Creative Stage Pro Review: A Great Soundbar for Small Spaces

I was expecting the superwide to make dialogue difficult to understand, but the Stage Pro has exceptional voices both far and near, even in music and movie modes. I found the extra boost in the upper-mids and highs unnecessary in vocal mode.

As a music speaker, the Stage Pro is geared toward low volume and short distances. Not that it can’t get loud – it can be unreasonably loud – it just doesn’t sound good at these levels. At high altitude the screeching starts to creep in at about 50 percent and when you’re at 75 percent it just feels like noise.

You’ll get the best fidelity in regular stereo mode, but even in this mode, I had to drop the treble adjustment to its lowest setting to compensate for the drastically increased highs. Music in two superwide modes can be a mixed experience. Midrange definition is partially sacrificed (the thinning of detail I described earlier), resulting in an overemphasis of the highs. On some tracks, such as Sabriba Carpenter’s “Taste”, it creates a gap between the bass notes and the vocals. Some songs are good. John Batiste’s “We Are,” with its gospel-infused chorus, actually benefited from both the wide soundstage and vocal-forward tuning, but was an outlier.

The soundbar sits on rubber feet that angle the unit slightly upwards to aim the drivers at your head when seated. For my desk, seat and body height adjustment, it wasn’t enough. I stuck an AA battery under each leg to get a more aggressive angle. While I don’t recommend this particular hack, I encourage you to find a solution that does the same thing. When sitting up close, both near and far superwide modes will sound much better if you get this angle right.

A hard bar

Photo: Simon Cohen

Using Stage Pro with A 32 inch TV Our bedroom was a different experience. Unlike the bed, our TV is not centralized in the room. From my wife’s side, the viewing angle is off about 10 degrees; For me, it’s like 30. We can angle the TV a bit to compensate, but the tiny electric fireplace that doubles as a speaker stand doesn’t afford the same level of flexibility for our soundbar. When using our usual speaker, a Sonos Beam, I don’t notice it at all. With Stage Pro in Far mode, however, my wife’s aspect was clearly in the sweet spot, while mine had a less immersive experience. Switching to nearby mode increased this gap.

As a test, I set up the Stage Pro in our larger TV room. The soundbar surprised me, especially in Far SuperWide mode, with a wide sound that felt like it was coming from a much larger speaker. Unfortunately, the subwoofer didn’t move enough air to match the main bar, and the bass performance was too weak to enjoy. Lesson Learned: Stage Pro loves a small stage.

For the price, the Creative Stage Pro is a fun and versatile speaker system that excels at delivering immersive, cinematic sound with excellent dialogue clarity. Its superwide processing isn’t just hype, but you’ll only appreciate the effect at short distances with drivers aimed directly at your listening position. Don’t ask to fill more than a small bedroom or office and you won’t be disappointed.