Creative Stage Pro 2.1 Soundbar Review – Bass And Stage From The Thinnest Speakers
Creative Stage Pro 2.1 Soundbar is a $169 USD 2.1 soundbar which consists of a small-ish soundbar, or a long but very thin and short speaker, and one very tall, but very thin subwoofer. Today we will review the Stage Pro 2.1 and explore how it sounds like, as well as how it compares to other listening solutions around the same price point.
Introduction
Creative Audio is best known for their USB Soundcards as well as DAC AMPs, having produced some of the most popular PCIE Add-On USB DAC AMPs as well as external soundcards. I Used a lot of their products throughout the years, and while they are not exactly an audiophile top choice, they make an excellent budget and entry-level option to start exploring this hobby. Creative products are available on Amazon, Aliexpress, and most electronics shops around the world, as they are at a popularity level comparable to Asus, Acer and other general electronics manufacturers.
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Product Link
Amazon – https://amzn.to/4sB6sOo
Official Link – https://en.creative.com/p/speakers/creative-stage-pro
Build Quality – Design
Creative Stage Pro is a 2.1 soundbar with Dolby Audio support. It comes with a SuperWide mode which enhances the size of the soundstage and it also comes with a powerful bass, powered by a large subwoofer that will accompany the system. As this is a relatively recent product, it sports a rich set of features, including hyper connectivity, with HDMI ARC, USB Audio, Optical and Aux inputs, and it has a 24V / 2A power input, as it is powered by a power brick, and has a separate subwoofer output.
Theoretically, Stage Pro was designed for TVs and monitors with a TV of 43″ in mind and a monitor 34″ in mind. With the bar size fitting beneath bigger or smaller television sets as well, you don’t really have to worry about what the size of your TV or monitor is when ordering the Stage Pro.
On a more technical level, Stage Pro has a power cable that is 1.5 meters in length, and a subwoofer cable that is 2 meters in length, but is attached to the subwoofer. SNR is 85 dB, while FR is between 50 Hz and 20 kHz. Rated power output is 2 x 20W RMS for left and right channel, with a 40W Rms power for the subwoofer, resulting in an 80W rms power and a 160W peak power output. It includes Bluetooth 5.3 support, and it has support for dolby audio via the HDMI cable input, has its own volume control and should work with Nintendo switch, TV, Windows, MAC and Android.
Subjective Usage And Placement
Although it does not make immediate sense, Soundbars in general are very sensitive to proper placement. This is given by both the short height of the bar, and also by how all the speakers inside need to produce a sound that directly hits your ears. For this reason, they are usually placed beneath a TV or television, or beneath a monitor, while the larger subwoofer can sit beneath your main desk, or next to it, as bass travels more evenly and fills a room more evenly, as long as it is not placed right next to a corner, situation in which it would produce compression and your entire room might have a bit of a hum.
Creative Stage Pro will always pump sound right into your face, as a soundbar sits exactly in your face, below a television or monitor. This means that you always hear more midrange, and the closer it is to you, the narrower the soundstage will feel like, and the more compressed the dynamic range will be as music does not have a lot of space to breathe. The subwoofer can be placed anywhere in the room and will sound good. Creative does include a long enough cable between the subwoofer and the soundbar which is very nice, but the power cable included is quite short and you may need to buy a 2nd one depending on how far you are from a power outlet.
Stage Pro is easily compatible with TVs, computers and works really well. It has zero USB DAC delay, works in real time and it is adequate for gaming, watching movies and media consumption including competitive gaming. You will need the remote to get the most out of it, as the buttons on the top do not give control for bass and treble, and through the remote you get the most out of it. Happily, you do not need an app or anything like that so it gets a huge thumbs up from me. It has enough space below my TV, and generally does not occupy a lot of space.
Sound Quality
Pairings – As Creative Stage Pro has fully digital inputs, it sounds best if powered via those, so it does not need a lot of care to be taken to sound good. This being said, I have paired it with Khadas Mind 1 Mini PC, my custom gaming PC, Acer AI18 Laptop. It sounds really good with all of them, and although it also has bluetooth inputs, HDMI TV inputs as well as Optical, I prefer using it via the USB input as it is the most natural for my current setup.
Overall Signature – Creative Stage Pro sounds quite flat and mid centric, it has very little bass and treble emphasis, sounding a bit bright, a bit cold and without much coloration. I have tested it in both smaller and bigger rooms, and it sounds the same in both, mostly because the sound bar itself will be on your desk, projecting music right at your face, so you always hear the max it has to offer. At the same time, it sounds quite compressed dynamically, and one dimension, but a huge reason to buy it is the DSP which Creative are masters of. In fact, Stage Pro can become an entirely different product if you use the Bass, Treble and Soundstage enhancements.
Bass – At default, bass is quite shallow, it does extend down to about 30 Hz, but has very little presence and because the bar itself is in close proximity to your face, although the subwoofer does try to match it, usually you hear far more midrange and vocals than you hear the subwoofer, which mostly adds a very gentle outline of bass and low-end to the whole mix. You can increase the bass via DSP up to a max of +6 which is about +12 to +18 dB, so between 2 and 3 dB per each step. I prefer the sound with that bass setting at maximum, it adds a lot of weight, body and presence to the bass, creating a FAR more enjoyable sound. There is literally no downside to this approach, sound does not become boomy, it stays crisp, clean, you just get a far better bass extension with better overall impact and punch. Despite the subwoofer unit being a very thin and tall unit, it can produce a thunderous bass and has a strong extension, especially for the price point.
Midrange – Middle is always crisp, detailed and voices present, but adding the bass to +6 will give voices a much more natural sound, it enhances body, presence and impact of the sound, creating a much more pleasing tonality, better male voices presence and it makes the whole sound fuller. I prefer Stage Pro’s midrange with bass set to max. Setting the treble to max has an impact on the midrange too, increasing the upper midrange presence, and even makes vocals stand out more, making the sound less cuppy and less mid forward and more balanced. It balances out the tendency of the Stage Pro to sound flat.
Treble – At default, treble has a good extension up to 12 kHz, above which it rolls off softly. It has the type of sound I would usually call a bit too relaxed, but it does have treble resolution and presence. You hear a lot of the movement on cymbal crashes in rock and metal. Treble adjustments can also go up to +6 which also are around 15 dB at max, but this is for a frequency range between 6kHz and 12 kHz, peaking around 9 kHz. It adds presence, emotion and life to female voices, but it downgrades the detail and resolution in the upper treble slightly, hindering what you hear from the upper midrange, instead replacing it with a bit of extra oomph and treble spike / bite. I prefer the sound with this treble set at max, it enhances the entire listening experience and plunges Creative Stage Pro out of sounding flat and a bit boring and makes it sound V-Shaped, vivid and more V-Shaped which I tend to enjoy. Makes it stand out and colorful, more contrasty, and it increases resolution in the midrange.
Dynamics And Textures – Sound at default is quite flat, dynamically compressed, but increasing the bass to +6 and treble to +6 will widen the dynamic range, increase contrast and give music space to sound both louder and quieter. It feels like this is the way Creative Stage Pro was meant to be listened to. The texture is quite natural, a bit cold, a bit bright, with a rich midrange, rich treble, but a smoother, slower bass. You hear the crossover point quite clearly, but it all blends together nicely to make it sound not small and instead it sounds full and big, ballsy even.
Loudness Saturation Gradient – Stage Pro sounds the same at all volume levels if you use the same EQ enhancements. I tend to prefer listening to it at medium volumes, between 60 dB and 90 dB, as this is where it has the cleanest overall tone in the midrange and the moist controlled sound with the lowest distortion. Increasing the sound above 100 dB causes the subwoofer to clip a bit, and creates aliasing, while for windows PC, you get control between 1 and 10, not a lot of fine tuning until you reach a volume that is quite loud.
Soundstage – Creative has two settings through which you can increase the soundstage size, and on the remote this is called super wide. You can set it to narrow, wide or off. Setting it to Wide sounds very unnatural and pushes the sound to be vague and without any instrument separation, so it is not a setting I find viable. Setting it to Near makes the sound wider than when it is set to off, but the midrange is disproportionately pushed to the sides compared to the treble and voices. It is a bit too much and I find that it can sound too unnatural. Best sound will be with the Super Wide set to off, where it sounds natural, crisp and detailed with an exceptional resolution. It also has the best overall clarity and impact this way, and the best thing you can do for its soundstage, layering and instrument separation is using the bass and treble and setting both at max.
Value and Conclusion
Creative has a super low price point for the Stage Pro Soundbar and at 169 USD there isn’t anything else that you could get unless you wanted a 2.0 setup like Creative’s own Pebble Nova, which is almost twice the price or FiiO SA1 which has the same price as Creative’s soundbar but has no subwoofer, so a much thinner sound with far less depth.
While Creative is best known for their soundcards and other computer electronics, Stage Pro 2.1 is an excellent example of a product done well. This is a soundbar with a low price, rich features for gaming, outstanding looks, a nice performance, low power consumption, deep bass, all with the convenience of having Creative’s superb DAC integration, so no delay and an excellent performance with computers, especially for gaming and PC media consumption.
PROs
- Very strong resolution and clarity for the price point
- Super good bass depth and extension, especially when using the bass +6 setting
- Very good treble presentation with a rich amount of detail
- Can have a very wide dynamic range and can be super enjoyable
- Can be used for competitive gaming and watching movies, having zero USB DAC delay
- Nice display below the speaker grille, and you can turn it off if you don’t like it
- No crazy RGB lights, looks stealthy and sounds much bigger than you’d suspect when seeing it
Cons
- Narrow soundstage at default, not a lot of space
- Soundstage widening enhancements do not sound very natural
- Soundbar unit has no bass or midbass , only subwoofer does
Product Link
Amazon – https://amzn.to/4sB6sOo
Official Link – https://en.creative.com/p/speakers/creative-stage-pro
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Full Playlist used for this review
We listened to more songs than those named in this playlist, but those are excellent for identifying a sonic signature. I recommend trying most of the songs from this playlist, especially if you’re searching for new music! The playlists are different for Spotify, Tidal and Youtube, and based on the songs I enjoy and are available on each!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_cjBXGmwSHSdGcwuc_bKbBDGHL4QvYBu
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5J3oloz8Riy9LxEGenOjQ0?si=979ba4f082414be7
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/330fd544-8e5b-4839-bd35-676b2edbb3d5
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