Stage SE Under-monitor Soundbar with USB Digital Audio and Bluetooth 5.3, Clear Dialog and Surround by Sound Blaster

I treated myself to a new desktop, the soundbar I had wouldn't connect (yesterday) so I went onboard and bought this one, easily set up and connected to the desktop via bluetooth straight away, went to youtube and put on a bit of AC/DC, I am impressed, what a noise and thump from this little thing. Need a sound bar? You wont go wrong with one of these, very compact and there's waves in my mug of tea!

Having read many reviews for budget soundbarsfor my desktop PC I shortlisted three from Creative. This one, Stage SE, the Stage SE Mini and the Sound Blaster GS3. Both the SE and GS3 were on discount and so near the price of the Mini I decided to ignore that one. After checking customer reviews and comparing specifications the Stage SE is the better speaker but was on sale for less then the GS3 - that made my mind up. And I have no regrets, I would say it's exceeded my expectations as I didn't think such a small speaker would have a decent depth of sound, not tinny at all. It's connected to my PC via the supplied USB cable and I've also used Bluetooth with my phone. Both work fine and easily. It did default to Bluetooth on switching on but you just press the Input button on the remote once and it changes immediately. The remote is great to have and I'm pleasantly surprised the pause and skip track buttons work with Spotify both on the PC and the phone. And in Netflix. Again I wasn't expecting this feature. The sound is great for the price, clearly no booming base but a great range and full sound. So a tick for gaming, watching movies and listening to music although to be honest, and certainly at night, I always use headphones for the absolute best sound. For the £39 I paid, and absolute bargain.

Im so impressed with it!!! I just wanted something for my Kitchen Mac to play YouTube etc through it... and for less than £50 quied Im blown away... its sounds great... punchy... dont get me wrong.. its not going in my little Studio room... but for sat underneath your monitor on your kitchen table its amazing for so little money.... I have speakers costing £100's and £1000's in my house and for what it needs to do for me its perfect... I highley recommend... Just dont expect too much level.. at its highest volume its awfull and all falls a part but a couple of pegs down... sounds great.

It's not shown in the amazon images but there is what appears to be a 'bass reflex' port on the left side of this soundbar. Bass reflex AND a passive radiator? Well it must be some fancy bandpass setup with a second passive radiator hidden inside, I hear you cry! Actually, the reflex port is totally blocked off and is therefore a bizarre inclusion to say the least. It even features a fake mesh grill to presumably obfuscate the fact that there is no actual port or opening of any kind. My best guess is the designer(s) changed their mind during development and switched from bass reflex to a passive radiator alignment. I'm also guessing then, that the tooling had already been made for the endcap with the flared port entrance, so instead of starting again, they simply blocked it off and called it a day. It's either that or they really want you to think this thing has a bass reflex port! Aside from that, the audio quality is alright, if not a little bit overemphasised in the 200 Hz region, which gives the midbass an almost overbearingly 'punchy' quality. This can be tamed with a bit of simple DSP trickery. I recommend the free and open source Equalizer APO program for windows, great tool. There is one more flaw however. Because the large passive radiator in this soundbar is physically unopposed by another equal moving mass (see: the Bose Soundlink Mini or the JBL Xtreme, which have been designed properly with two passive radiators arranged opposite each other) all the vibrations from said passive radiator are transferred directly into the enclosure, and then coupled with whatever surface you place the soundbar on. Not great if your desk has loose articles on it, for example. If there weren't any rubber feet on the bottom, I'm sure the soundbar would be off walking whenever a bass note is played, probably right off the edge of your desk. This is all a great big shame really, as otherwise the design and form factor is solid. It also makes the Creative Stage SE Mini, this speakers smaller and cheaper cousin, look like an even better deal, especially at just £24 with a voucher! Already owning the Mini, I was hoping for the same level of efficient, well polished design and excellent value for money but this simply isn't the case. Hope this helps :)

Excellent alternative to built in monitor speakers. Bass is good - overall sounds a little flat at first, but you soon adjust. Great volume and vocal clarity.

I’ve been searching for a small and inexpensive speaker setup for a while, and the options seem to be dreadful £20 setups, or spending over £100 for often bulky setups. For me, this soundbar hits a nice spot in the middle. It fits easily under my monitor, and setup is very easy, either plug in usb, or pair to Bluetooth. Volume is decent, and more importantly the quality is good. I can more than happily listen to a range of music that is all handled well. YouTube videos are also good, with clear dialogue cutting through. All as good as you can expect for £50. There are a lot of different tone and sound options which make a slight difference if you listen closely, but really you can just leave it alone. The volume knob is excellent, and I’m surprised I’ve not seen this style before given how well it works. The supplied remote feels cheap (and didn’t come with batteries), but again, for the price, is acceptable and a nice bonus. Overall would heartily recommend at this size / price point.

This soundbar is ideal for desktop applications, installed under the monitor. It comes with a remote control and it has the sound quality to be expected from Creative Labs...

Great device.

Cette superbe colonne de son pour ordinateur est vraiment surprenante.Pour un prix très correct on obtient une qualité sonore excellente. Malgré son petit volume on est surpris des aigus et aussi de la présence de graves que l'on obtient. Je suis très satisfait de cet achat. Le seul petit inconvénient réside en l'absence de traduction française. Pour ce qui est de son branchement je conseillerai d'utiliser le bluetooth ,la qualité est vraiment très bonne, d'autant que son branchement est des plus facile.

Hatte vorher die Razer Leviathan V2 X - und war sehr enttäuscht. Allein der nicht abschaltbare Ein-Ausschaltton von hoher Lautstärke war nervend für alle Mitbewohner. Die Craetive hier ist deutlich billiger, macht aber einen hochwertigen Eindruck. Sie bringt noch eine FB mit und lässt sich (auch) per Bluetooth ruckzuck mit Win11 verbinden. Das mitgelieferte Netzkabel ist leider mit ca. 1,3m zu kurz. Oftmals wird in Tests der Klang bemängelt. Ja, die Soundbar liefert keinen Equalizer mit. Dafür muss man dann auch keine überfrachtete Steuerungssoftware wie bei der Razer (Razer Synapase) installieren. Trotzdem ist der Klang grundsätzlich gut und verbessert sich mit der Einstellung "Surround" noch etwas mehr. Tipp: habe mir den kostenlosen Equalizer "FxSound" heruntergeladen (ist nach Install in deutscher Sprache). Damit blüht die Soundbar quasi auf und schon mit der Voreinstellung "Musik" erlebt man ein veritables Klangerlebnis.

This product came in his essential box. Is pretty chubby for the audio that is able to output. The quality is horrible. Voices are coming distorted, dark. No formware update is available to addresse the issue. The speaker was tested on multiple PC with the exact same result. I've returned it. Thanks to Amazon for taking it back without the original box that I've, prematurely, disposed of. Stay away from this product.