Creative iRoar Go: a sound Swiss army knife

Ergonomics

A worthy member of Creative's Roar series, the iRoar Go comes in the same form and with the same materials as the previous iteration. Nomadic aspiration obliges, it gains in compactness and lightness compared to the iRoar, but remains nevertheless quite bulky for a portable speaker. The grip is relatively good and the speaker can be placed flat or upright like its cousin the Roar 2. However, it remains much more stable flat thanks to its non-slip feet.

With its thick plastic chassis coupled to aluminum and a metal grid, the iRoar Go enjoys a solid and serious manufacturing. The enclosure is also splashproof (IPX6) and therefore does not fear splashes of water or sand. Just make sure to place the two rubber covers that protect the connections.

The iRoar Go is similar to the Roar 2 in many respects, particularly with regard to connectivity. Apart from all this armada of controls and possibilities, the iRoar is nonetheless easy to use. The controls respond very quickly and pairing via Bluetooth (4.2, A2DP, AVRCP, HFP) is done without problem, especially with the NFC chip. The possibilities are very numerous for a portable speaker: wired connection of all kinds, USB reading and SD card, hands-free kit with recording, use of the mini-jack input as microphone or headphone output ...

To complete the picture, we also have the right to the Sound Blaster Connect smartphone app, complete and responsive. It gives access to the choice of connected sources, an overview of the music being played, a file explorer for connected devices (USB key, micro SD card) and above all an equalization part.

The iRoar Go offers a complete user experience: there are a series of controls on the front panel with power on / off, volume control, answer calls, Bluetooth pairing and choice of source. It is also possible to navigate between tracks with other buttons.

Some points disappoint us, however, such as the lack of self-supply of the speaker in sound card mode via USB or the poor quality of the hands-free kit. This is also the case for autonomy, which does not live up to its 12-hour promise. At best, whether wired or Bluetooth, we have not managed to exceed 10 hours at very moderate volume. Rather count 6 to 8 hours at a good level of listening and 4 to 5 hours with a device charging USB.

Other controls are accessible via the upper part, accompanied by the connectors (USB-A connector for charging and reading, micro-USB to connect the speaker / sound card to a computer, microSD slot, mini-jack 3, 5 mm and mains power socket).

Luminous indications make it possible to see more quickly which source is selected, the state of the pairing in Bluetooth or if certain sound functionalities are activated (Roar, EQ). There are also many audio / voice alerts. We would still have preferred that the one played when the speaker was started to be more discreet and that the low battery alert does not happen as often and as loud. A "battery low" alert which intervenes every minute and which covers the listening in progress, it is very tiring! If you can't take it any more, know that the application allows to deactivate all the audio / vocal indications.

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Audio

The iRoar Go offers a rich and powerful sound rendering, but which would have benefited from being much more diffuse and detailed. The whole group finds it difficult to express itself naturally and freely, as if the enclosure contained the scene within it.

Given its compactness, the speaker offers very deep bass, with good overall seating. Low mids are privileged and propel the proximity of the voice, percussions (bass drum, snare drum and toms, for example), the piano or even the bass. It is still compact and bushy without equalization. In addition, this boost tends to hide a little higher frequency zones when listening to songs rich in frequency. The rest of the spectrum remains fairly balanced, if not in the treble. A fairly significant peak in distortion taints the sound in this area, making it a little too aggressive and boosting the sibilance, especially when you raise the listening level. Strangely, this compact reproduction is coupled with an exaggeration of the room effects (reverberations, delay, etc.) because of the meteoric rise after around 13 kHz. The device could have seemed more natural and pleasant if the enclosure was not very directive.

Indeed, the enclosure really aims in front of it when it is placed upright and it is necessary to be well at height. The stereophony is not the widest and the SuperWide mode present in the EQ of the application is unfortunately not really exploitable because of the much too high emphasis of the high-mid / treble.

Personal equalization allows you to gain readability in the low / low mids and to calm the very high frequencies very slightly, even if you lose the "wow" effect of the flattering rendering of the iRoar Go. The other presets offered are not really interesting because of the imbalance they often cause. Finally, the Roar mode more strongly marks the V signature by boosting both the low / low-mid and high-mid / treble, leaving behind the intelligibility of the voice. In addition, the latter applies to a kind of volume boost (with or without dynamic compression) to give a greater impression of power.

The Creative iRoar Go shows very good power, which however cannot be used 100% because of the points mentioned above. The speaker can reach 85 dB without problem, but we stick to more reasonable levels which still allow to sound a living room, kitchen or outdoor terrace, for example.

Finally, the communication latency in Bluetooth is 200 ms. There is a latency between sound and image and you will have to try to reduce this gap if your reading software allows it.

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Conclusion

The Creative iRoar Go aligns with its cousin, the Roar 2, by offering an ultra-complete experience for a portable speaker, but not without some faults. The autonomy is still too low and the sound rendering still lacks a little bit of homogeneity to match the best nomad speakers.

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