Cleer Crescent wi-fi speaker review: Compelling sound and sublime appropriate looks

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Cleer has made fairly a title for itself in excessive-quality, excessive-price headphones, such because the noise-cancelling Waft II I reviewed in 2020. However the corporate also makes wi-fi speakers, including the flagship Crescent, which modified into unveiled at CES 2021.

When I first saw the Crescent at some level of an on-line briefing, I modified into intrigued by its weird and wonderful make and the promise of some fairly developed expertise. Now that I’ve spent some time listening to it, I’m soft to bellow its compelling sound lives up to its classy appropriate looks.

Choices

The Crescent’s most apparent feature is its namesake crescent form with a Midcentury Current vibe—no straightforward rectilinear field here! It’s fairly broad, measuring 26.0 x 4.7 x 7.2 inches (WxHxD), and it weighs in at a hefty 12.3 pounds. The assemble quality is top-notch, with a handcrafted, champagne-colored, stainless-steel grille covering deal of the ground.

Cleer

Within the aid of that grille are eight forward-facing, 1.6-creep chunky-range drivers in a twisted line array, and two rear-facing, 3.3-creep woofers with two rear-facing ports. The smaller drivers are every powered with 8 watts, while every woofer gets 25W, for a total of 114 WRMS from the built-in Class D amps. In step with Cleer, “Unwanted sonic resonance is eliminated thanks to a pitcher-bolstered substructure and geometrically vaulted make.”

The frequency response is specified from 55Hz to 20kHz (-6 dB) with a THD <1% for the electronics. Cleer touts the speaker’s ability to breed excessive-decision audio up to 24 bits/48kHz and beef up for FLAC and Apple Lossless to boot to WMA and MP3 audio formats. However since the frequency response does now not exceed 20kHz, I obtain that claim to be of doubtful price. The utmost sound stress stage is declared to be 90dB with a pink-noise input measured at 1 meter.

The linear driver array and highly efficient DSP beef up developed beamforming, contemplating versatile placement and listening positions with three sound modes: Stereo Widening, 3D, and Room Get. Because the names clearly converse their own praises, Stereo Widening mode is designed to novel a big stereo sound stage, while 3D mode is declared to surround the listener with three-dimensional audio no subject wall areas or reflections. Room Get mode is meant to novel a broad candy place of living that sounds a lot like listeners wherever in the room—in diversified phrases, a celebration mode.

Cleer

The Crescent is a wi-fi wonder that supports Bluetooth 4.2, Chromecast, and Apple AirPlay 2. Its Bluetooth capabilities are fairly total, with beef up for the A2DP and AVRCP profiles and SBC codec, which has a maximum bitrate of 345 Kbps, even though 200 Kbps is more total. It affords no beef up for aptX, AAC, or any diversified developed Bluetooth codecs.

So, it’s handiest performance is clearly via Chromecast and AirPlay 2, which transmit tune to your house wi-fi community at 2.4 or 5 GHz with its Wi-Fi 5 client adapter. Supported codecs on this case embrace FLAC, ALAC, WMA, and MP3 to boot to uncompressed PCM. AirPlay 2 can recount PCM audio up to 24/44.1 (2.1 Mbps) to boot to ALAC, AAC, and MP3, while Chromecast supports PCM up to 24/96 (4.6 Gbps) to boot to FLAC, AAC, MP3, Opus, Vorbis, and WebM.

The streaming products and services listed in the individual manual embrace YouTube Track, Spotify, Pandora, Deezer, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio the usage of the Google Home app. However I modified into in a reputation to make employ of Tidal and Qobuz via Bluetooth, Chromecast, and AirPlay as wisely. When I asked Cleer about this, I modified into told that handiest Spotify Join is built into the speaker, while the diversified listed products and services rely on the Google Home app. The company added Chromecast and AirPlay 2 to enable possibilities to movement dispute material from diversified suppliers the usage of iOS or Android devices.

Moreover to to wi-fi, the Crescent provides two bodily inputs on the aid: a 3.5mm analog aux input and an optical digital-audio input. Also amongst the connections is an ethernet port and the receptacle for connecting the speaker to AC energy.

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Particular person interface

The onboard controls are located on top of the speaker. There is now not any energy button; the speaker is consistently on when it’s linked to AC energy. Naturally, there’s a play/cease button to boot to volume up and down buttons. One button helps you to make a quite quite loads of the source, with dedicated LEDs for every source. One other button cycles via the sound modes, and a single LED signifies the chosen mode. Sooner or later, a mic button enables and disables the two built-in some distance-arena microphones, that are old for Google Assistant converse aid an eye on.

Four LEDs on the front of the speaker along the underside gentle up when the speaker is linked to AC energy. Must you alternate the volume, these LEDs momentarily converse their own praises the volume stage as wisely. That’s brilliant, alternatively it looks worship a microscopic little bit of overkill to enjoy four LEDs to your complete time real to enable you perceive the speaker is powered on, especially since you might possibly possibly be in a reputation to direct that by the indisputable fact that a pair of of the LEDs on the head are lit as wisely.

Cleer has no app for the Crescent; playback is managed from the streaming app, while all diversified app-primarily based aid an eye on is equipped by the Google Home app. You make employ of the app to title the speaker, join it to your Wi-Fi community, and suggested Google Assistant.

Cleer

After setup, you might possibly possibly be in a reputation to aid an eye on the volume and adjust the two-band EQ (bass and treble) from the Google Home app. It is most likely you’ll possibly possibly possibly also place of living some parameters relating to recognition and personalization, notifications, who can aid an eye on the speaker from their design, and whether or no longer or now to now not ship usage info and wreck experiences to Google. Sooner or later, you might possibly possibly be in a reputation to search some info about the design, including title, placement, Wi-Fi community, firmware version numbers, and MAC and IP addresses.

Quiet, I wish there modified into a dedicated app for the Crescent with a graphic EQ and the ability to make a quite quite loads of inputs and sound modes from the listening place.

Setup

I started by trying to pair the Crescent with my iPhone XS via Bluetooth maintaining the input-source button for five seconds as on the spot in the manual, but the design never regarded in the list of Bluetooth devices on my mobile phone. And when I tried to join to my Wi-Fi community via AirPlay 2, I got an “unexpected error” message.

In step with Cleer, AirPlay can most regularly place of living off such considerations, and the resolution is to unplug the unit and recede it aid in, or reset the unit the usage of a paper clip inserted in the pinhole near the connections. It looks that I didn’t enjoy to total that, because connecting to my Wi-Fi community with the Google Home app did work, so I’ll possibly possibly possibly employ Chromecast. And as soon as I started playing tune from Qobuz, AirPlay 2 in one way began to work, and I modified into finally in a reputation to join via Bluetooth as wisely.

For a range of of my evaluate, I listened to excessive-res audio tracks on Qobuz from my iPhone XS the usage of Chromecast. That’s a powerful greater quality connection than Bluetooth—1.3 Gbps on my Wi-Fi community and iPhone XS versus ~200 Mbps via Bluetooth—and it modified into fairly easy to substitute between the Crescent and the Sony SRS-RA5000 (more about that later). The Sony doesn’t beef up AirPlay, and switching between Chromecast and AirPlay modified into problematic—AirPlay stopped working when I did that—so I stuck with Chromecast.

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Efficiency

I started with “L.A. Mysterioso” by the David Angel Jazz Ensemble from their novel album Out On The Fly. The community aspects a pair of of the handiest jazzers in Los Angeles playing the tune of David Angel, which is unparalleled. Within the default Room Get mode, the sound modified into prosperous, thick, and soft, even though a microscopic bit closed in. I walked around the room while it modified into playing, and the sound remained fairly consistent no subject my place. However the sound coming nearly fully from the speaker itself.

The Stereo Widening and 3D modes in actuality work, rising the soundfield wisely beyond the speaker cabinet. However you should be some distance sufficient away; I modified into before everything too shut, but when I backed up and sat on the center axis, the terminate modified into startling.

The 3D mode had a honest wider soundfield than Stereo Widening, but I didn’t hear the relaxation late me or straight overhead. Also, the terminate collapsed when I moved some distance off axis, and both of these modes lost some excessive frequencies compared with Room Get mode, which had essentially the most wisely-balanced sound from wherever in the room.

Next up modified into “Recount You Fancy Me” by Fleetwood Mac from Reside (Deluxe Version). The album entails recordings from assorted performances in diversified venues; this note modified into recorded in the Kansas Coliseum. As earlier than, the sound modified into prosperous, thick, a microscopic bit congested, and extremely soft in Room Get mode. The Stereo Widening and 3D modes did their recount admirably.

Cleer

I’m no longer a immense Taylor Swift fan, but I’ve been reading novel news tales about how she re-released her album Courageous on her possess terms, so I listened to “Hello Stephen” from the novel version. As soon as more, the sound modified into prosperous with deep, gratifying bass, even though it modified into real a microscopic bit bright and brittle in the mid-highs. The vocal modified into very novel but also a microscopic bit bright-edged.

Tower of Vitality is one amongst my all-time favourite bands, so I modified into overjoyed to acquire 50 Years of Funk and Soul: Reside on the Fox Theater. I cued up “What’s Hip?,” my favourite TOP song. In Room Get mode, the sound modified into prosperous and real a tad closed in, but total, it sounded broad. The Stereo Widening and 3D modes created a no doubt broad sound arena while shedding some excessive frequencies.

For something a microscopic bit gentler, I played “All in the Mind” by Peggy Seeger, half-sister of the unhurried, broad Pete Seeger, from her album First Farewell. This note entails vocals, guitar, piano, and concertina, so it’s some distance more supreme than what I had been listening to. In Room Get mode, the vocals had been good and clear, even though the midrange modified into a microscopic bit congested, especially the piano. As earlier than, the Stereo Widening and 3D modes equipped a big soundfield with a microscopic bit rolled-off highs.

Turning to classical, I played the fourth circulation of Beethoven’s Symphony No.7 in A Main, Op. 92, as recorded by Musicaeterna under the direction of Teodor Currentzis. Room Get mode sounded prosperous and complete with handiest a label of congestion, while the Stereo Widening and 3D modes expanded the soundfield methodology beyond the boundaries of the speaker cabinet, this time with a microscopic little bit of brittleness in the violins.

I happened to position of living up the Crescent on a stand in front of my bedroom TV, which build it low sufficient to no longer obstruct the display conceal conceal. So, real for grins, I sure to offer it a are trying as a soundbar. I linked a TOSlink optical cable from the TV’s output to the Crescent’s optical input and watched some TV.

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Overall, the sound modified into very appropriate; the Room Get mode modified into the smoothest, while the Stereo Widening and 3D modes sounded real a microscopic bit harsh. Sadly, the volume aid an eye on in the Google Home app didn’t work, so I concluded that it’s no longer supreme to make employ of the Crescent as a soundbar, especially since there’s no methodology to aid an eye on it the usage of IR some distance away codes. It might possibly possibly possibly even be k if the TV helps you to aid an eye on the optical-output stage, a feature that is no longer on hand on the TV I old on this test.

Comparability to Sony SRS-RA5000 and Urbanears Rålis

I as of late reviewed a identical speaker, the Sony SRS-RA5000, which affords a 360-stage room-filling mode and carries the identical list trace because the Crescent. I’m timid my review of that speaker modified into no longer sure, but on account of their similarities, I sure to study them anyway. I also pulled out the Urbanears Rålis, a more total Bluetooth speaker with a pleasant, tremendous sound that lists for $200.

I played all test tracks on all three speakers. I place of living the Crescent to Room Get mode and enabled the Immersive Audio Enhancement (IAE) mode on the SRS-RA5000, which expands stereo dispute material into an immersive sound arena.

As I had heard at some level of my review of the RA5000, its sound modified into powerful more congested, muddy, and boomy than the Crescent’s, and its tonal profile modified into whacked out. In explicit, vocals sounded pinched and synthetic. The IAE sound arena extended considerably beyond the speaker’s cabinet, alternatively it wasn’t a sound I loved listening to.

Meanwhile, the Rålis sounded tremendous and clear with a appropriate total tonal balance that skewed a microscopic bit in direction of the bass. For ride, the sound gave the impact to come aid fully from the speaker, alternatively it modified into fairly consistent from diversified listening positions.

Base line

Overall, I worship the Cleer Crescent. It has a prosperous, chunky sound that is handiest a microscopic bit congested, and the diversified sound modes work remarkably wisely to manufacture their intended terminate—as lengthy as you sit down on axis. One other plus is its beef up for AirPlay 2, Chromecast, and Bluetooth, even though the Bluetooth implementation is fairly total. And the orderly make is methodology frosty.

On the downside, I no doubt wish Cleer equipped a dedicated app that supplied a graphic EQ, which can possibly possibly possibly aid the tiny congestion, to boot to the ability to alternate inputs and sound modes from the listening place. And in my trip with it, AirPlay modified into considerably fussy, leading me to make employ of Chromecast deal of the time.

At a penny under $700, the Crescent is some distance more costly than the diversified speakers in Cleer’s lineup, which list for under $200. And also it’s essential to a fairly broad house to accommodate it. However with compelling sound and a subtle look, it’s price severe consideration.

• Cleer Crescent wi-fi speaker

  With classy appropriate looks and a compelling sound, the Cleer Crescent makes a brilliant addition to any upscale room.

  Pros

  • Rich, chunky sound
  • Room Get mode sounds very identical wherever in the room
  • Stereo Widening and 3D modes very a lot lengthen the sound arena
  • Clear industrial make
  • AirPlay is fussy

  Cons

  • Sound is a microscopic bit congested
  • No dedicated app
  • AirPlay is fussy
  • Supports Google Assistant, but no longer Alexa