you feel like you have to have that mini subwoofer. That said, if you are a bass lover, you should give the Plus package some extra thought, because the sub isn't sold separately and can't be added to the Pebble X speakers; you have to buy the Pebble X Plus to get it.

What's nice about having a pair of speakers joined by a 5.9-foot (1.8-meter) cord is that you can set the speakers far enough apart to get good stereo separation at your desk. The Pebble X speakers were able to fill my home office with sound and would make for a nice little stereo system for a dorm room or bedroom.

I listen to a fair amount of Bluetooth speakers with little to no stereo separation and the Pebble X sound better than a lot of Bluetooth speakers that cost $200 or more. They may not pack quite as much bass punch as some of the larger Bluetooth speakers, but you can never underestimate the importance of stereo separation.

I didn't compare the Pebble X to a lot of other speakers, but I did put them up against the SteelSeries Arena 3 speakers, which retail for around $130 and have larger 4-inch drivers. The SteelSeries speakers served up more bass, but the Pebble X offered better clarity and definition and were overall the better sounding speakers.

I've always been a fan of Edifier's R1280DB ($150) bookshelf PC speakers and their sound quality is a step up -- not a huge one, although they have a separate woofer and tweeter -- but they are larger and obviously more expensive. Edifier also makes even more affordable bookshelf-style powered speakers that are also good values.

There's been a trend for gaming speakers to have some RGB lighting, and that's the case here. The older Pebble Pro speakers have some lighting in their bases, but the Pebble X goes a step further, with lighting elements on the right and left sides of each speaker. You can customize the lighting options, including brightness, color and animation type, from the controls on the speaker or from the Creative app for iOS, Android and Windows PC. Alas, there's no app for Macs.

While the speakers have a wireless Bluetooth option -- it's Bluetooth 5.3 -- these are USB-C speakers, so you can connect them directly to any laptop or desktop with USB-C connectivity. I also connected them via USB-C to an iPhone 15 and Google Pixel 7 without a problem. And they appear to be compatible with gaming consoles like the PS5.

Note that when connecting via Bluetooth, only the SBC audio codec is supported (available for every Bluetooth audio device). Audio purists would prefer if the speakers also supported Bluetooth streaming with the ACC or aptX codecs. But these probably aren't good enough speakers for you to notice a significant difference when streaming with a superior audio codec than SBC.

When you power the speakers from the USB-C port on your computer, the peak power is 30 watts. They sound decent when powered in this manner, but they'll play a little louder and sound a little better when you connect them with a USB-PD power adapter with at least 30 watts of power, which I did. That gets you up to 60 watts of peak power, which is technically a lot for compact speakers like these. I mention these power numbers, but take them with a grain of salt, because they're not always accurate.

Creative throws in a USB-C-to-USB-C cable and a 3.5mm-to-3.5mm cable that you can connect to the aux-in port. There's also a headphone port and microphone port on the side of the right speaker. Additionally, you'll find a threaded tripod mount on the underside of each speaker should you want to put the speakers on pedestals.

There are two USB-C ports on the back (one for powering the speakers with a USB-C power adapter), along with an aux-in port. The headphone and microphone ports are on the side of the right speaker near the base.

The companion apps for iOS and Android are limited compared to Creative's companion app for Windows PCs, which has a built-in equalizer and various preset sound modes, as well as a Crystal Voice mode that's supposed to improve how well people can hear your voice when you connect a microphone to the speaker. The iOS and Android apps only allow you to upgrade the speakers' firmware and customize the lighting effects.

I wouldn't go so far as to call the Pebble X premium PC speakers. But compared to the original Pebble speakers, which certainly had a cheap look and feel to them, the Pebble X do seem like a big step up in terms of sound quality and overall design -- they're still an all-plastic affair, though. I never tried the Pebble Pro, but this model shares similar connectivity features while upping the performance level with larger drivers, more power and enhanced lighting.

Naturally, as the price goes up for products, you expect more from them. But from my testing, I think you'll be hard-pressed to find a pair of compact PC speakers that deliver as much as these do for the money. If you want even fuller sound, consider the Pebble X Plus package that includes a mini sub for $40 more. But if you want to keep the price under $100, the Pebble X set delivers satisfyingly good sound.

For those who want to do more than just play audio from their computer speakers via a standard 3.5mm audio cable, the T100 speakers include Bluetooth 5.0, a USB port for directly plugging a drive to play MP3 and FLAC files, and even an optical connection. Controls on the top of one of the speakers lets you change inputs, adjust volume, and power the speakers on or off, while a wireless remote lets you do all that, plus switch between EQ presets, adjust bass and treble, and more.

Aside from their uninspired glossy black-plastic shells, the only real downside of Creative's T100 speakers is that they can't connect over USB. Also, there's no option for adding a subwoofer. But if you're shopping in this price range you probably aren't seriously considering a 2.1 system with extra low-end thump. Sure, you can buy speakers that look and sound better than Creative's T100, but you might have to spend more than twice as much for substantially better options.

We spent some time with JBL's 104-BT recently. Even though this pair of oval-shaped "compact reference monitors with Bluetooth" have been around since 2019, they have a few things going for them, like premium-feeling front-panel controls that let you clearly see which of the ample inputs (Bluetooth, RCA, TRS, Aux) is selected. I just wish the volume knob were about twice the size and offered a little less resistance.

In terms of sound, they are more good than great, especially considering their ample (for PC speakers, at least) size of 9.72 inches tall by 6.02 inches wide and 4.88 inches deep. The speakers get quite loud, but I found listening to them, particularly at more than about 70% of their max volume, a bit tiring. The lower-mids and highs seemed over-emphasized, particularly at high volumes, though there was no discernable distortion, even at 100%.

They are better in terms of looks and build quality (and audio, at lower volumes) than Creative's T100. But those speakers take up a lot less space, and often sell for around $80. JBL's 104-BTs (which come in black or white) are worth considering if you see them on sale for around $100 and have lots of desk space, but when we wrote this they were priced between $130 and $150. At that price, they don't particularly stand out against the crowded competition, except perhaps for their size, which is closer to the reference monitor category than typical desktop speakers.

With USB, Bluetooth, and 3.5mm auxiliary input, the Creative Pebble X Plus offers more than just plug-and-play speaker functionality. Indeed, you can connect it up wirelessly to your phone or wire it up to create a complete audio solution for your bedroom, dorm room, or home office. Two speakers and a woofer draw a peak 60 watts of power to comfortably fill a room with sound. They produce a clear soundstage with good level of detail in the mids and treble range. A plastic film under the woofer was a small quirk that softened the bass in our playtesting, but removing it fixed that issue.

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