Creative Aurvana Live

Creative is all over the place when it comes to multimedia peripherals, ranging from soundcards to headphones. In this review we'll cover a popular set of headphones, the Creative Aurvana Live. It's now available in India, so it's time we gave it a close look...

Design and Features
One look at these headphones and you know that a lot of effort has gone into the design, what with a glossy black finish for the outer surface of the ear cups, married to a nice looking dark gun metal rim.

The headband and handles for the cans are black, and so are the cushions around the inner periphery of the earcups. These cushions make them comfortable to wear, and the ergonomic design helps. The weight of the unit is manageable, besides.

These are closed back style, so most of the background can be acoustically expected to be cut off. The cans don’t really fold inwards or anything, so portability is affected slightly. Having said that, I must add that the unit comes with accessories like a modular extension cord, a small-big converter jack (3.5 mm to 6.3 mm) and a nice felt pouch to carry the headphones.

The creative logo is imprinted in the metal colored font, just below the centre of the shiny black cans. These are 32 ohm speakers with 103 dB/mW sensitivity. Please click on the table above for complete specs.

Performance
These beautiful little cans really perform like a enthusiastic school student, aiming to score high in all aspects. In the first noticeable aspect (and I’m talking about clean loudness here), the Aurvana Live does well, with no real audible distortion at high levels. The thing is that these are highly sensitive, loud units, so there's no need to raise the volume too high to get a decent level.

The next thing we notice is the frequency response. This one has an extensive and appreciable bass response, but the quality of the bass could be a little better. Certain low mid frequencies, along with lower frequencies, sound a little muddy. The highs are forward, though not jarring at all, they are clear and sharp.

The sound is loud enough to engulf the listener in totality, with not an errant note creeping in from outside... and this isn't even one of those noise canceling outfits.

Conclusion
At Rs 9999 the Creative Aurvana Live is expensive, so it loses few marks there. But if the listener likes to be isolated and immersed sonically, these are a great choice. The lack of tightness and thump stops me from placing them in the realm of excellence, but it’s still right up there with the best in its class.