These Popular Desktop Speakers Just Got a Serious Hi-Fi Upgrade

These tiny speakers won’t break the bank, either.

Creative Labs Pebble Nove desktop speakers

Published January 15, 2025

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Updated January 16, 2025

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Creative Labs’s line of Pebble desktop speakers has been incredibly popular for years. Not only do these speakers have a striking orbital design and deliver solid audio, but they’re also incredibly affordable — most pairs cost between $25 and $80.

Now, the Singapore-based electronics company is going in a more hi-fi direction — it just announced the Pebble Nova, the biggest, best-sounding, most feature-packed and most expensive desktop speaker system in its Pebble lineup.

Creative Labs Pebble Nova

A bigger, better Pebble

Like the rest of the company’s Pebble series, each Pebble Nova speaker has a spherical shape and features coaxial speaker drivers, which place the tweeter and woofer for more even sound distribution. These coaxial drivers are angled 45 degrees upward, too, so the sound is fired towards your ears from the desktop.

But the Pebble Nova is definitely different from the pack. Each speaker is roughly twice the size of other Pebble models, and outputting 50 watts of power (100 watts peak), they promise to deliver a significantly better sound with way beefier bass.

Creative Labs Pebble Nova desktop speakers — The Nova are available in two colors, white or black, and come with adjustable stands.

Not just desktop speakers

The Pebble Nova is a versatile powered speaker system that connects to your computer via USB-C. But you don’t have to use them as desktop speakers.

The speakers support other connections, including 3.5mm AUX and Bluetooth, so you can connect them to a turntable (with a built-in phono preamp) or stream audio from your smartphone.

For the best listening experience, Creative Labs recommends pairing the speaker system with its external USB DAC and headphone amp, the Sound Blaster X5.

Features galore

The Nova speakers are compatible with Creative Labs’ companion, which allows you to adjust various audio settings including EQ. You can customize (or turn off) the RBG lighting that’s built into the base of each speaker.

Unlike other Pebble speakers, the Nova also come with adjustable stands, which allow you to elevate the speakers off your desk and change the sound projection. The stands make the Pebble Nova look pretty neat, too.

Price and availability

The Pebble Nova cost $280, making them at least three times the price of most Pebble speakers and more in line with other compact powered desktop speakers, like the Kanto Living YU2 ($230) and Audioengine A2+ Wireless ($269).

For those interested, the Pebble Nova desktop speakers are available now from Creative Labs’ website. You can order them in two finishes: black or white.