CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS
Lobby => Headphone Measurements => Topic started by: Marvey on July 24, 2014, 06:55:34 AM
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Creative Aurvana Live with Jerg Inspired Fuzzy Pads. I think pads are fuzzy HM5 with portion of backs cut out for the Jerg effect.
Subjective Impressions
The biocellulose drivers sound good. I think there's definitely some potential. The overall balance is OK, but the headphone sounds wonky. Edgy and vocals sound forward. Presume bump at 3-5k. Also middle-mids seem emphasized. Suspect dips here and there. I can't figure out the FR other than the mids are wonky. Lacks warmth. Also, cup coloration can be heard. I'm thinking stuffing some absorbing materials inside the cup would help. For a cheap headphone, I think there's definitely some potential.
Measurements
Just posting one channel for now. The other is similar. I think I want to spend some time to tweak this. I'll post measurements with stock pads later. Tonal balance is subjectively more screwy than measurements would indicate. Then again, there are subtle indicators - if overall bass was 5db more, the wonkiness might be less evident.
Whoa, lots of 3rd order distortion. Didn't expect that.
More Stuff! 11/26/2014
Stock Pads: http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,1688.msg45511.html#msg45511 (http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,1688.msg45511.html#msg45511)
Mods and Measurements: http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,1688.msg52159.html#msg52159 (http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,1688.msg52159.html#msg52159)
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The makeshift Jerg pads are comprised of both velour pads and pleathers.
The pleathers had the backs cut out as much as possible. There is also a small side vent placed as well. Grille cloth from the pleathers was then removed.
The velours were opened up and the foam removed. The foam was replaced with the mod'd pleather pad. Then the velour was tacked over the pleather with super glue.
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R these the Aurvana Live or Aurvana Live 2?
Have seen some reports about the Aurvana Live 2s being a step back from the originals.
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Original Aurvana Live
Regarding the wonkiness, I was wondering if venting the cups might help with that?
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:(
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I got pretty good results with my CAL using the stock pads. I think I cut some holes in the bottom, jergpad style. I did several other, fairly standard mods. I really like how they sound at low volumes. Bass distortion becomes a problem at high volumes, and they can be a bit rough or harsh sounding then as well. I should get updated measurements of my pair.
Definitely some good potential, though.
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Original Aurvana Live
Regarding the wonkiness, I was wondering if venting the cups might help with that?
Worried about too much bass with venting.
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Just to get a baseline - stock pads.
You guys can figure out largely how they sound.
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csd - stock pads
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Seems about right. I think the harmonic distortion is always going to be relatively high in the bass on these (not that you grabbed stock measurements of that), but I know you can get the response to be a bit less tilted than that via mods. They make for excellent cheap, portable, low-volume headphones afterwards.
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These are my favorites to use with a tablet. Small size, lightweight, comfort, well designed cable and of course decent SQ.
Mods still need tweaking on my backup pair, but am currently laid up in the hospital.
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Get better man.
Taking me time on these - have been working on tweaks and bugs to the site since the move to the new server. Weekend is meet.
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Did you abandon your modding efforts on these?
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Did you abandon your modding efforts on these?
Just on thing I want do before before sending back: stuff with acoustic fiber.
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I probably will mess with them some more in the future. In addition to the acoustic fiber, maybe dynamat, minor cup venting / tweaking the pads etc.
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OK here are latest mods:
- Thin piece of dynamat like material on the cup (not shown). Not the Extreme stuff, just a thin later.
- Over that, a piece of Creatology foam square. (shown as black square)
- Around the cup - strips of Creatology foam.
- Green felt square over the piece of Creatology.
- Acoustic fiber inside the cup.
- Green felt between the pads and front of the driver.
#1: Shell is thin plastic. Helps to dampen shell resonances.
#2, #3, #4: Trying to absorb 2-5kHz. Avoid cupped hands, cavern, etc. sound reverb affects. I added this later.
#5: Same as above, but I realized I needed more absorption in the mids and upper mids, so above items were added.
#6: Cut down 8-11kHz. Felt is flexible soft stuff, not chemically doped hard stuff. I prefer mild mods and try not to cover front of driver as much as possible.
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Measurements with HM5 pads. I had to resort to the HM5 pads for more bass. The puffy jerg inspired pads were too airy and lacked bass.
Little bit hot and bumpy in the lower treble. Try EQ -3db F = 6kHz Q = 1.5. Even then there's a sharp and sibilant quality to the timbre. (But also very revealing). It's that "biocellulose" sound that can be heard on the TH900 and Sony MDR-R1.
What's interesting is there he more 3rd order distortion in the bass than 2nd order. Despite seemingly OK bass, the driver sounds very technically capable. Picks up a lot of plankton.
I'll ship these back to lmswjm and let him play with it. Already spent half a morning on this. No more. Too bad these are not being made anymore.
(http://www.changstar.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1688.0;attach=8023;image)
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Idk, that looks pretty spiffy to me. From the looks of things, I doubt that I can improve things any further. They might be DONE, dare it be said. I actually like the pleathers better for comfort.
I didn't know they were slated to be discontinued. Creative still has them on their site as of now and Amazon is selling them for $69.
Anyway, I'll give it a listen and try to duplicate it on another CAL. Then maybe send the one you did out on tour if there's interest. :)p5
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Yeah, I have't seen anything regarding them being discontinued. I had wondered if the 2nd iteration might lead to that, but the originals still seem to be fully featured on Creative's site and readily available for sale. Did I miss something?
I like these with stock pads and mods quite a bit. I think I cut a few holes in the bottoms of the pads. Can't speak for alternative pads on them.
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oh, the original CAL - same biocelloluse are still being sold? that would be awesome to put them into nice cups and headband.
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Looks like they're still selling the original without any signs of stopping...as far as I can tell.
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Not too shabby!