Tag Archives: Consumer Electronics

Creative Aurvana Live! Review

Featured

Posted on by
1

The Creative Aurvana Live! is a closed headphone that I recently had the opportunity to try and I believe that it is definitely one of the best ” value for money” purchase as well as an excellent headphone at the sub 100 cost.

The Creative Aurvana Live! is an offering from the Aurvana range of products that Creative offers (as we’ll have it for my typing comfort sake!) is a deceptively simple looking pair of headphones. The glossy earcups are the first thing that will strike you out of the box, that also means that it is going to be a fingerprint magnet. The headphone does not boast a great build but my “guess” is that it actually is tough enough to survive as a carry-around portable or travel headphone for everyday use. The whole frame is made of plastic with a metal band bringing up the clamping area of the headphone. The box comes with a carrying bag, 6.3mm stereo adapter and a 1.5m extension cable. A special mention to Creative’s frustration free packaging, I still remember how I had to fight with the Sennheiser HD448 blister packaging! The Creative Aurvana Live! feels really light in the hands and has this ” aura of coziness” about it. The 40mm “bio-cellulose” diaphragm is held in plastic earcups covered with soft leatherette material (great for winter days). As a headphone designed for use with portable music players the CAL! has an impedance of 32 Ohms and is driven well by all almost all portable music players.

Comfort:

The CAL! reaches a level of comfort that I have not experienced even from headphone models costing 5 to 6 times its cost. The clamping force is almost non-existent and is very  similar to the HD448. I even wonder how Creative manages to keep the little isolation that it provides with such paltry clamping force (guess the leatherette earpads do that job!). The headphones disappear once the music starts playing and that’s how I like it. The upper part that sits on the head has little foam cover, but that does not deviate from the overall comfort the CAL! provides. The 1.2 meter cable is fine for my 5’10 stature but if you’re taller than the provided extension cable is a nice touch. The CAL! is really light (210 grams) and just disappears once I hang it around my neck like any portable headphone should. The earcups envelop my ears (circumaural) but I can easily see that they might not for users with larger ears (becoming supraural) resulting in even less noise isolation.

Sound:

Lovely, warm and very musical. Driven straight out of my iPod Classic the CAL! does a beautiful job of most types of music that I throw at it. The vocals are slightly recessed (or it’s just the highs creating the feeling!), clear sharp treble with decent extension, lovely midbass – bass is present, not so much sub bass and rumble, but clear tight lows. The soundstage  feels as good as the HD448s and the musicality of this headphone definitely bests both the Superlux HD661 and the Sennheiser HD448. I’m a proponent of uncompressed music and prefer using lossless files whenever possible and would recommend that music lovers need to experiment with the same. My personal experience is that the headphone or IEM that one uses can greatly affect the clarity or resolution of these lossless files and believe is one of the reasons that people often don’t notice the difference compared to an mp3 file. The Creative Aurvana Live is a headphone that will definitely help appreciate lossless and higher resolution music be it on a computer or a portable music player.

Upon connecting my Fiio E11 to the CAL! I was expecting that the bass would probably get a bit too strong but to my surprise, that never happened. There was a slight improvement in definition overall and that’s all I could experience! So there is little to almost no improvement in adding an amp to this headphone (which is good and bad!). Performance is very much similar when connected directly to a laptop so its great for movies and casual gaming as well. As Tyll’s review at Inner Fidelity and the good folks at HeadFi have shown the Aurvana Live seems to be a reincarnation of the Denon AH-D1001. The bio-cellulose based diaphragm is still used in today’s Denons like the AH-D 2000,5000 and 7000. Not long ago, I had spent a short time with the AH-D2000 and could actually feel the “Denon sound” in the CAL! The D2000 is in a completely different category than the CAL! and therefore outmatches it, but the “flavour” of the sound is very similar.

(Courtesy: www.innerfidelity.com)

In conclusion:

The Creative Aurvana Live! is a crowd-pleaser with its warm and mid-bass bumped detailed presentation. The sub 100 buck headphone market is one of the hottest and the Aurvana Live is a capable entry, though not a popular one. Newer arrivals like the Sennheiser HD449 face some stiff competition from the CAL! considering the price and quality delivered, lets not forget the Superlux HD661 as well with its unbelievable price point.

Creative seems to be one of the under-appreciated players in the headphones market and its offerings like the Aurvana Live! seem to be lost midst the celebrity endorsed, ridiculously colored or funky design headphones crowd out there. The CAL! is a well-rounded headphone offering that should be a very good choice for the general smart music listener looking for slightly neutral presentation and isn’t looking for a bass-head headphone. The only setback that one can associate with the Aurvana Live is the poor isolation that it offers but I have had no problems using it outdoors since that also makes it a sufficiently safe choice as well!

As a well-rounded headphone offering its not suprising that eventhough it  does not enjoying popularity it does seem to have a strong fan following. In fact there are a whole bunch of mods that these die hard fans have come up with which seems to pretty much make the Aurvana Live an awesome buy for the money.

Update: Seems like the CAL! is getting popular, CNET just published its best headphone picks for under 100 bucks and guess what’s at the top!!

Related articles

Must have Mobile Accessories

Posted on by
1

Though most of today’s mobile phones are powerhouses that allow one to carry one’s work and entertainment along they always fall short in realizing the full potential of the device. The mobile phone accessory industry has grown up to solve this “last mile” performance problem. As most the modern day phones as smart devices, meaning they offer much in the way of connectivity and processing power they can always be improved upon using accessories to get better performance out of them. Here are my favorite cell phone accessories that have allowed me to realize the complete potential of my Smartphone.

Extended Battery:

The increase in processing power and the transition of phones into complete portable entertainment and connectivity devices has brought about a need for extended battery lives. Though mobile phone manufacturers are making constant improvements in increasing battery capacity they almost always seem to fall short of consumer expectations. Third party power packs or additional batteries with extended power capacities are way to go for increasing the working time of mobile phones and other mobile devices.

I use the Just Mobile Pro Portable Battery pack which gets the job done for my iPod, Smartphone and portable router!

Ergonomics and comfort:

Most of the modern day mobile devices always to seem to fall short on the ergonomics front which seems to be the last priority for manufacturers. A modern day Smartphone is capable of delivering a full length TV program or movie for that matter and still does not come with a setup that would allow the device to lay on a tabletop for comfortable viewing. There are some manufacturers like Archos which seem to provide built-in stands for the purpose but most others don’t bother. The availability of compact stands and mounts has however solved this issue at a very nominal price. A dock or a stand is available for almost every Smartphone that allows the user better comfort and flexibility in enjoying a portable device. Also docks that combine a music player, clock serve as a wonderful music system, but you can always go for the classical small dock that just lets you stick the phone in and get charged and synced with your computer.

I use a iHome iP9, which is one of my favorite gadgets for music, alarm clock and charging my iPod. A Walimex iPhone/iPod Touch stand lets me watch my favorite videos and podcasts when on the go.

Speakers/headphones & Keyboards:

Just about every Smartphone or internet tablet today comes with a standard pair of headphones. The problem is that these add-ons are usually not best at what they do. The iPhone, iPod, iPad or for that matter most media consumption devices provide better quality audio which can never be completely appreciated with the bundled headphone/mic combination. One does not have to be an audiophile to notice the difference that a good third party headphone can bring to a Smartphone or tablet. Some recent Smartphones and tablets now offer the capability of using external wireless keyboards that provide a better interface for type input. If you are a writer or do serious word processing, trust me, a physical keyboard always beats the onscreen one easily! There is something about touching physical keys and the ergonomic comfort that it offers which so far haven’t been matched by virtual keyboards (and probably will never be). Lastly if you’re the outdoor type of person, pick up one of the portable speakers available and enjoy music through the speakers meant for music rather than the puny ones on your device. Portable speaker technology has seen great improvements and there are wonderful portable wireless speakers available that are just fabulous for use at a picnic, barbecue and at any other outdoor activity.

I use, a Logitech Mini Boombox as a portable speaker (over Bluetooth) and Ultimate Ears Triple Fi 10 vi for the headphone/mic solution.

This post was sponsored by OLX.

Celebrity Headphones – Is it really worth it?

Posted on by
Reply

I have been asked by a few friends about celebrity endorsed headphones like the “popular” Beats line from Dr.Dre and so on. Sadly I’ve never had the chance to try these out nor ever had an inclination towards them – the price being a major factor! Its one thing paying for good gear but paying a premium for branding is just something I cannot do presently. Besides most of the celebrity branded headphones tend to be bass heavy – good for hiphop and the likes but not really my things. Tyll from Inner Fidelity has come out with a comprehensive post on the celeb headphone phenomenon and if you do intend to go that way…(really?), with some good recommendations.Everything you need to know about celebrity endorsed/branded headphones!

Related articles