"Rod" for smart devices and shout innovative sound "Rod" speaker experience

The increasing popularity of smart products has prompted today's consumers to no longer just pursue the hardware performance of the device itself, but also have an increasingly higher demand for peripheral products.

Speaking of peripheral products, especially for mobile smart terminals, a good external speaker device is extremely important to improving the overall user experience. Recently, Creative Technology has launched a new audiophile-grade portable Bluetooth speaker "Sound Blaster ROAR", and this speaker device named "Luo" is unique in its product name.

A product that won the Red Dot Design Award

Creative Soundbar's "Luo" speaker is a product that pays attention to design. From the outer packaging to the device itself, it reveals the design considerations.

Compared with other types of digital products, the outer packaging of Creative Soundbar "Luo" speaker is relatively large. What is more interesting is that the five sides of the packaging box correspond to the five sides of the product (except the bottom). From the outer packaging, we can have a general understanding of the product's appearance design.

In the lower right corner of the front of the packaging box, the "International Design Award Winner" logo is highlighted, and the "red dot" logo is particularly eye-catching, which intuitively enhances the value of the product design.

The random accessories of Creative Soundbar "Luo" speaker include charger, USB cable and some paper materials. However, the charger that comes with the machine is quite ordinary and far from the level of "Award-winning Design".

Although the design and workmanship of the accessories are slightly ordinary, it cannot be denied that the design of the speaker host is still remarkable. A large amount of metal material is used on the surface of the machine, which looks very shiny. The round hole metal mesh is delicately crafted, giving people a good visual experience.

The buttons of the machine and the backpack interface are treated with skin-like material, and this design is also continued to the non-slip bottom surface. It feels great to the touch and makes the speaker more stable when placed on the desktop. The only thing to worry about is whether the skin-like coating will peel off after long-term use.

In addition, although the Creative Soundbar "Luo" speaker is positioned as a portable device with a built-in battery, its weight of 1.1kg is not light in the hand. In comparison, the Beats Pill with excellent mobility performance weighs only 0.34kg, and the UE BOOM sold in the Apple Store weighs only 538g. Of course, the Creative Soundbar "Luo" speaker has more internal components than the above two, and the large amount of metal materials is also the main reason for the increase in weight.

Comprehensive extended functionality

The buttons and interfaces of the Creative Soundbar "Luo" speaker are mainly concentrated in the middle and rear of the product, which is the skin-like surface area of ​​the product. Commonly used buttons such as power, volume adjustment and Bluetooth on/off are placed in a more conspicuous position, with comfortable key travel and obvious feedback.

The back of the machine is quite rich for a speaker device. In addition to the power and "AUX IN" interfaces, it also provides a Micro SD card slot, a Micro USB interface, and a marked USB interface for powering other devices. Of course, given the speaker's own 6000mAh battery capacity, the mobile power supply is obviously prepared for emergency situations.

Creative Soundbar "Luo" speaker supports directly playing music tracks in SD card or storing audio in SD card, so the track control button and recording button are set on the right half of the back. In addition, the device can also control the number of connected mobile terminals through physical buttons, one or two, but there is no doubt that the speaker will only receive one sound source at the same time.

As a device that relies on wireless connection, most digital products can be connected to the Creative Soundbar "Luo" speaker via Bluetooth. In the upper left corner of the front of the speaker, we also found the NFC related logo. For most mobile terminals such as smartphones that currently support NFC function, the connection method will be more convenient and quick.

It is quite simple to connect a mobile device to the Creative Soundbar "ROAR" speaker. Just long press the Bluetooth button on the surface of the speaker to enter the waiting connection mode, and then search for Bluetooth devices starting with "SB" on the mobile phone. Yes, this device named "SB ROAR" is the Creative Soundbar "ROAR" speaker.

What is more user-friendly is that whether it is turning on or off or successfully connecting to a device, the speaker will emit a prompt tone that is quite suitable for the usage scenario, but the voice commands are all in English, which is a bit of a pity.

What is the enhanced effect of the "gong" sound effect?

Of course, what really determines the quality of a speaker product is the sound quality. The Creative Soundbar "Luo" adopts a design of five sound units, including front dual tweeters + two side dual bass + top subwoofer. The more complex structure is probably a major reason why this speaker is heavier than similar products.

In terms of sound experience, the external volume of the Creative Soundbar "Luo" speaker is indeed much higher than similar products, and in terms of sound quality, the bass performance is deeper.

It is worth mentioning that the Creative Soundbar "ROAR" speaker also has an additional "ROAR" sound enhancement button, but in actual effect, the most intuitive feeling for most users when turning on this mode is probably the increase in volume, which makes the three-dimensional sense of the sound more outstanding. There is no obvious difference in other sound characteristics from the normal mode.

In general, the Creative Soundbar "Luo" speaker product itself is an outstandingly designed peripheral device. In terms of sound quality performance, it is also at an excellent level for wireless speakers. It's just that its high weight hinders its development towards higher portability. But on the other hand, with the emergence of more and more smart TVs and game consoles in the market, using the Creative Soundbar "Luo" speaker as a sound enhancement device for these smart products is also an excellent choice.

But the more realistic problem is that, as a new product released this autumn, the Creative Soundbar "Luo" speaker was positioned in the mid-to-high-end category of 1,000 yuan when it was first launched on the market, and it is still aimed at more professional consumers. Whether it can be accepted by more consumers in the market will take a longer time to verify.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.