Creative Omni and iRoar Go Speakers – Upgrade Your Alexa?

Creative Omni and iRoar Go

I’m a big fan of smart home hardware, and if anything, it’s become quite a rabbit hole of gadgets that never seems to end. With that in mind, how about throwing a few more into the smart home mix! We’ve reached out to our friends at Creative, to see if they can help fix a few of the problems faced by the Amazon Alexa devices.

Alexa Dot, Echo, or…

The Amazon Echo is a powerful all-in-one speaker and Alexa combo. However, it’s not as well suited to every task as I would like. It’s a single speaker design, and putting two of the same device in the room or even another room could get expensive quickly, all just to boost the music performance? Well, I think there is a better way.

Amazon Echo Speakers

The Amazon Echo sound pretty good for many users, but what if you wanted to go further with it? Moving the Echo around your house is honestly a hassle, as it needs unplugging, and hulking around. That’s why I use Echo Dots, the smaller, much more compact, and massively more affordable version of the Echo.

What are the Pros and Cons?

The Dot has a pretty lousy speaker on it, which is fine for voice commands, checking the weather, or listening to podcasts, but not much else. However, unlike the Echo, it comes with full Bluetooth connectivity, and an even more usable 3.5mm jack, which unlocks a world of potential. It may sound rubbish on its own, but it can easily connect to anything, like the Creative iRoar Go or a pair of Omni speakers, rather convenient that I have both today, right?

Why Choose the iRoar Go?

The Creative iRoar Go is a big step up from the Dot speakers. It features a five-driver design, with dual amplifiers, a built-in subwoofer, and a powerful “roar” EQ system. Since I can use either Bluetooth or 3.5mm jack to connect it to my Dot, it’s also a lot more flexible too. You can leave Alexa in one room, and put the speaker where you need it when you need it. It’s even splash proof, so the Kitchen or the bathroom are no longer off limits.

“A nod to the legacy of Roar speakers, the advent of the award-winning Creative iRoar Go is a testament to our engineers’ relentless pursuit for innovation. Breaking boundaries and pushing limits, the iRoar Go extols the virtues of Roar DNA, along with the same 5-driver design and bi-amp system – all tightly packed into the smallest acoustic chamber yet, without marring the critically acclaimed sound signature.” – Creative

For in-depth specifications, please visit the official product page here.

Why Choose the Creative Omni?

The Omni still features connectivity similarly to the iRoar Go, but it’s also got a few other tricks at its disposal too. For starters, it can be used with its own voice control, allowing you to tap into Siri or Google Now, thus expanding your smart home options to more than one AI service. You can even bypass some of them, as it has Spotify Connect built-in, as well as its smartphone app to play music on your network.

However, their big party trick comes when you buy more than one. They can be paired to run multi-room audio, or simply stereo speaker configurations in the same room. However, from my own testing, that appears to only work with Spotify connect, or with audio from the mobile app, and not over Bluetooth or the 3.5mm jack, but it’s still a cool bonus regardless.

“Just tap and get things done — send and receive messages or even get your chocolate cake recipe read out to you while you are baking for your loved one. You can easily activate Siri or Google Now voice assistant via Bluetooth from Creative Omni with a single press of a button!” – Creative

For in-depth specifications, please visit the official product page here.