At a look
Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Excellent clear, vibrant sound
- Great amplitude
- Suitable for multimedia
Cons
- They’re fairly massive — bowling-ball measurement
- A good bit of setup required
- RGB lighting might have been extra outstanding
Our Verdict
The Creative Pebble Nova is a big, versatile speaker with a transparent and vibrant sound.
Price When Reviewed
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Best Pricing Today
Price When Reviewed
279.99
Best Prices Today: Creative Pebble Nova
Creative’s speaker lineup consists of audio system with very wonderful sound high quality that symbolize good worth for cash. We’ve reviewed choices just like the Pebble and Pebble Pro previously and had optimistic issues to say about them.
At $279.99 the Creative Pebble Nova is a considerably dearer speaker than its stablemates, however its sound is by far essentially the most excellent of the fashions we’ve tried. It’s additionally the biggest and requires a good quantity of setup, however these are trifles price placing up with for such superior sound.
Read on to be taught extra, then see our roundup of the best budget computer speakers for comparability.
Creative Pebble Nova: Design and construct
The Creative Pebble Nova is available in a 2.0-speaker configuration. Each speaker has a really spherical design in comparison with different Creative audio system just like the Pebble Pro. The audio system have a really Sci-Fi look to them, and type of resemble garden bowls in measurement and form however with a DeathStar really feel.
Each speaker comprises a twin driver array on the entrance consisting of a 1-inch tweeter and a 3-inch full vary driver in coaxial association. They angle upwards at 45 levels to ship the sound in the direction of your ears. At the again of the speaker, you’ll discover a bass driver that isn’t as angled as the 2 entrance drivers.
At 5.5-inches in diameter, I discovered every speaker takes up a variety of area, so that you’ll want a good quantity of room round you in your desk to put them. The audio system come elevated on steel stands, so that you’ll not wish to bump them, or you might have to take care of them crashing down. On the plus aspect, the stands don’t require any screws and easily lodge into holes within the base of every satellite tv for pc.
Dominic Bayley / Foundry
The undeniable fact that the audio system are elevated is undoubtedly a great factor. It means I didn’t get desk vibrations, which might hamper the readability of the sound. The building may be very strong too, the audio system are comprised of exhausting plastic, and the stands are steel, so that you don’t have to fret about breakage.
The Pebble Nova has a hoop of RGB lighting on the underside, however this isn’t as outstanding as in some bookshelf-style audio system. I’d have preferred to see one other ring of RGB larger up on the speaker physique.
Creative Pebble Nova: Connectivity and controls
The Pebble Nova, being a premium choice, comes with 3 ways to connect with your chosen machine. One is by way of a 3.5mm Aux enter, though this feature doesn’t allow you to customise the music by way of the Creative App like the opposite two strategies: a Bluetooth 5.3 connection, or by way of USB-C to USB-C.
Creative gives you with two 5-foot USB-C cables (one for energy and the opposite for sound) and a 4-foot 3.5mm audio cable for making these connections.
The high of the grasp speaker homes the controls. They encompass energy, quantity, supply, and lighting mode buttons. These are very simple to make use of. However, I’d have additionally preferred to see a distant management as another choice for controlling, contemplating the value of the audio system.
Dominic Bayley / Foundry
Beneath the grasp speaker is a separate USB-C port for the 65W PD charger. Unlike different Pebble audio system, you possibly can’t energy the Pebble Nova by way of your laptop computer’s USB-C port, so that you’ll have to be near an AC outlet when organising.
On the aspect of the primary satellite tv for pc is an inlet with a detachable plug that homes two further 3.5mm audio jacks so that you can plug in a headset or a microphone.
Creative Pebble Nova: Sound
The Nova produces a heat well-balanced sound with no apparent flaws.
To take a look at the audio system, I performed Pharrell William’s “Happy” adopted by “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys, and “All About That Bass” by Meghan Trainor. I then performed the movie rating from Lord of the Rings to see how nicely the audio system might play multimedia.
To summarize my ideas, I discovered the treble and mids flew over the bass nicely in “Happy,” in order that the devices sounded clear and outlined and never jumbled like I hear in cheaper models. The audio system had superb amplitude, I solely wanted to show them up very barely to get a powerful quantity.
In “Good Vibrations,” there was ample room for the vocals to shine over the guitar. The mids had super vary within the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, actually dominating the soundscape with heat velvety overtones with loads of depth.
Dominic Bayley / Foundry
Playing “All About That Bass” proved there was loads of bass to be heard too. It was delivered with an authority that was very spectacular. It by no means sounded muddy. I might crank the amount very excessive and couldn’t hear any type of distortion, which implies I might replenish the room with sound with out affecting the audio.
All in all, I used to be very impressed with the very clear, vibrant sound of those audio system and with their versatility. Surely these are audio system that apply themselves simply as nicely to desktop computing as they do to watching a film on TV or gaming in your PS4 or Xbox consoles.
Creative Pebble Nova: Software
Two separate apps deal with the audio for the Pebble Nova. The iOS and Android app is pretty restricted within the type of choices accessible. You can solely swap channels, modify the lighting, and modify the EQ.
The Creative App handles issues out of your PC. It permits you to modify the EQ in addition to RGB lighting, however you can even entry Acoustic Engine, Surround, and Crystal Voice+ to reinforce the audio readability and tonal vary and modify the sound for an immersive encompass sound expertise.
One fascinating factor you are able to do within the Pebble Nova is swap the route of the left and proper audio channels. It means you possibly can place the grasp speaker on any aspect, with out the audio being affected. That’s very helpful you probably have cabling points or prefer to create a cleaner desk atmosphere.
Conclusion
In abstract, the Pebble Nova, excels as a PC speaker system but additionally as a speaker for multimedia. It constantly produces a transparent, vibrant sound, particularly within the mid tones.
It’s additionally fairly massive and prices a good quantity greater than different choices in Creative’s lineup. But for these wanting the flexibility of a bookshelf speaker that may do all of it, that’s par for the course.