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Author Topic: Creative Aurvana Live!  (Read 3914 times)

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ultrabike

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Creative Aurvana Live!
« on: April 05, 2015, 09:07:30 AM »

Got these while attending briefly Cash-Jam (2 day multipass OC edition). The packaging is not much to write home about. No endangered three species wood. No diabolical signs. Oh Well. I think they look alright tho ...



Box says "Bio Cellulose Drivers", just like the R10s! The cups say "Creative" and daz dat. Unlike the boobs-like R10s, the CAL! cups feel sort of cheap. But the build of these headphones is not bad at all. The cushions seem resistant (unlike the HD202s which over time peel), and the plastic materials (other than the cups) feel sturdy. Box also claims there are light weight. This is not BS, they are featherly. I do wished the headband was a bit wider for comfort, but not bad as it is. I have no problems fitting my ears inside the cups.

So wattabout the sound? Awesome. These provide quite a bit of impact and more than reasonable treble extension. Mids might be a little wonky relative to good open cans, but less so than many other much higher priced closed cans. Very open sounding, and don't seem to leak too much sound. There is warmth to these cans and definitively provide generous amounts of bass. IMO this does not get in the way. Liking "Gangsta's Paradise" by Robyn Adele Anderson on these:



Piano and wind instruments sound pretty clear and open to me. Original Gangsta's song sounds decent to me as well on these:

Colio's Gangsta's Linky

(within watever youboobs limitations of course)

Given it's characteristics IMO these are great for movies as well. One of my fav tracks is "A Dark Knight" by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, and these cans deliver.

"A Dark Knight" Linky

If you are into the Jazz-y side of things, I think "Old Love" below sounds a bit edgy and forward, but it could be more a function of the recording itself than the cans. For example, Nirvana's "Come as You Are" sounded K to me with these so that's that.

"Old Love" Linky

So measurements...

Frequency Response



Distortion Right



Distortion Left



CSD Right



CSD Left



VS (HD600 & M50s)

« Last Edit: April 05, 2015, 09:25:04 AM by ultrabike »
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lm4der

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Re: Creative Aurvana Live!
« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2015, 04:26:26 PM »

Interesting to see the measurements. I own a pair of these, and basically like them. I feel like the overall tonality is great, and they do have an open feel to them. A little bit of extra mid bass, but it's pleasant. My only complaint is that they don't sound very resolving to me, not great on detail.
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ultrabike

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Re: Creative Aurvana Live!
« Reply #2 on: April 05, 2015, 04:32:17 PM »

Yes. They may not be the most resolving cans around. But IMO they have a high fun factor to them w/o damaging ones ears on relatively long listening sessions. They managed to stay in my head for quite a while.

The openness and impact these provide is surprising. I was expecting a something else completely judging by the looks of them.
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lm4der

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Re: Creative Aurvana Live!
« Reply #3 on: April 05, 2015, 04:40:39 PM »

Yeah, I 2nd all of that. They are so light that they feel kind of cheap, but really surprise with such a pleasant sound.
I use these for my closed cans at work.
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lm4der

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Re: Creative Aurvana Live!
« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2015, 04:45:04 PM »

Oh, I'm curious to hear opinions about how these compare to the m50(x)s. They are much less expensive, but do they hold their own against them?
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ultrabike

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Re: Creative Aurvana Live!
« Reply #5 on: April 05, 2015, 04:58:24 PM »

Don't have the M50s in-front of me, but going by memory, they definitively hold their own. Both have IMO similar impact, but I don't recal the M50s being these open.
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Deep Funk

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Re: Creative Aurvana Live!
« Reply #6 on: April 05, 2015, 05:07:26 PM »

These were one of my first headphones ever. After a few weeks I could no longer stand them though.

The measurements show what my ears told me. Lowered midrange contrasted with increased highs and I tend to detest the headphone. I like my midrange to sound more present than the highs. After the CAL! I had a stock HD428 which I liked more.   

These headphones are fun and better than the stock M50 in sound in my opinion. The M50 midrange dip was almost intolerable for me. For the CAL! do consider a re-cable as the stock cable reacts to the cold.



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ultrabike

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Re: Creative Aurvana Live!
« Reply #7 on: April 05, 2015, 05:36:01 PM »

LOL! Man would you have some strong feelings about the DT990s! :)p13
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lm4der

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Re: Creative Aurvana Live!
« Reply #8 on: April 05, 2015, 05:43:39 PM »

Lowered midrange contrasted with increased highs and I tend to detest the headphone. I like my midrange to sound more present than the highs...

I can relate to this - I like a forward midrange.  It's why I like the srh840, and didn't like the he-400 without eq for the 2-5k range.
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Hands

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Re: Creative Aurvana Live!
« Reply #9 on: April 05, 2015, 06:26:43 PM »

Glad to see the CAL! getting some more attention, finally. They're pretty good stock for the price. They really open up with some basic mods! My only complaint is that they start to fall apart at high volumes, largely due to distortion. But, as a counter to that, they do work really well at low volumes in that they keep most of the good technicalities and have the sort of frequency response that works well for low level listening. Awesome for a work environment if you want to listen quietly without bothering others and not have too much isolation, and they're lightweight enough to be fairly comfortable.
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