Creative’s Pebble Nova speakers break free from their budget desktop past

By Simon Cohen Published December 10, 2024

Creative Technologies’ Pebble series has enjoyed almost universal praise as some of the best budget-priced computer speakers you can buy. With prices as low as $50 for a Buy at Amazon two-speaker setup, plus a subwoofer, it’s easy to see why. So it will be interesting to see if Creative’s new Pebble Nova will receive similar recognition given their vastly different pricing: At $280 and boasting 50 watts of power, the Pebble Nova put Creative in unfamiliar bookshelf speaker territory, which has been dominated by brands like Audioengine, Kanto, and Edifier.

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Despite their higher price and bigger footprint, the Pebble Nova retain many of the ingredients of their smaller siblings. You still get the familiar spherical shape with 45-degree up-angled drivers, passive rear radiators, and customizable LED lighting, but Creative has revamped the acoustic architecture considerably.

Gone are the single-cone drivers, replaced by dual drivers arranged coaxially — the same approach taken by KEF in its LS Series speakers. Creative says the new design achieves “flawless coherence and precision across the entire sound spectrum.”

Like other Pebble speakers, you have a choice of 3.5mm line-in, Bluetooth, or USB audio, but where the Nova distinguishes themselves as standalone speakers is with their included USB-C PD power adapter, freeing them of your computer’s USB output for their power needs. Sadly, Bluetooth connectivity only supports SBC codec connections.

The Nova also have their own mic and headphone jacks, though for some reason, these won’t be active until Creative releases a scheduled firmware update.

You can place the Nova on any flat surface using their integrated bases, or you can elevate them with the included stands.

In the past, Creative’s app for controlling Pebble speakers’ EQ and RGB settings has been Windows-only, but the newest version is now Mac-compatible too. You can choose from Surround, Smart Volume, Bass, Dialog+, and Crystal Voice modes.