Overall Ratings:
Creative Aurvana X-Fi headphones
Package
Aurvana X-Fi has separate box just for cables, ports and headphones. Box is firm enough to provide secure transport for headphones. In package were also one 1.5m dual plug “oxygen-free” cable of exceptional quality and audio “airline” adapter “3.5mm-to-6.3mm” for attaching headphones in airplane while watching movies. It’s very nice touch from Creative that supplied two AAA batteries so that you can use your new headphones right away.
Creative Company: http://www.creative.com
Creative is the worldwide leader in digital entertainment products for the personal computer (PC) and the Internet. Creative was founded in Singapore in 1981 with the vision that multimedia would revolutionize the way people interact with their PCs.
Famous for its Sound Blaster sound cards and for launching the multimedia revolution, Creative is now driving digital entertainment on the PC platform with products like its highly acclaimed ZEN line of digital audio players. The company’s innovative hardware, proprietary technology, applications and services enable consumers to experience high-quality digital entertainment-anytime, anywhere.
Since launching the phenomenally successful Sound Blaster sound cards and setting the de facto standard for PC audio in 1989, Creative has been able to leverage on its leading-edge audio technology, huge user base and strong brand name to expand into the exciting lifestyle Personal Digital Entertainment (PDE) market.
Today, Creative is widely recognized as a global leader for product innovation in the audio and PDE segments, offering consumers a complete, high quality digital entertainment experience through Creative’s hardware, software applications and services. Finding the perfect balance between form and function, Creative strives for every product to be a sensory feast for the eyes and ears.
Creative is expanding the power of the personal computer with a wide range of interactive PDE products that comprises MP3 players, portable media centers, multimedia speakers and headphones, digital and web cameras, graphics solutions, revolutionary music keyboards and PC peripherals.
These products and solutions are marketed to consumers and system integrators through a worldwide distribution network that includes traditional marketing channels, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and the Internet.
Creative’s product innovations have won numerous international awards and accolades throughout the years. The more recent and notable awards include the Consumer Electronics Show “Best of CES” awards for four consecutive years for Prodikeys PC and music keyboard (2003), ZEN Portable Media Centre (2004), ZEN MicroPhoto MP3 player (2005) and ZEN Vision:M MP3 player (2006). The ZEN Micro MP3 player also won the Ziff Davis Media “Best of DigitalLife 2004″ award.
Creative has also set new audio standards with the launch of its latest Xtreme Fidelity (X-Fi) audio platform. The cutting-edge technology has gained wide industry recognition and was selected by Popular Science as the “Best of What’s New in Home Entertainment” in 2006 for bringing outstanding audio quality to MP3 music.
Creative has forged partnerships with some of the industry’s top technology companies and developers worldwide, fortifying our strength and leadership in product innovation and research & development. Creative also made strategic investments in a number of US-based companies.
Moving forward, Creative’s mission is to expand our leadership role in the lifestyle Personal Digital Entertainment market, using groundbreaking technology and leading-edge designs for not just the technically savvy consumers, but for everyone who enjoys entertainment. With strong focus on our user-friendly interface, multiple features and cool industrial designs, the Creative brand is synonymous with lifestyle Personal Digital Entertainment.
In June 1994, Creative gained a public listing on the main board of the Singapore Exchange (SGX).
Creative’s global corporate headquarters is located in Singapore, in the heart of the Asia-Pacific region. It has regional headquarters in the US (Milpitas, California), Europe (Dublin, Ireland) and Asia (Singapore).
Headphones
The Aurvana X-Fi’s design is somewhat counterintuitive, in that the main use for the X-Fi technology is improving lossy formats (more on this shortly), which are coming from an MP3 player a lot of the time. Yet an MP3 player is portable, and these headphones aren’t compact. The padded headband–which has a somewhat cheap feel to it–terminates in two full-size earcups that easily surround the entire ear with their thick, cushy padding. These fold in so that the headphones can lie flat, but that’s as small as things get. However, Creative does include a hard-shell carrying case and an airplane adapter, which imparts a certain air of portability that should please frequent fliers. And it must be said that these ‘phones are quite comfy for extended wear (on long flights, for example)–so long as you’re not wearing large earrings. Also, Creative doesn’t ignore the headphones’ usefulness for sedentary listening: A removable 5-foot cable–combined with a 5-foot extender–is more than adequate for most at-home applications (and you get a quarter-inch adapter, as well).
The stars of the show here are–of course–the various sound-enhancement capabilities. At the most basic level, you have active noise cancellation; nothing new here. You turn it on, and the Aurvana X-Fi produces some white noise to cancel out low-end hums, such as those of an airplane engine or air-conditioning unit. The feature worked well in our tests, successfully blocking out the AC and a server unit nearby. But it’s the X-Fi technology that sets these headphones apart, and before we go into the performance results of that, a little background is in order.
In these headphones, X-Fi consists of two parts: the Crystallizer and the CMSS 3D. The former works by first identifying the components of an audio track that have been damaged or cut off during the compression process. Then, it selectively fills in the gaps, which are found mostly in the high and low ends of the track. The result is clearer, more sparkly details and more thumping bass. The 3D feature works just how you’d expect: by moving the sound away from your ears and into the space around you, thus simulating surround sound speakers.
Without the X-Fi effects activated, the Creative Aurvana X-Fi headphones offer sound quality on par with the Bose QuietComfort 2s, which is to say: great. Still, we don’t really see any reason to listen to them without at least the Crystallizer activated–it does a fantastic job of filling in the low end, especially in bass-heavy tracks, which really shine. The high-end enhancement is quite subtle and hard to pick out. If anything, it boosts the level of the highs somewhat, but we didn’t notice a considerable improvement. The 3D effect is a matter of preference. It’s certainly successful at taking the sound away from the head, but these test listeners actually found sound to be more encompassing with this function kept off. However, we should note that we were testing with music, and this feature is better-suited to games and movies, so if you’re looking for headphones for a variety of media, these will fit the bill. We also feel compelled to mention that the X-Fi effects will not fix every problem with a compressed file. Background hiss, for example, may even become slightly magnified.
Conclusion
Final impression is very positive. Headphones are very powerful with all kind of additional options that can be very useful to all frequent travelers and to all audiophiles. The problem can be price: around $250. As far as we are concern, Creative Aurvana X-Fi headphones are a high-quality product, but can you bear the price, it’s up to you!
The Pros: The Creative Aurvana X-Fi offers advanced sound enhancement features not found in other headphones and those features work as advertised. These headphones also offer great sound quality and noise cancellation, and they come with some handy extras.
The Cons: The Creative Aurvana X-Fi headphones are expensive, the design isn’t that portable, and quite a bit of sound bleeds out for all to hear.
The bottom line: The Creative Aurvana X-Fi headphones are a good option for bass-loving frequent fliers who have the money to spend and don’t mind others eavesdropping on their listening experience.
| Creative Aurvana X-Fi Noise-Canceling Headphones |
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Overall Rating: |
| Retail Price: $299.99 |
| Amazon Price: $299.99 |
