Hardware

Published on January 21st, 2026 | by Nathan Misa

Creative Stage Pro Soundbar and Subwoofer Review

4K! HDR! OLED/QLED/Mini LED! If you’re like me, audio often gets placed on the budget backburner in favour of splurging on the latest, greatest screens, but one can only put up with the tinny sound of a new TV or monitor’s in-built speakers for so long.

Enter the Creative Stage Pro 2.1, a robust soundbar/sub-woofer combo that can fit neatly into any cinema or gaming setup thanks to its svelte design and affordable price of $229.95 AUD.

Creative Stage Pro Product Specifications

If you’re not a big audiophile, or don’t have the space for a big system, the Stage Pro might just be for you – as long as you don’t expect it can deliver sound beyond a small PC or cinema room.

The Creative Stage Pro aims to fill the mid-range gap by providing a quick and considerable boost to your sound setup using a 2.1ch system configuration – that’s left and right channels and a sub-woofer – along with Dolby Atmos support for all your streaming needs.

Sure, there are more lavish or cheaper audio systems available to buy, but many only offer a soundbar on its own, or lack Atmos support altogether.

Up-close and personal, the Creative Stage Pro soundbar is a compact product, measuring  around 56cm wide and easily able to fit under mid-sized televisions and computer monitors.

Its low-profile design is simple but sleek, and I really like its matte black exterior, bronze side panels and curved edges.

The metal grille covering the soundbar contains a basic LED display, and the bottom has rubber ‘feet’ to help keep the soundbar in place to lift it up when you need to adjust inputs, which came in very handy as I tinkered and tested the Stage Pro on my PC desk.

Five buttons are located at the top to cover the essential functions – power, volume levels, source inputs and its SuperWide feature (more on that below). The back of the soundbar has ports for optical digital, AUX-in, HDMI Arc (no eArc unfortunately), and USB-C (with an included USB-C to USB-A wire) inputs – decent connectivity options for any PC, TV or gaming console setup, given some pricier soundbars lack displays or certain ports altogether. Though gamers will need to download latest Creative Stage Pro firmware update to get official support for PS4, PS5 and Nintendo Switch added.

The bundled remote allows for further customization of bass and treble levels, pre-set sound modes (Gaming, Music, Movie, etc), mute button and a button to set up connections to any Bluetooth 5.3 wireless devices for streaming. You can even use CEC via the HDMI port to use the remote to control your TV and soundbar together if you want, too. Unlike other soundbars, there is no complimentary mobile app to change any settings, so it’s wise not to lose the physical remote.

The accompanying subwoofer is naturally larger at around 42cm tall with the same sleek black matte design. Curiously, the power cable connecting it to the soundbar is hard-wired, which introduces some restrictions for a TV setup in particular while necessitating extra care – otherwise, you’ll need to replace the subwoofer entirely (all a bit naff).

Still, when it comes to the listening experience, the Creative Stage Pro impresses for a 2.1 system at its modest retail price. This thing is seriously loud even at half volume, especially when it’s used at the PC desk (paired with a 27″ monitor), though I shouldn’t have been surprised with its 160W peak power output.

I tested a number of different games (Rainbow Six Siege, Fallout: New Vegas, Pathfinder: Kingmaker), TV shows (Stranger Things, Fallout) and music (my lame ‘90s playlists) and found dialogue quality to be crisp and clear, game sound effects like explosions and gunfire to be punchy and full-bodied, and songs to be rich and detailed compared to the muted and muddy sound of my monitor speakers. The soundbar manages to keep a lot of audio detail even at high volume and the subwoofer’s custom-tuned mid-range drivers deliver the appropriate level of rumble and bass you’d expect.

The Creative Stage Pro’s SuperWide in-built feature adds a bit of colour by allowing you to quickly tune the listening experience based on your setup, broadening the audio sound-stage with three settings – near (best for PC desks when you’re gaming up-close), far (for watching TV in standard gaming or entertainment rooms), or off.

I felt like overall audio clarity (mostly for dialogue or music) took a minor hit with SuperWide on, but for general action scenes in movies and games, the Near setting provided deeper and wider sound and expanded the loud chaos in a relatively immersive way. It’s a neat feature that stands-in for the lack of surround or spatial sound, but it’s nothing ground-breaking.

The Final Verdict

Overall, the Creative Stage Pro isn’t going to beat most brand name or enthusiast sound systems in sound quality, but the level of connectivity, its modern design and the listening experience on offer is seriously impressive for its price-point (though it could use more than just a 1-year limited warranty).

This is a versatile soundbar and subwoofer combo you can quickly deploy in any room with ease, especially if you want to quickly boost your audio experience at your PC desk (with limited space) or second gaming/spare TV room – without breaking the budget.

About the Author

Nathan Misa A senior writer for ImpulseGamer.com and former writer for MMGN and Ninemsn, Nathan has been reviewing video games and interviewing talented developers since 2012. As a nostalgia tragic eternally tied to the glorious 1990s, he's always playing retro gaming classics whenever he's not entrenched in the latest RPG, or talking your ear off about why The First Law book series is better than Game of Thrones - to anyone who dares listen.

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