We all like to enjoy our music. This includes taking it with
us on the go. But we also want to hear it with good quality. So you’ll want a
product form a quality manufacturer. And the company having a good pedigree can
also help. A company with a great pedigree for quality audio is Creative Labs.
Their Creative Nova is a great example of a quality audio product you can take
with you on the go.
Features and specs:
Dimensions (H x W x D): 165 x 165 x 283 mm, Cord Length: Approximately 1.8m
Weight: 1.4 kg (3.08 lbs), Power Adapter: 215 g (0.47 lbs)
Operating Temperature: 0°C to 45°C
Power Output: 2 x 8W Far-field Drivers, 1 x 15W Woofer, Total System Power: 30W
Drivers: 2 x 45mm Drivers, 1 x 68mm Driver, 2 x (8mm x 4mm) Passive Radiators
Frequency Response: 70 Hz ~ 20 kHz
Battery Type: Built-in Li-ion, 2200 mAh
Battery Life: 7 hours
Charging by: Proprietary Adaptor, 18V 2A
System Configuration: One-piece
Bluetooth Operating Frequency: 2402 – 2480 MHz
Operating Range for Bluetooth Devices: Up to 10 meters / 33 ft, (Measured in open space. Walls and structures may affect range of device.)
Bluetooth® Version: Bluetooth 4.1
Bluetooth Profile: AVRCP (Bluetooth Remote Control), A2DP (Wireless Stereo Bluetooth), HFP (Hands-free Profile)
Supported Codecs: SBC
Connector Type: Bluetooth, AUX-in
Other Features: Supports Spotify connect, iheart radio, tunein, Napster, Amazon music and Tidal music streaming service, IP55 Certified
The Creative Nova came in a great looking color printed box, with photos and specs of the product. Opening the box revealed a well protected product held in place by cardboard. Pulling out the product showed a product that was made of mostly plastic with some cloth and metal. Quality of materials used as well as the fit and finish was very good. The Creative Nova is well made quality product, and it shows. Also included was the owners manual and power cord.
I really like the design of the Creative Nova. It’s round with a white plastic top that lights up. The bottom half is wrapped in cloth, with the drivers firing out along with dual passive radiators. The bottom has a woofer that is downfiring. And I love the fact that it’s waterproof, so you can take it with you outdoors, like camping or the lake or beach. The built-in handle at the top is convenient for taking it with you. And all of the controls are centrally located on the top. Under a rubber seal on the back on the connections for power and an aux input. Let’s see how it works.
Being the holiday season, I turned to Christmas music, and some of my favorite is Mannheim Steamroller: God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman. Tambourine was crisp and clean, as was the cymbals. Horns were pleasantly smooth. Piano sounded sufficiently natural. Drums had very nice dynamics, with sufficient depth, but not quite as low of an extension as I had hoped for. But then again, it is a sealed system and the bass was clean.
Pat a Pan: the shaker and tambourine were crisp and clean. The temple block had very nice tone of the wood, the flute had very nice harmonics and air. The violin was pleasantly warm with nice texture of the strings. Drums were nice and dynamic and played with authority. And there was enough resolution to hear the breathing technique of the flute.
Fum, Fum: Drums had nice dynamics impact and authority. Triangle was really crisp and clean. Violin had very good texture and timbre of the strings. Piccolo had very good harmonics and air. Oboe also had nice resolution and texture and woodiness of the reed.
I was very impressed with the Creative Nova. It’s a well made product that’s also well laid out with controls that are self explanatory so their easy to figure out. Pairing it with my LG V40 ThinQ was very simple. And the Bluetooth performance was also excellent. I was able to go over 40 feet and half a dozen walls away, and not a single glitch or hiccup in the signal. With a MSRP of $179, it’s well priced. It also has additional features, like being able to be used as a speakerphone, a sleep timer for the music, wi-fi audio streaming to listen to your online music without the need for your smartphone, as well as multi-room control. I really liked the sound spa mode, being able to go to sleep to the nature sounds like a creek or ocean waves, and the lights were also cool but can be turned off if it’s not your cup of tea. And of course having Alexa built-in to check the weather is also a great feature.
The Creative Nova is a great wireless speaker system that is loaded with features. Not only is it a great sounding speaker system, you have Bluetooth to stream from your smartphone and wi-fi to stream music from your home network as well as connect multiple Nova’s together for a multi-room system. And being waterproof means you can take it with you outdoors and not worry about it being rained on (just don’t submerge it in the creek or pool). Based on its design, features, quality and performance, the Creative Nova has earned our Highly Recommended Award. For more info and specs, check out their website at www.us.creative.com.
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