Creative Pebble

amazon Creative Pebble reviews

$25 is the price you might expect to spend on a cheap pair of headphones, but probably not a pair of speakers. Creative’s Pebble speakers not only cost just $24.99, but they sound surprisingly good. These aren’t powered USB speakers — they’re USB-powered speakers. If you don’t mind plugging in a 3.5mm cable, they deliver very solid sound for a low price — and work well.

Design

Available in black or white and measuring 4.5 x 4.6 x 4.4 inches (HWD) each, the spherical speakers are sawn at an angle to reveal the drivers on the front panel. They are angled upwards to fit your ears, which is rarely seen but significantly improves sound clarity. The bottom of each speaker has a circular rubber base to keep the speaker from moving around. The back has a passive radiator to enhance bass response, while the front-firing 2-inch drivers combine to produce a modest 4.4 watts of power. There is a power toggle/volume knob located on the right speaker, but other than that, there are no additional controls.

The USB connection is for power only. To receive audio from your laptop or mobile device, you need to connect a hard-wired 3.5mm audio cable. With a trio of hard-wired cables (audio input, USB, and connection to the left speaker), you’ll find a lot of cable clutter.

It’s a pretty limited system, but for $25, what can you expect? The question is: Are these speakers an obvious upgrade over the usual built-in phone or laptop speakers? Thankfully, the answer is a resounding yes.

Performance

On tracks with intense bass content, such as The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the speaker offers modest bass depth at moderate volumes and annoying distortion at highest volumes. That’s pretty much to be expected, so let’s look at it another way: At moderate volumes, the bass sounds fine, and the speakers are louder than any laptop or phone speaker that’s ever been. We’ve heard. The bass radiators add a bit of oomph—it just sounds better on tracks that don’t challenge drivers as much as this one. So if you’re hoping for extra richness and volume, you won’t be disappointed.

Frank Ocean’s “Biking” sound is surprisingly powerful, with rich bass depth and premium clarity. The speakers delivered some bass (low-to-midrange bass presence, not bass) clearly and convincingly, even if they lacked real rumble.

Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” a track with less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of Pebble’s overall tonal character. The drums on this track sound modest — there’s no thunder that a speaker system with deeper bass would be able to permeate the drums here. But Callahan’s baritone has an amazing richness in the low mids, with a clear presence in the high mids to complement them and a volume level far beyond anything your phone or laptop can handle will suggest. The bass radiator adds some table vibration to the processing, making things more punchy, and the rubber feet keep the speakers in place.

In Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild,” the kick drum ring has plenty of mid-high tones, allowing its attack to penetrate layers of the mix, while sub-bass synth hits are implied more than full delivered. But there’s still some bass presence here — we got a solid feel for the thumping from the drum ring. The vocals are conveyed clearly. There is some sibilance added, but for the price, everything looks pretty good.

Orchestra tracks, such as the opening scene in John Adams’ Gospel According to Others, really sound balanced and full, although the volume hits lower than you might expect. Devices with lower registers get a solid rich presence through the speakers, while higher registers, strings, and vocals remain crisp and bright.

Conclude

Are Creative Pebble Speakers Worth $25? For a notable upgrade to your laptop or phone speakers, absolutely. However, for a little more money, you get plenty of Bluetooth options without the tangle of hard cables. Consider the Ikea Eneby, Sony SRS-XB10, or JBL Clip 2. For a more substantial amount of money, the Edifier Exclaim e10 is a wired option that we like if wireless isn’t for you. But if you want something simple and cheap and don’t mind wires, you can’t go wrong with the Pebble.

where can you get a Creative Pebble online

Creative Pebble V2 – Minimalistic 2.0 USB-C Powered Desktop Speakers, 3.5 mm AUX-in, Up to 8W RMS Power for Computers and Laptops, Type-A Adapter Included and Extended Cable (Black): Buy it now

(Renewed) Creative Pebble 2.0 USB-Powered Desktop Speakers with Far-Field Drivers and Passive Radiators for PCs and Laptops (Black): Buy it now