It is rare for me to form an instant like or dislike and even rarer for this not to change during the course of the review period. This arrived as I was trying to stream something via a notebook that has adequate speakers when it is on your lap or desk, if you walk to the door you lose the context so as soon as I unpacked the Creative Pebble I plugged it in, instant plug and play and I could clearly hear even outside the room.
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click image to enlargeThe Pebbles are 12cm across, 12cm tall and 12cm from back to front, however they are not round and in places are far less than that. A triangle might describe them better as the speakers are angled at 45 degrees.
The left unit is hardwired to the right unit. The right unit has a wire emerging from the back to link to the left unit and another also hard wired that goes to the USB ‘C’ port.
Both power and signal are from a single USB lead, natively its USB ‘C’ but a USB ‘C’ to USB adapter is supplied in the box for those without a USB ‘C’ port.
It’s not just the fact that there is plenty of volume there is good quality speech from it so whether you are listening to music, a play, an audio book or on a zoom call or even watching a movie, there is good quality sound.
It has 2¼ inch full range drivers. For those movies with low speech even though the music and sound effects are loud there is a gain switch on the back to increase 8W RMS to 16W RMS.
You should be able to hear every word even when the person speaking mumbles.
This however is not just a USB set of speakers as it can also connect using Bluetooth 5 and so the sound from your phone can be enhanced as well as increased. However you do still need the USB lead to be powered.
For those who still connect via 3.5mm lead there is a socket for that so even that old MP3 player has a new life.
The hard wired lead connecting the two speakers is 1.25 metres long. The USB lead 1.2 metres long.
The front of the right speaker has a twist knob on/off volume, to its left an LED that can be Blue, Green or Cyan dependant on low or high gain – switch under the right speaker – or 3.5mm connection this connection is on the back of the right speaker beside the two hard wired leads.
Switching between Bluetooth and USB and indeed a factory reset is explained in the large multi-language manual that is a big fold out sheet.
This has a good amount of depth to the sound and apart from those who like their fillings to rattle there is plenty of bass, for me the main thing is notebooks and tablets with tiny speakers now have a decent voice.
At the time of publication the Creative Pebble V3 is available from the Amazon for £27.99 including free delivery.
Full details are available from the Creative website.
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