Creative Aurvana X-Fi
Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: Headphones, Noise, cancelling | Themes: Digital Entertainment
7. Creative Aurvana X-Fi
This Singaporean manufacturer ventures into new territory with the Aurvana X-Fi, while the big names in audio have more legitimacy than a company mostly known for its music players (and not for headphones).
When you first hold them, the Aurvanas seduce you with their exterior finish and assembly, which ooze quality. There’s no creaking of misplaced plastic, which is often the sign of bottom-of-the-line materials. Everything is well put together. Use them and you’ll find the foam on these headphones is also pretty comfortable. However, they do tend to pull tightly on your head, which is a sensation that certainly isn’t going to appeal to everyone.
In any case, this foam does have the advantage of offering almost perfect sound isolation, even without activating the noise-canceling function. This gives Aurvana a little bit of a boost in the headphone domain and allows it to earn top marks for that feature!
Sound-correction features
Sound quality, on the other hand, poses a problem. By default, the Aurvanas don’t offer very detailed sound. High notes are the real losers with these headphones. Indeed, all attention is turned toward bass frequencies and the medium ranges. The result is a muffled, imprecise quality for high-frequency sounds.
Unfortunately, activating the X-Fi Crystalizer sound-correction feature — which allows you to restore the frequencies that have been lost during MP3 compression — doesn’t resolve the issue.
The other X-Fi CMSS-3D feature isn’t very convincing, either. With this feature, Creative announced the idea of placing, "in an intuitive fashion, the voices and instruments around the listener." However, in effect, all you get is the impression that a light reverberation has been applied to the sound, which isn’t very appealing to those seeking sound fidelity.
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"As for sound rendering, the high notes are definitely lacking, as the headphones’ sound spectrum is more oriented toward the bass. The end result is that the sound quality isn’t as detailed as we’d expected from this U.S. manufacturer."
How is this surprising? Bose has never been known for their performance in detailed reproduction.
I don't understand why you pick probably the worst offering that
Koss has in the catagory??? I have used their QZ-2000
headset for years, and very much appreciate the lack of hiss and
distortion often introduced by many active noise cancelling headsets.
My wife's hearing is not so good, so the passive noise cancelling headset works very well for her as well as an option from Koss.
How can you do a serious headphone review without providing any specifications? Any half-serious audiophile out there will first look at the specs on their audio equipment, and every reputable manufacturer will provide at minimum a frequency response graph with their device.
On page 1, you say noise canceling is relatively new. On page 2, you say the technology dates from 1933. Which is it?
On page 2 you say 'the stereo rendering and the detailed level of sound. The former gives you the impression of listening to a breadth of notes instead of a limited range of sounds. The effect of the latter is breathtaking.'
When you say stereo rendering, I think you mean frequency response, which is a well understood term that should be used instead. The stereo effect should be the same on all earbuds, as they all are placed in the ear, the same way. I am not sure what 'detailed level of sound' is but you also seem to use it as frequency response.
Perhaps you mean low distortion, or low background noise? It is
most unclear.
On page 3, the beats headphones suddenly become earbuds.
As others mentioned, you neglect all measurements.
This is a junk puff piece, full of factual errors and minimal
content. I am amazed at the decline of tomshardware.com
Hi,
I expect Some real specs..
Specs comparison in table.. side by side..
ur ranking in each category side by side..
points out of 10 or 100 for each category..
Please use research methods of publication..
Thanks
Mohiuddin Khan Inamdar
Also... where did the entrants come from? Seems like you're lacking a lot of Bose's competition; No Sennheiser, No Audio Technica?
I side by side Auditioned Bose's offerings and ended up going with Audio Technica... equivelant performance at a better price.
I'd probably have gone Sennheiser... but I didn't like the dangling battery pack.
This article is a joke. The writer obviously is an amateur audiophile... the lack of specs and serious terminology.
Those are forgivable crimes (this isn't the hardware site), but it IS incredible that long-standing manufacturers are left out... in the context sensitive advertising next to the article on the right, there is a pair of Sennheiser earbuds are being shown in the first slot. Sennheiser is one of the most respected makers in the business. That advertising algorithm can select something from context that the author VERY obviously missed. It is a shame that the author didn't have enough experience or take the time to research more on the subject. This could have been a very helpful article.
How can you possibly have a comparitive article on noise cancelling heaed phones and leave out the segment leader, Sennheiser???
I am also disappointed in the general lack of detail.
Not a good article.
I don't mean to be kicking a dead horse but I must agree with those who ask that some of the industry leaders like Sennheiser be considered. I think it's also important to perform actual testing under real world conditions to measure comfort and noise cancelling as well as sound reproduction. I prefer the Sennheiser because of the light weight and comfort while flying. Some complain of the battery and electronics in a separate package but I would rather have the extra weight in my shirt pocket than on my head for the long cross country flights.
As for what goes for Sennheiser PXC-450, same might apply to other headphones in this class. PXC-450 picks up 3G mobile network interference, although it is shielded against 2G network.
So, doing an review in a city would result in clear experience, but when you take your headphones to the road, they fail. Imagine how many cellphones there's in a train next to you. Sennheiser picked up interference from up to 10 meters away!
So before buying, get a change to test the headphones with an older 2G mobile phone, or switch your phone to 2G network while testing.
Sorry, ment that it picked up 2G interference, but worked well in 3G!