Creative iRoar Go Portable Speaker Review

When connected over Bluetooth the iRoar Go is a “jukebox of your dreams”.  Basically any audio played on your mobile device is transmitted to the iRoar Go including system sounds and phone calls.  During my testing I was able to stream copies of the Hardware Asylum Podcast over Google Music directly to the iRoar Go and switch over to Pandora with a quick swipe.  For this review I used the Sound Blaster Connect app, available in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.  You can download a PC version from the Creative website. 

Using the Creative Blaster Connect app I was able to control the iRoar Go by selecting from the available sound sources and from there control what is being played.  By default the app will show you all of the devices and highlight which ones are available.

Since I was using Bluetooth I needed to both pair and connect to the Creative Labs iRoar Go to use it as a primary sound source. 

From there I could fire up my music player and play anything I wanted.  As I mentioned before I tested both voice audio using the latest episode of the Hardware Asylum Podcast and played a few hours of music through my Pandora channel and some MP3s I had on the network.

While a song is playing you can pull up details of the song and control things like EQ, Roar, Volume all from the status screen which is nice as it gives you another interface into what is happening on the iRoar Go.

Much to my surprise the wireless range was extremely good allowing me to walk around the Hardware Asylum Labs without any indication of signal degradation or loss of audio quality. 

One of the common complaints is that the Roar is a little bass heavy.  A dedicated amplifier to the woofer plus the side mounted passive radiator go a long way to giving the iRoar Go plenty of bass response.  So much that it often overpowers the high-end.  There are two ways you can compensate for this. 

The first is to play bass heavy music all day long and watch the passive radiators pulsate mesmerizingly and actually feel it.  Mind you, this isn’t heart pounding, window rattling 1000w across four 15” subwoofer style “feel it” bass but you will definitely know it is there.

If the room filling sound from the iRoar Go isn’t enough you can enable “TeraBass” by pressing the Roar button on the top of the iRoar Go.  TeraBass will intelligently boost bass when audio levels are low which help compensate for what the human ear naturally loses in perceived bass and treble.  Think of it like a smart “loudness” button that enhances the audio output.

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You can use the Sound Blaster Connect app and adjust the EQ and volume controls to match your tastes.  For the Hardware Asylum Podcast I preferred the following custom Sound Experience profile that reduced the bass level, amplified the midrange, lowered the high-mid and amplified the high-end.

There are also a variety of pre-configured profiles to match certain music sources and styles.  As with everything it is best to experiment to find what you like.