Home Hi-Tech Audio / Video / TV / Streaming ,,,,, With the warm season approaching, and the use of smartphones and tablets by the pool or even on the beach, it is good to start organizing yourself with a speaker that is at least resistant to splashes and splashes of water. This is, but not limited to, the profile of Creative's iRoar Go, a high-end bluetooth speaker with a thousand faces, with many different options and musical facets. We put him to the test to find out his profile, how it works and who it is for.
How it is made
Upon opening the package, you immediately realize that you are in front of a higher-end speaker. This is because the construction appears particularly solid, with attention to the smallest details, with excellent finishes and attention to detail. It has dimensions of 19.2 x 9.7 x 5.4 cm, and a weight of about 812 grams. The conception of the loudspeaker is particular, which has been designed to be positioned both vertically and horizontally.
The choice between one and the other position is not a trivial one, considering that the sound changes slightly and that you can thus adapt it further to your tastes, as if the numerous playback modes that will be discussed from here to short.
On the front the control panel stands out, slightly hollowed and with rubber keys. From here you turn on the speaker, change the volume, start pairing mode, answer calls and change the playback source.
In this regard, we immediately anticipate the possibilities of the peripheral: bluetooth playback, AUX, but also via Micro SD. The various playback modes are clearly indicated by a series of green LEDs always placed on the front of the speaker. This one just described, however, is not the only control panel that iRoar Go is equipped with. On the upper part, in fact, there is a second row of buttons, this time dedicated to music playback.
When music is played in bluetooth it will be possible to stop / start music playback, change tracks and activate different playback modes, until activating the “Roar” that increases the output performance, making the speaker musically more … bad.
Note that this button panel is fully functional even when playing music from streaming sources, such as Spotify. It is really convenient to be able to manage the playback of music not downloaded on the mobile phone directly from this control panel.
Also on the upper part there are two rubber flaps, which protect the various entrances from splashing water: the case is IPX6 certified. To tell the truth it is the part that, from an aesthetic point of view, probably clashes slightly with the rest, but it is a necessary cover, in order to make the speaker resistant to splashes.
Below these rubber covers, however, there are the charging inputs, the AUX one, as well as a Full Size USB and a MicroUSB. The latter will not be used to recharge the speaker, but to connect it to the Mac / PC, so as to transform the speaker into a host audio and the microphone as an external Sound Blaster sound card. The same system also allows you to connect the speaker to a Playstation 4 game, and use it as an external speaker during videogame activity. Finally, certainly not least the aforementioned Full Size USB port, which allows you to recharge mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets, thanks to the large 5200 mAh battery.
A touch of refinement and elegance also comes from the two brushed aluminum plates positioned on the sides, which move back and forth, protruding several millimeters when a track rich in bass is played. In short, the aesthetics do justice to the peripheral.
How it sounds
Under the hood, iRoar Go houses five transducers, two 1.5-inch drivers for high frequencies, a 2.5-inch neodymium driver for low / mid frequencies, with passive drivers. The sound coming from iRoar Go, needless to say, is certainly of a higher quality than all similar peripherals, but of a lower price range.
There are so many musical options that can be selected, that talking in the abstract about how the speaker sounds is a difficult undertaking. This is because the user can customize music reproduction in a thousand ways, making it more suited to their tastes and enhancing one genre of music to the maximum, rather than the other.
Three main playback modes: standard, equalizer and Roar. The first, probably, is the fast mode, when you want to listen to music without being there to set anything. with the second, however, it is possible to play with the music, drastically changing the type of sound that comes out of the box. It is possible to choose between a warmer, neutral, energetic or Super Wide reproduction, as well as being able to manually intervene on bass and treble. Changing one or the other setting means actually transforming a song according to your preferences.
It is clear, however, that the basic sound quality offered is high, and whatever the chosen playback option, you will always get a clear, enveloping, clean, rich in detail audio. The choice between the various musical reproductions, then, only serves to enhance that craving, rather than the other, depending on the genre of belonging.
The perception of sound really changes even when you decide to place the speaker horizontally or vertically. In short, these are choices that are up to the user, according to their tastes, but the basic quality of the device is certainly indisputable.
Particularly interesting is, for example, the Super Wide option, which really gives the impression of a wide sound, as if coming from further away, but able to literally radiate the whole environment. This effect can be further expanded by placing the speaker horizontally on a plane and positioning it adjacent to a wall: the feeling that this mode of reproduction has given us, in some evocative songs, such as Runaway by AURORA, was really exciting.
Not paying for the numerous playback modes, the speaker also offers a ROAR mode, which gives the device its name. ROAR mode now incorporates TeraBass processing which compensates for the loss of human perception of bass and treble during low-volume playback, improving musical fullness and clarity, even at low or whispered volumes.
Also in this case we go to taste: on many occasions, in the opinion of the writer, the use of the ROAR mode has exponentially improved the quality, giving a more full-bodied and aggressive imprint to the reproduction, making it even more warm and enveloping. In other cases, however, it was preferable to remove this setting, to obtain a more crystalline sound, especially in songs like Rocket Man, where we preferred to listen to the voice in the foreground of Elton John, without weighing it down with heavier effects.
With iRoar Go there is really fun, to completely change the “face” of a song, a musical genre: a speaker with a thousand faces, in short. It will be up to the user, from time to time, to decide which one to wear, to change the sound experience.
Applications
On the other hand, the Sound Blaster Connect application is a little subdued. From here you can easily manage the equalizer, for example, but we found it difficult to use the app when Spotify is in use.
When playing music from an audio stream, the app returns the message that the speaker is occupied by another app and does not seem to be working. By closing the app and restarting it, however, you can use it even when Spotify is in use. Furthermore, the app does not allow you to create custom playlists: in short, it is not a hub from which to manage your own playback entirely. In any case it is really useful to manage the equializer playback mode, and also allows you to activate the ROAR option by simply pressing a button.
The Mac app has more or less the same functions as the mobile one, but offers a Sound Experience framework from which to change the playback mode on the fly, being able to choose between various preset “filters”, to adapt to different musical footprints, oriented to the Gaming, at Cinemania, and others. Also in this case, therefore, it is an extremely flexible speaker, to satisfy various musical tastes.
Autonomy and connection
The speaker, in addition to being able to be paired via bluetooth, is also equipped with NFC: so it will be sufficient to place it next to smartphones or devices equipped with this technology, to immediately start the pairing. The autonomy is excellent, thanks to the 5200 mAh battery, which goes beyond 10 hours, but which can obviously be reduced if you decide to recharge a smartphone at the same time.
It is also possible to carry out hands-free conversations, thanks to the presence of the dedicated key to answer, and the built-in microphone.
Conclusions
Creative iRoar Go is an extremely flexible speaker; not only because it is IPX6 certified, and therefore also suitable for poolside or on the beach, but above all for the numerous audio settings, which adapt the music to the user's ear, with different playback modes. A quality speaker, packed with features, that even charges smartphones and tablets.
It costs 199.55 euros and can be purchased on Amazon directly at this address.
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