Creative Stage 360 Review

It’s super compact but really well built! There’s an indicator at the front of the bar that’s behind the grill, displaying the mode you’re in which is a nice touch at this price point. The sub is quite thin and compact as well but feels well built.

Before you set up though, If you take a close look at the specs, the Stage 360 doesn’t support eARC. It will however work with HDMI 2.1 but you will be limited to 60Hz. At this price it is a bit of an ask, but it’s something to note if your telly supports it. 

We hooked it up to the Acer I Series TV that we also have on test and the difference is night and day as expected. The Stage 360 adds in that extra oomph that’s otherwise missing from the telly. Apart from the regular modes, the Stage 360 has an option to set the output according to the distance from you. In ‘near’ mode, it narrows down the field and throws sound directly ahead while in ‘far’, it widens the scape! Impressive. Even though it’s compact, Creative has included options that play around with the phasing so you can get a wider soundstage. Dialogues sound crisp and clean and music via the Bluetooth 5.0 surprisingly sounds full bodied and detailed.

There’s no defying physics here... there’s no top firing speakers. So, while it can process the audio signals and surely supports Dolby Atmos, the experience you get is nothing remotely close to what you would with a system that has the top firing speakers and at this price, we don’t expect any either. But Creative got creative elsewhere and apart from the regular ‘Movies’, ‘Music’ and ‘Wide’ there’s a night mode that suppresses the lower frequencies and enhances the mid range so the dialogues sound clear! Clever.