Creative STAGE Air Desktop Soundbar Review
Peter Donnell / 5 years ago
A Closer Look
Well, it looks pretty much as you would expect a soundbar to look. This one isn’t crazy advanced, far from it, and honestly, I kinda like that. When I reviewed their KATANA a few years back, it was a little complicated to use. This has a really clean front panel design, no strong angles, it just flows and looks smart. It doesn’t draw your eye towards it, but it’s not ugly either.
On the right side, you’ll find a nice set of rubber buttons for basic control. There’s a master power button, volume buttons, as well as a Bluetooth button. The speaker will power off on its own after 10 mins of inactivity. However, a recent firmware update is available to change that to 6 hours when in USB powered mode.
Around the back, it’s just a clean glossy plastic panel, no ventilation or anything like that, I don’t think it really needs it being a lower-powered device.
There’s a USB port for a USB drive, as this thing can support media files such as MP3. Keep in mind, there’s no display though, so it’s only a basic play from a folder function, but still handy. There’s the AUX input, allowing you to plug in just about any audio device via a 3.5mm cable, and then there’s the Micro-USB power input. It’s really that simple.
On the other end, it’s blank.
I do like that they’ve given is soft rubber feet though, it’ll stop the whole thing rattling on harder surfaces when you crank the volume.
