Monday, September 6, 2021

Creative Pebble V2 Review

      Creative is a company I know mostly for their awesome SoundBlaster series of sound cards for PC. I have used some of their satellite speakers before but got the mid-tier stuff rather than their budget tier products. This time around, I needed a pair of small 2.0 desktop speakers for my dedicated MiSTer setup and did not want to go with just any cheap pair offered on Amazon. When I came across the Creative Pebble V2 speakers for around $25 ($28 total after shipping and taxes in CA), I immediately put them in my cart and called it a night. Since I forgot to estimate the dimensions before buying them, I went to sleep expecting cute little fist sized speakers based on the main product picture (see above) and name alone. When the box was left at my door by the Amazon Prime guy, I assumed I would find tons of cardboard hugging the speakers but was instead met with two medium sized speakers with a snug fit inside the whole box. For scale, each one can be fully cupped by two of my hands (7.5" from pinky to thumb each hand). My first concern right away was that the cables are not detachable so if a dog or cat chews any cable, it's game over for these speakers. With the concern in the back of my mind, part of me was very tempted to return these and just invest in a little DAC AMP setup with RCA or speaker wire connectors. Not so fast though, let's keep in mind that I need the cheapest and smallest setup I can personally bear with. A more involved setup would run me upwards to around $100 which is overkill for my intended purpose.

     I am someone who likes big sound out of their setup but was mentally prepared to accept the miniscule output these would potentially offer. When evaluating audio equipment, my setup consists of a sole FiiO M7 DAP with the stock 'FiiO Music' player which have been proudly driving my V-Moda M-100 headphones. Oh man, I was pretty impressed at how loud these got. One thing to keep in mind is that when a song or sound hits an extreme low or high frequency, the speakers will hit their peak much faster while turning up the volume knob if you use the 'H' setting on the switch beneath the main (right channel) speaker. While using the 'H' setting, they are also very fatiguing if you decide to sit near them with moderately loud volume. Using the 'A' setting provides a lower gain that is much more bearable for longer listening sessions, but is also the safest setting because I would not want to risk blowing out the rear little woofers from prolonged music blasting.

    You cannot realistically expect full bodied sound from any kind of satellite speakers. Having said that, the balance between every instrument is phenomenal for the price and gets by for basic use. I strongly advise against listening to music that heavily uses low frequency distortion like hardcore or crossbreed drum 'n bass at high volumes, but most low frequency music is ok within reasonable volume. Considering I bought the Creative Pebble V2 speakers for my MiSTer setup, I do not expect any game to put these speakers to work in any meaningful way since game audio back in the day was mostly heard through the built-in speakers of your TV and audio engineers most likely tuned their audio around this fact. There are few games that can reach low enough frequencies to shake the woofers though. One factor that will show these speaker's limits are games that have multiple audio sources going off at the same time which I mostly experienced in arcade games that could process many sound effects at once.

     The Creative Pebble V2 speakers do not break the bank while providing excellent sound for the price point. These are perfect for small rooms or minimalist setups, just not the best if you seek a room filling sound experience. As soon as you pick them up, the build quality stands out right away. Once again, my only concern is the permanently installed cables but people without pets and great cable management won't really have to worry about this.

     In case there is any curiosity on what my alternatives would have been, I would have totally settled for any pair of Logitech speakers which can go for as low as $10 and the nicer, but still budget oriented, speakers for $20 (before shipping and taxes). There is also the regular Creative Pebble 2.0 which does not sound as good according to several internet comparisons.

Buy Creative Pebble V2 from Amazon

2 comments:

  1. I have these for my Windows XP desktop. They're excellent. They feel like classic desktop speakers (fitting they come from Creative), and they're one of the only new sets of speakers that'll still plug in via headphone out. Most of them nowadays work on Bluetooth, and Bluetooth sucks shit through a straw. Sound is actually probably better than most classic desktop speakers too, so yeah, good buy.

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    1. There is actually a bluetooth model available for anyone that might like that. I was very surprised at how good these sound and just had to talk about them. Kinda rare when these budget speakers impress the hell out of me.

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