Creative Stage V2

[Inle]

The Creative Stage V2 is a compact 2.1 sound system consisting of a soundbar and a subwoofer. It offers versatile connectivity, an intuitive remote control, and surprisingly good performance for its price point that doesn't break the bank.

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[bonehead123]

Nice combo @a nice price, but they definitely need to fix that display issue for sure

 

[Mescalamba]

Were here some reviews like this before or its new stuff?

Anyway, interesting. But I do have headphones and like it that way.

 

[Chrispy_]

I had three Creative/Cambridge Soundworks systems when I was younger. All of them were well made and whilst they had sound quality reflecting thier price, I was generally very happy with them.

Creative aren't alone in this, but they favour compact satellites with single drivers in the sub-2" range that are either too small to handle midrange well, or too big to provide clean high frequency stuff. For $110 it's probably too much to hope for a pair of tweeters/midrange drivers with crossover, so I'll just have to accept that these will be reasonably good examples of what is effectively a flawed/budget-limited design.

Something like the M-Audio AV32.1 undoubtedly sounds better than these but it's both a bit more expensive and takes up more room so it's hard to criticise Creative here in a market segment that's very sensitive to both size and price.

 

[PLAfiller]

Ohhh soundbar! I love soundbars, this is what may replace my Wharfedale Vista 100, which is my daily driver on the PC.

 

[bonehead123]

I had three Creative/Cambridge Soundworks systems when I was younger. All of them were well made and whilst they had sound quality reflecting thier price, I was generally very happy with them.

^^THIS^^ me too

 

[Inle]

Were here some reviews like this before or its new stuff?

Anyway, interesting. But I do have headphones and like it that way.

We don't review speakers very often, but I did review a few of them here in the past (along with 500+ pairs for a Croatian tech magazine I've been working for since 2002). This is certainly something I'm eager to change, and bring you guys more speaker reviews in near future

 

[Mescalamba]

I had three Creative/Cambridge Soundworks systems when I was younger. All of them were well made and whilst they had sound quality reflecting thier price, I was generally very happy with them.

Creative aren't alone in this, but they favour compact satellites with single drivers in the sub-2" range that are either too small to handle midrange well, or too big to provide clean high frequency stuff. For $110 it's probably too much to hope for a pair of tweeters/midrange drivers with crossover, so I'll just have to accept that these will be reasonably good examples of what is effectively a flawed/budget-limited design.

Something like the M-Audio AV32.1 undoubtedly sounds better than these but it's both a bit more expensive and takes up more room so it's hard to criticise Creative here in a market segment that's very sensitive to both size and price.

Still have 5.1 from them, still works. Should be two decades + something now. Creative used to make some durable good stuff.

 

[Chrispy_]

Creative used to make some durable good stuff.

Haven't checked in on the beige 4.1surround set in half a decade but the FPS2000 Digitals still work for my brother in law and the guy who bought the Inspire T3000 off me last year left glowing reviews.

 

[Turmania]

I had gigawotks thx 5.1 system from them, was delightful. Had to move to another country and had to sell it. Still one of those things, I wish I never sold. Neighbour was probably happy.

 

[fb020997]

I had three Creative/Cambridge Soundworks systems when I was younger. All of them were well made and whilst they had sound quality reflecting thier price, I was generally very happy with them.

I currently use (and am very happy to do that) the Creative Inspire P380 2.1 (2.0 input, but with a dedicated sub), of ~2005-6 vintage IIRC. No need to change it, since it sounds really good. I only had to cut and solder the speaker wires, since they sometimes didn’t work without moving the wires near their strain relieve.
If I find the 5.1 version of those (the Inspire P580) at a good price I’m going to buy it.