Creative launched the SoundBlaster Road 2 not too long ago and we've been playing with it for a while. While on the box, Creative calls the speaker sexy; we believe it's as sexy as a dominatrix.
In our mind's eye, the word sexy is immediately associated with the Lady in Red who comes and goes in "The Matrix" — slim, svelte and with an air of mystery about her. With the SoundBlaster Roar 2, we got all those vibes, but, when we powered it on and played some tunes, the speaker revealed a completely different side to us.
The sheer quality and quantity of the bass that the speaker produces is what you notice first. Hiphop heads, metal fans and the EDM freaks, who love house parties, will fall in love with this speaker. The speaker is loud too! In our opinion, this is what room-filling sound should be like. Priced at Rs. 16,999 and can be bought online exclusively through Amazon India.
Look and feel
While Creative may say that the SoundBlaster Roar 2 is 20 percent smaller, they never mention anywhere that it's a heavy speaker. It features three active drivers — one sub woofer and a pair of stereo channels for the highs and mids — as well as two passive low-frequency drivers. This explains why there's so much bass that you could scoop it up with a spoon.
Read more: Specs, price, where to buy and more about the SoundBlaster Roar 2
The NFC-enabled SoundBlaster Roar 2 features four-way playback — via Bluetooth, via USB, an aux-in cable and by inserting a microSD card into it. The SoundBlaster Roar 2 can also be paired with multiple devices and witching between them requires the push of the Bluetooth/call button.
The buttons are placed across two surfaces: the front of the speaker, which features the power, volume controls and the the Bluetooth/call button. The top surface is where the toggle between playback modes, the music controls, and the record and play buttons are placed. These buttons can be used when the toggle is moved to "Mass Storage" and yes, the speaker can record audio clips to the microSD card slot.
This surface also has a switch to mute the mic along with the microSD card slot, a micro USB port, a regular USB port, an aux input and the charging input are found. The speaker features a 6,000 mAh batter that can be used to charge other devices.
Thus surface also features a special button that we'll explain in the next section.
Read more: The best earphones we've reviewed so far
The Sound
As mentioned before, the sound is definitely bass-heavy, but the speaker successfully manages to capture the highs and mids too. Creative says the SoundBlaster Roar 2 is capable of doing this thanks to the "Bi-Amplified Design" the speaker features. When the sound is played back, its channeled through a stereo amp as well as an amp connected to the subwoofer. If your party's getting too loud and its drowning out the sound, then here's where that special button that we mentioned comes in to save the day. The button is labeled "Roar" and pushing it cranks the volume up to 12. The button has another feature that's perfect for dropping the bass. Labeled "Tera Bass," pushing the button again keeps the bass at 10 when the volume is turned down to 7.
This speaker is "tha bomb" if you're into hiphop and EDM. That said, the Creative SoundBlaster Roar 2 is equally good at handling other genres of music. As a self-confessed ska addict, the Creative SoundBlaster Roar 2 was just as adept at playing "Paradise has no borders" by Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra" as it did playing "Crash into me" by Dave Matthews Band.
Verdict
The single most annoying feature with the Creative SoundBlaster Roar 2 are the announcements it makes. While the power-on and power-off sounds are alright, pushing the Roar/Tera Bass buttons results in the audio cutting out and a nice lady, in an incredibly soft voice, telling you that you've switched to the Roar/Tera Bass modes. The placement of the buttons just above the drivers is also really awkward and we constantly wound up switching to pairing mode (announced in the same whispery fashion) or switching the device off.
This one problem aside, the Creative SoundBlaster Roar 2 is simply spectacular and Creative's produced yet another device we want to keep for ourselves.
