Creative Sound Blaster Roar 2: Feature rich player that packs a punch, but with weight issues
₹16990
Tech2 Rating
6.5
10Your Rating
0
Compare Item
By Nikhil Rastogi / 04 Nov 2016 , 11:46Popular audio company, Creative, has released yet another Bluetooth player but this time in the premium category with a lot of bells and whistles, but can it still pull its weight? Let’s find out.
Build and Design: 7/10
The Roar 2 is a smart looking player with an excellent finish and feel to the product.
That’s a smart looking, capable player From afar it is unmistakably a player to its core with all the buttons, switches and connectors right on top of the player. Convenient, no doubt, but not aesthetically pleasing.
The overly verbose sounds options – “Just shut up Creative, I know what I’m doing” Roar 2 has a single button to enhance the bass via “Tera Bass” or spatial capability via “Roar” option on top. While it was nice that a female voice announced what option you are touching on top to select, it got quite annoying after a while as immediately the voice would pause all music and happily announce “Tera Bass” or “Roar” loudly and then resume music.
Bi-Amplified Design
Creative has a unique design, wherein they are using not one amp, but two, to reproduce the entire audio spectrum. A single amp design gets quite stretched and strained to reproduce everything from bass to mids to highs, which is why many Bluetooth players start to screech when the volume is increased. Creative does away with this problem by dedicating one amp for the low bass and mids and another amp just for the highs alone.
When two are better than one Just like the Sony SRS-X11 Bluetooth Speaker, two Creative Roar 2’s can be paired up with for a powerful stereo setup as one speaker becomes left and the other right channel.
I Got Bass
Creative Roar 2 does have an impressive bass as it is designed quite well. It uses two far-field tweeters, a powerful subwoofer at the centre and two unobstructed passive radiators on the sides. It is quite a fun sight to see the glossy radiators jump in and out of the enclosure when pumping bass.
No wonder, the Roar 2 is so darn heavy! The Swiss-Army effect
Creative always aims at being a Swiss-army knife of Bluetooth players by throwing in numerous options and this shows. It has Bluetooth, NFC, MicroSD card support, voice recorder, charger to charge other devices and the list goes on.
I can do a lot of everything The player has a recorder function right on top where you can (creepily) record conversations or phone calls when connected through Bluetooth.
The top of the unit But at the same time, the buttons do not double up for play-n-pause during regular music playback which is a shame. It would have made a lot more sense, but I’m guessing the recorder functionality is a separate unit inside slapped on by Creative thus adding to the weight. Nice to have, but not really helpful.
Connect to a PC or Mac
In a typical Creative style, all the way from the budget friendly Creative Sound Blaster Free to the premium Roar 2, you get a way to connect to the PC/Mac directly via USB host audio device function, therefore, bypassing your current audio card. Creative even throws in SBX Pro Studio software with SBX Bass and SBX Dialog Plus for audio enhancements.
Can convert into pure digital output for your laptop A tonne of bricks
“Smaller, lighter” dare say Creative’s marketing, especially when comparing to their own Roar 1 which is a laugh. Roar 2 doesn’t even come close to light, it weighs 1 kg for a Bluetooth speaker. And this weight is ‘dead-centre’ in a compact space; lifting it up with one hand will give you quite the workout. Compare this with Harman Kardon’s Esquire 2 which is at 599 gm in a sleeker and taller design, which makes it easier to handle than Roar 2; not only design wise, but also in terms of weight distribution.
Plethora of Connectors
What’s a Creative product without a dozen options thrown in? You get not only aux-in but also MicroSD capable inbuilt music player and the capability to charge any other device via the DC Out 1A (5V) charger which is real nice touch. You can charge your mobile device with a huge capacity of 6000 mAh, the Roar 2 can truly deliver to the road warrior on the move.
In-the-box
Unlike Harman Kardon Esquire 2, Creative has thoughtfully included a power adapter and a micro-USB cable as part of the accessories. That’s better than the premium Harman Kardon Esquire 2 that just offers a USB cable and nothing at all.
Performance: 7/10
The Creative Sound Blaster Roar 2 was tested with an Android Nexus 5 and a Windows 10 desktop.
The sound of Roar 2 is good. It is better than most Bluetooth speakers we’ve heard and we’ve heard plenty. This Bluetooth speaker has many things going for it, that make it sound good.
First, it has stereo sound, which is a big plus. It uses separate drivers to deliver, highs, mids and bass and this shows. Compare this to the puny little lonesome mono speaker that most Bluetooth speakers come equipped with which obviously fumble at complex sounds.
Second, there’s a lot of sound in this little player. It can definitely rock a small party well, without distortion and sound good while doing it. The two modes “Tera Bass and Roar” help to increase bass or increase mids-highs to stand out more depending largely on the room acoustics. Sometimes I found it too bassy and at other times turning off all modes sounded just right for background music effect.
When comparing it to a Bluetooth speaker of a similar premium class like Harman Kardon Esquire 2, the Roar 2 while good, isn’t as refined in the sound as Esquire 2 is. The Esquire 2 sounds more like a leaner better-trained singer while Roar 2 offers more raw power, boomier sound to awe the audience and of course, throws in more features to please many. A philosophy which we’ve seen Creative reflect in its product range repeatedly.
Battery: 6.5 / 10
Creative Roar 2 claims a battery life of 8 hours. During testing, we got approximate 7 hours while tinkering around with the player.
Interestingly Roar 2 has a massive 6000 mAh Li-ion battery built into it and yet the player manages a measly 8 hours as per Creative marketing is shocking!
In comparison, Harmon Kardon Esquire 2 with 3200 mAh battery can last for around the same time. In fact, a 6000 mAh battery in a smartphone with a big 5.5-inch screen can last 2 days or lesser with all the tinkering. For a Bluetooth speaker, with no screen and no real reason to tinker with, it just doesn’t seem to make sense at all for such an abysmal battery performance. Go figure!
Call Quality: 7 / 10
The call quality was strictly okay. The mic is close to the (front) base of the unit and isn’t as capable of catching voice as well as the Esquire 2 but does a decent job.
Verdict and Price in India
Does the Roar 2 have the barrage and the clamour we are looking for? Well, sort of. It has good sound and can definitely rock a small party. Creative always throws in a crazy amount of features such as MicroSD music player, voice recorder, charger for other devices and USB host audio replacement possibility, which is all great.
Where the player lacks, is actually design aesthetics and that ironically it throws in so much but doesn’t try to stay lean on a diet. Who really needs a voice recorder and USB host audio? Most people going for a premium player would want good sound no doubt and excellent design. Creative Roar 2 just feels like an old uncle who has the raw power, who lacks finesse and is fat around the middle but still can hold his own in a fight well.
For a street price of Rs 16,000, for a Premium class of Bluetooth player, I’d rather spend a little more and go for the Harmon Kardon Esquire 2 for Rs 20,000 for the excellent sound and beautiful design aesthetics any day.
Tags: Audio, Bluetooth Speakers, Creative, Creative Roar 2, Creative Roar 2 India price, Creative Roar 2 review, Creative SoundBlaster Roar 2, Roar 2 Price India price, Roar 2 review
Original Article
No comments