Product Listing

Sound Blaster Roar Pro review: Stepping up to the Pros

By Marcus Wong & Liu Hongzuo - 12 Apr 2016
Launch SRP: S$349

Introduction and design

We first covered the Sound Blaster Roar Pro on a first looks piece here, and you may recall that we were told that the new version was mostly a chance to incorporate user requests to allow for a microphone system that enables the use of the speaker as a Public Address system too. Other than adding in the microphone system, Creative’s engineers also added a new improved 5-driver system that’s supposed to be more sensitive than before, allowing for louder, brighter audio. 

As with previous versions, all the controls are on the rear spine.

Physically, the latest Sound Blaster Roar Pro speaker by Creative looks just like the first Roar, and the smaller Sound Blaster Roar 2 that precedes it. The Sound Blaster Roar Pro’s controls are lined up along the rubber spine, with large tactile buttons for key functions, and smaller buttons for its special features. As a whole, the grey-and-black wireless speaker feels thick and solid with an appearance to match. One interesting change it has under-the-hood, is how the Sound Blaster Roar Pro has gone back to the original five-driver layout found in the first Sound Blaster Roar speaker, instead of following the Sound Blaster Roar 2’s driver layout.

Creative Sound Blaster Roar speakers compared
  Creative Sound Blaster Roar Pro Creative Sound Blaster Roar 2
  Creative Sound Blaster Roar Pro Creative Sound Blaster Roar 2
Launch SRP
  • From S$349
  • From S$329
Satellites (per speaker)
  • 2 x 1.5-inch Tweeter
  • 2 x top-facing drivers
Subwoofer Driver
  • 1 x 2.5-inch Woofer
  • 2 x Passive Radiators
  • 1 x active bass unit
  • 2 x side-firing radiators
Inputs / Outputs
  • 1 x auxiliary port
  • 1 x USB
  • 1 x microSD slot
  • 1 x auxiliary port
  • 1 x USB
Dimensions
  • 57 x 202 x 115mm
  • 1.10kg
  • 51 x 188 x 109mm
  • 1kg

 With the handy little iRoar Mic, your Roar Pro becomes a portable PA system you can place anywhere.

As we mentioned above, the Sound Blaster Roar Pro comes with a few new features, but the biggest feature is also a niche one. The Sound Blaster Roar Pro is the first Sound Blaster Roar to be compatible with an iRoar Mic - a separate wireless microphone device with mic-in and line-in ports and a 10-hour battery life. The microphone quality is excellent and its Bluetooth wireless support complements the Sound Blaster Roar Pro’s playback well, making it effective at turning your speaker into a portable loudspeaker for a musical instrument or a clip-on mic. However, this feature costs an extra S$129 for the separate wireless microphone.

The side radiators return to the design used by the original Roar.

That aside, the Sound Blaster Roar Pro does come with handy add-on features out of the box, such as its built-in audio profile selector for warm, neutral, or energetic sound. It also comes with aptX Low Latency support over Bluetooth, allowing even lower delay in playing back songs wirelessly from an Android device. The newer speaker also has 10-hour playback time, which is a two-hour increase from the first Roar. The Roar Pro also keeps all the core features that were available since the very first Roar, such as recording mode, the volume-boosting Roar button, and the intelligent bass-adjusting Tera Bass button. Unlike the Sound Blaster Roar 2 though, the Roar feature and the Tera Bass feature each get their own buttons, making it easier to activate the respective mode.

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8.0
  • Design 8
  • Performance 8
  • Features 8.5
  • Value 7.5
The Good
New features allow it to do more than just play music
Still one of the more powerful speakers in this class
The Bad
Requires purchase of an additional mic to fully take advantage of the speaker's capabilities and it isn't cheap
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