Creative Sound Blaster iRoar Review

Conclusion

It’s rare to find a product which not only meets your expectations but greatly exceeds them. It’s even rarer to find yourself mentally listing all the things you wish a product could do, only to discover that it can. The Creative iRoar is one such piece of hardware.

If you read our review of the Creative Roar Pro you’ll know that we loved its build quality, feature set and sound output, and the iRoar has all those qualities but taken to the next level. The black design looks nicer in the flesh than the Roar Pro’s grey, and the decision to move all the buttons, except the power button, to a touch sensitive panel really helps the overall looks. We love the subtle dark gold accents too, and black and gold is a classic combination that has never gone out of style, so you can be sure that the iRoar will look as good in twenty years as it does today. The subsurface display which indicates everything from the current active connection option through battery charge level on to the volume level (from 1-20) and finally the track currently playing from the memory card.

On the subject of connection the mobile app is fantastic, with a light footprint, low battery use, and stuffed to the gunwales with features. Should you want to disable the microphone, or boost certain audio elements, or just turn the bass up to the max and feel your chest pump, the iRoar has got you covered. Touchscreens are always easy to use and having a touch equaliser really frees you up to quickly get a sound profile that suits your own preference.

We think it’s pretty unlikely you will need to tweak the audio though, such is the magnificence of Creative’s default sound profile. The bass is strong and tight, capable of changing your heartbeat without dominating. The midrange is fabulous thanks to the huge selection of speakers somehow crammed into this extremely compact package, and even those subtle moments are still replicated beautifully without being lost in the mix. Perhaps the element that stands out the most, particularly when you remember it’s only 9 inches long, 5 inches deep and 2 inches high – the size of a decent hardback – is the volume. This is genuine room filling volume. We’ve seen loads of 2.1 speakers here at OC3D Towers and only a few of them could lay claim to getting remotely near to the volume available from the iRoar. Even at maximum volume it doesn’t suffer the problem of many compact speakers where the sound breaks up. It’s just strong and clear whether low enough to be drowned out by a church mouse in slippers, or loud enough to get Metallica knocking on your door asking you to turn it down.

By blending compatibility with almost anything you can think of with rugged build quality and plenty of volume it’s as happy in the corner of your office gently passing the day as it is at a crazy house party, or on the beach, or just sitting beneath your television doing its thing. It looks spectacular, the sound is amazing, connectivity is superb and even at this price point it’s an absolute bargain. We can’t think of a single thing we dislike nor imagine how Creative could possibly improve it. If you need audio, portable or otherwise, the Creative Sound Blaster iRoar has got you covered.

Thanks to Creative for supplying the iRoar for review. Discuss it in our OC3D Forums.