Stage SE 2.0 Bluetooth Sound Bar Speaker - Black - Under Monitor - USB - 1 Pack

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.

I didn't need a full blown studio monitor setup, nor did I want something covered in unicorn vomit. While I don't like supporting "creative" as they tend to not support Linux very well, it was cheap-ish and fit the space I wanted with minimal gofast RGBz. I'm sure down the road I'll open it up and remove the one facing LED. The sound quality is "okay", a little heavy on the artificial bass, but not in a good way. One thing I do like about it though is vocals really stand out and I do a lot of my work with 8bit mono (mostly talking). I am able to cut, normalize, reduce, and compress without much problem and the end result is very close to the original vocal source. Highs almost disappear past 12KHz vs my other setups which is fine for doing voice work. Pros: * Decent audio quality for the price * No RGB * Works well with Linux * Small footprint Cons: * Rolloff below 60Hz (expected for the size) * Rolloff above 12KHz * Dust magnet (aka piano black) * No Aux-in Other: * It has a remote I'll never use Of the small soundbars I've had, this one has better sound quality overall, just don't expect it to hold a candle to a decent audio monitor setup.

To start, it sounds better than you think it would, and can get pretty loud without much distortion. This isnt hifi, but when replacing a 1w or 2w soundbar/speaker it is going to be a welcome upgrade. Tone control works well (found it best at the highest setting for general use). The remote was an unexpected win- it also controls the audio source with play/pause ff/rw, etc which is a nice extra in addition to the sound controls. No software to worry about, windows 10 auto-setup the device once plugged in without any actions needed, and the volume on-screen pop-up still pops up when changing the volume on this soundbar (and expect newer OSs to work out-of-box as well). Used my phone to connect to Bluetooth which connected easily and didnt sound bad. The right-sided volume wheel is a great feature when you want to easily lower or crank the volume, and has a nice feel to it. The soundbar doesnt have any unnecessary lights, but does have a single LED that responds to the status and any button pressing. Only downside might be the shiny plastic finish to the top and not sure you can turn off that single led light, but that is about it. Overall easiest install ever, sounds great, functional remote is a bonus, not sure what isnt to love!

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.

Creative has always made good quality products at their price point. I got this for under 50 dollars on sale and it worked perfectly for me via bluetooth. It paired easily with my pc. The feel of it is not cheap like you might expect. The remote is handy but there is a knob on the side of the speaker that you can use if the remote is not near. For team meetings, watching youtube it is great. No fancy lights on it. Just a well made, solid speaker for PC use.

This soundbar is ideal for desktop applications, installed under the monitor. It comes with a remote control and it has the sound quality to be expected from Creative Labs...

Great device.

Cette superbe colonne de son pour ordinateur est vraiment surprenante.Pour un prix très correct on obtient une qualité sonore excellente. Malgré son petit volume on est surpris des aigus et aussi de la présence de graves que l'on obtient. Je suis très satisfait de cet achat. Le seul petit inconvénient réside en l'absence de traduction française. Pour ce qui est de son branchement je conseillerai d'utiliser le bluetooth ,la qualité est vraiment très bonne, d'autant que son branchement est des plus facile.

Hatte vorher die Razer Leviathan V2 X - und war sehr enttäuscht. Allein der nicht abschaltbare Ein-Ausschaltton von hoher Lautstärke war nervend für alle Mitbewohner. Die Craetive hier ist deutlich billiger, macht aber einen hochwertigen Eindruck. Sie bringt noch eine FB mit und lässt sich (auch) per Bluetooth ruckzuck mit Win11 verbinden. Das mitgelieferte Netzkabel ist leider mit ca. 1,3m zu kurz. Oftmals wird in Tests der Klang bemängelt. Ja, die Soundbar liefert keinen Equalizer mit. Dafür muss man dann auch keine überfrachtete Steuerungssoftware wie bei der Razer (Razer Synapase) installieren. Trotzdem ist der Klang grundsätzlich gut und verbessert sich mit der Einstellung "Surround" noch etwas mehr. Tipp: habe mir den kostenlosen Equalizer "FxSound" heruntergeladen (ist nach Install in deutscher Sprache). Damit blüht die Soundbar quasi auf und schon mit der Voreinstellung "Musik" erlebt man ein veritables Klangerlebnis.

This product came in his essential box. Is pretty chubby for the audio that is able to output. The quality is horrible. Voices are coming distorted, dark. No formware update is available to addresse the issue. The speaker was tested on multiple PC with the exact same result. I've returned it. Thanks to Amazon for taking it back without the original box that I've, prematurely, disposed of. Stay away from this product.