Creative iRoar review: A speaker with sound intelligence

The age of the intelligent speaker?

The Creative Sound Blaster Roar series of portable speakers almost literally rocked the audio world with their combination low price, good form, high performance, and loud amplification. Hard to believe that our review of the original Sound Blaster Roar was only two years ago when there are already two more versions of the Sound Blaster Roar since, the Sound Blaster Roar 2 and the Sound Blaster Roar Pro.

Launched almost at the same time as the Sound Blaster Roar Pro, Creative has outdone themselves again in producing the subject of this review, the Creative iRoar. This is the first Roar speaker from Creative that has the SB-Axx1 voice and audio effects processor built in, and the first Roar speaker to have app support for iOS, Android, PC and Mac, so you could easily say the iRoar is Creative’s most intelligent portable speaker yet. 

First found in Creative’s Sound BlasterAxx speakers, the SB-Axx1 processor allows the speaker to digitally process and enhance sound in real time. In the context of the iRoar, this means you can create multiple profiles via the Dashboard app to easily get sound the way you like it.

Most of the features from the Sound Blaster Roar Pro have been brought over and enhanced, but the iRoar gets a brand new monocoque body (a la the Nikon D5500 perhaps?) that brings its weight down to just 1.08kg. That’s about 200g lighter than the Roar Pro, and is quite a feat given that the iRoar is physically larger, and packs larger drivers. (The iRoar measures 57 x 225 x 120mm, while the Roar Pro measures 57 x 202 x 115mm, so the latter is noticeably smaller.)

Inside, the iRoar features a whole new set of drivers: improved 2-inch high and mid-range drivers, a new 2.75-inch subwoofer driver and matching passive radiators. Neodymium technology is used this time round along with more efficient magnets to allow for a footprint that's still relatively small. According to Creative, the iRoar is designed from the ground up to take full advantage of the newer technologies that have now become available, and as a result of this the speaker now goes two times louder with twice the battery life - that's up 20 hours whereas the Sound Blaster Pro is only rated for 10 hours! There’s now also a High-res 24-bit/96kHz optical input jack for TV connections, USB 24-bit asynchronous audio support for jitter-free playback, and of course aptX low latency support over Bluetooth for optimal wireless streaming, so you’re guaranteed quality transmission of your audio source no matter the connection.

The iRoar literally has none of the usual playback controls in front. In fact, the only physical buttons/switches on the entire speaker are the on/off button on top, and the shuffle/loop switch at the rear. The iRoar instead relies on a row of adaptive, touch sensitive array for controls, LED lit no less, and these change to adapt to the mode you’re in.

That again brings you back to the iRoar app, which allows you to download new features by way of what Creative calls "Add-Ons". At our last check (at the point of writing this article), these range from anything like Motion Alerts to Nature sounds to even a Metronome. Creative says they also intend to release a developer kit, so you can even create your own functions to maximize your use of the speaker in the near future.

A huge ring dominates the front of the speaker, and the entire thing is actually an NFC spot, so you’ll definitely have no issues pairing it with your phone or tablet quickly. Flanking the NFC ring are two microphones which form the iRoar’s Twin-beam Microphone Array, which allows you to choose between a wide 180-degree beam for group teleconferences, or a narrow 30-degree for personal use. We’re told the speaker also uses these microphones for noise reduction and echo cancellation, making the iRoar a great tool for conversations too.

Flip the speaker over and you’ll notice there’s a dock connection on the bottom. That’s another major new difference as it allows the iRoar to physically dock with attachments like the iRoar Rock, a subwoofer option that charges the iRoar while offering the deeper bass you would expect from a dedicated subwoofer unit.

Audio Experience

Given the larger size and bigger drivers, you’d expect the iRoar to easily sound more powerful than the Sound Blaster Roar Pro, and it certainly is. We’d estimate it to be easily at least 30~40% louder at each level, with better clarity to boot. 

But that’s not all there is to the iRoar as the inclusion of the SB-Axx1 voice and audio effects processor means you can really make meaningful adjustments to the sound output. A total of seven presets are available: Blaster X, Live Concert, Audiophile Bliss, Game On, Sonic Bass, Cinemania and Personal Sound. (The last of course, being an empty profile for you to create your own settings.) 

All of the presets can be fine-tuned to your liking, but we found that Live Concert and Sonic Bass gave us the greatest change in terms of audio tonality. Unlike software equalization (EQ for short), which tends to result in rather subtle changes, the changes to the iRoar’s EQ really make a noticeable difference.

Live Concert seems to bring about better separation, with improved clarity to boot and so works well with most genres of music, but it's most pronounced with vocals or acoustic instruments. Meanwhile, for pieces with heavier bass notes, we’d swing over to the Sonic Bass just to fully maximize the bass thump. 

We listened to a recording of Freddy Mercury’s Barcelona from his Barcelona live edition, and the iRoar delivered it with a good degree of naturalness, bringing out the subtle phrasing and nuance the singer was so famous for. Likewise, with Under The Bridge, by the Red Hot Chili Peppers we found that the speaker did a great job with the separation between drums, vocals and guitar. There’s ample depth on the lush bass, and you can even just about pick out what the choir is singing in the background towards the end. 

Switching over to a recording of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, Spring, we thought the speaker did a good job with the imaging of the strings in the piece. Though generally better suited for pieces that are heavier in the mids and bass notes (like most radio-friendly songs you hear today), we thought the iRoar handled the complexity of this piece fairly well.

Formal testing

We started our formal testing with Adele’s Melt My Heart to Stone, and we thought the iRoar did a good job with Adele’s vocals. There was hardly a trace of sibilance, and the speaker placed her nicely forward, rendering her vocals with a touch of warmth. We’re inclined to say the bass was a little dry on this piece, but certainly there was good separation throughout.

Moving on to Hotel California by The Eagles, and again the speaker demonstrated its imaging prowess, handling the opening riff with a good amount of separation between instruments. We felt there was good clarity to the strings with a nice ring to them, but the bass could have done with just a touch more depth and weight.

Next up, Buckethead’s Sail on Soothsayer. The guitar distort was nicely handled on this, and we felt the bass had just enough weight to be present but not overpowering. We do suspect that some people will be hankering for more though, but in this case switching over to Sonic Bass (or Live Concert) mode will probably do the trick. Overall, an enjoyable listen but we could have done with a little bit ring to the piece.

Finally, we concluded our testing with Tiesto’s Elements of Life. With this, we felt the iRoar produced a medium sized soundstage on its base settings. The speaker easily keeps up with the pace of the track, but we felt you really need to switch out to the Live Concert mode or Sonic Bass mode to get sufficient bass to ground the track.

Final thoughts

It seems Creative has churned out yet another extraordinary portable speaker. The iRoar certainly turns in great audio performance for its size – if you take the time to select the appropriate audio profile through the app. The inclusion of a processor and the dock connector option means that the iRoar is also immensely modifiable whether through software or hardware, so that certainly is something worth noting if you’re looking for a speaker that will do more than just play music.

Unfortunately, that’s something we can’t judge as yet as these "add-ons" are still few and far between. On its own, the iRoar is certainly one of the most (if not the most) powerful portable speakers we’ve seen in its class/size, and certainly one of the better sounding. Having said that, note that it doesn’t sound S$200 better than this year's Tech Awards winner for portable speakers, the Sony SRS-X55, so it’s going to lose out on the “value” aspect when you consider that the iRoar commands a retail price of S$499.

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