Tiny Speakers, Solid Sounds: Creative Pebble SE Review

Because I’m dumb, when I bought an M4 Mac mini a couple months back, I forgot that it doesn’t come with speakers. After using an iMac and a MacBook Air for the last 4-5 years, you get used to sound just, you know, coming out of the speakers built in. Thankfully, the monitor I had bought a while back for this express occasion did come with speakers. However, as much as I love and recommend ViewSonic monitors to everyone, the speakers are just okay. Serviceable, even, but not going to keep you from seeking out a better solution. I had a couple requirements in my search for Something Better, aside from audio quality - a solid price and a size that doesn’t overwhelm the somewhat cramped setup I have for this particular computer. I wound up going with the Creative Pebble SE, by virtue of them meeting the needs I set out to satisfy. Being a product of a company known for quality audio products doesn’t hurt either.

The picture has come out very dark, sorry - not even referencing the monitor showing an early moment in the Resident Evil 2 remake - but it should really give an idea of how tiny these speakers are. They’re grapefruit-sized little balls that fit almost anywhere on a desk and really don’t overwhelm my setup like some speakers might. They’re USB-C powered, so I have them plugged into my Mac mini for that, and the audio cable goes into the headphone jack of the computer. Which sucks because since there’s not a similar plug in the rear of the Mac, so there’s a plug snaking around to the front as the photo I took shows. Ugh. I tried to use the audio plug in the back of the monitor, but it has to be plugged into the same unit it’s drawing power from, of course, so no dice. This isn’t even a real issue, just a “clean setup” gripe that weird nerds apparently do from time to time.

The first thing to really understand about these speakers is that they are not going to be mind-blowing, reference quality, bring your buddies over to hear some hipster vinyl speakers. They’re computer speakers. So what they instead do is boost the quality of what you’re listening to compared to built-in speakers, like buying a cheaper soundbar to replace the godawful rear-facing speakers of most televisions nowadays. Once I did a bit of fiddling with the sound settings on the Mac itself with the volume of the speakers, I was able to get pretty rich, listenable sound. This is good because my first impression was that the speakers were way too quiet and thus why bother? I was about to just return them to Amazon but then I remembered the volume buttons on Mac-compatible keyboards and it was like opening a portal to a new world.

What the Creative Pebble speakers provide is clarity of sound. I’m not an audiophile nor do I want to be one, but for under $30 you get.. clarity. The music isn’t overwhelmed with bass, though a lack of that is definitely a huge weakness. I did pull up some bass-heavy rap in Apple Music and it still sounds really loud and full coming out of these tiny speakers despite not being all about that bass. Watching random stuff on YouTube also provided a much stronger sound that fills the room a lot more, which, if that’s what you want, you will get it! But, again, not at overwhelming sounds. These are computer speakers, as I have said. My final test was games, which I enjoyed. Stuff like GRID Legends sounds great thanks to these speakers, especially the engine and ambient sounds of breaking, squealing tires, crashes, and the like. In fact, they get fairly loud, so I actually had to turn it down a bit. Also, when playing Cyberpunk 2077, if characters are speaking and you move around, the sound will jump from one speaker to the other. Real nice!

I’m mostly treating these as a cheap stopgap that I can use until I get a bit more room to get a bigger, fancier setup for this Mac (like a Studio monitor if I can get rich writing about Apple games and stuff via this site), but at the same time, they’re high enough quality that I don’t have a problem sticking with them long term if need be. They’re very basic in feature and function, but who cares really? You plug them in and it plays sounds really well. And at a sub-$30 price they’re not a huge investment. All told, if you’re like me and just want a quick fix to replace mediocre built-in monitor speakers, and not something that will blow the roof off your office, the Creative Pebble SE speakers are a good, effective bet.