Active noise cancellation is a technique to cancel out ambient noise by producing white noise that as the name suggests, cuts out the external noise source. Creative has long been a stalwart in the audio industry and is well known for their PC audio hardware, earphones and more. Suffice it to say that audio products come naturally to Creative. So we were quite excited to check out the Creative Aurvana ANC headphones that promise to provide active noise cancellation in an over the head form-factor at a very attractive price point. Here’s our review where we talk more about what we think about the headset.
Creative Aurvana ANC Over-ear headphones specifications
- 40mm Neodymium Magnet drivers
- Inline Microphone and Remote: Play/Pause/Next/Previous Track
- Phone Call: Answer/End Call
- 1.5m detachable braided stereo cable
- Multi-Mic Active Noise Cancellation
- Noise Reduction Level: -18dB (87%)
- Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz
- Ear Cushion: Leatherette Memory Foam Ear Cushion
- Weight: 170g (without cable and battery)
- AAA alkaline battery with 40h of battery life
Design
We like how the Creative Aurvana ANC looks but it would be hard to label it premium. When you are paying almost 11,000 Rupees for a headset, you are looking for high end materials and design that stands out. The glossy silver earcups completely take away from this. The choice of material on the earcups attracts both fingerprints and stains all too easily.
That said, the dark blue elements surrounding the outer cup stands out amongst the throngs of matte black headphones that are commonplace. The over the head band is made of matte plastic with an inner frame that is made of metal. There’s the standard leatherette padding on the upper part of the frame that makes fit a bit better. In fact the entire band is a bit wider towards the earcups which helps reduces clamping and hence fatigue.
Coming to comfort levels, the headset weighs about 170 grams without the battery and cable and is generally pretty light. In fact we found it almost as lightweight as the Bose Soundtrue. Comfort levels were good but the fit was never as good as it could’ve been. The outer cover of the right earcup flips open side ways to allow you to place a single AAA battery. Creative says that the battery is sufficient to deliver about 40 hours of noise cancellation. In over a week of testing, we still haven’t depleted the battery so you should be fine with extended usage. Like any respectable set of headphones, the fabric wrapped cable is detachable and creates negligible microphonics. The cable also includes an in-line remote for audio playback control as well as a microphone.
Audio Quality
The Creative Aurvana ANC headphones sound pretty good. Unfortunately that is hardly sufficient to set yourself apart in what is developing into a very competitive product category. The sound signature is rather confined here and there’s not too much of stereo separation. Our test tracks included the excellent post-rock album, Pirohia by Kerretta. We also referenced tracks like The Funeral of Hearts by His Infernal Majesty as well as Of The Night by Bastille and Starboy by The Weeknd.
What stands out and not entirely in a good way is the booming bass. Rather muddy, it tends to overshadow the mid range in bass heavy tracks. It is not tight and controlled the way you’d expect it to be and drum heavy tracks that employ extensive use of the double bass can sound pretty bad at high volumes. We observed a lot of rattling / cracked noise on the bass channel when playing such tracks. Suffice it so say, this headphone won’t satisfy EDM and D&B lovers.
Treble is somewhat soft which depending on your choice in music might be good or bad. As we mentioned above, due to the relative lack of dynamic range, acoustic tracks can sound very constricted. The headphones seem to be calibrated for listening to pop music that generally tends to be pretty short on dynamic range anyway. The volume levels go sufficiently high but that is only when you switch on the noise cancellation circuitry that offers a bit of internal amplification too.
Noise Cancellation
Active noise cancellation is perhaps the primary reason why you are considering the Creative Aurvana ANC headphones. As we mentioned earlier on, active noise cancellation creates a sound wave with the same amplitude but at an antiphase to the external sound. When these waves meet / combine, they effectively cancel out each other at the interference phase.
Of course this also means that you need an active, powered up circuit doing the job here. We’ve seen some excellent examples of noise cancellation and Bose is a stand out in the field. The Creative Aurvana ANC on the other hand is rather mediocre at this. Pushing up the noise cancellation toggle has a minimal effect on reducing external noise. Noise cancellation is supposed to work best on constant hums and background noises like plane engines but we found the effect to be minimal at best. Bumping up the volume helps you get sufficient isolation but the significant sound leakage makes it a non starter.
Conclusion
The Creative Aurvana ANC Headset isn’t particularly bad, it isn’t very good either. The noise cancellation capabilities are more of a token than a headline feature. Keep that aside and the headphones themselves sound pretty average.
Tuned keeping in mind mainstream pop music, it sounds quite decent but it is possible to get similar or even better sound quality at half the price which makes it very hard to recommend. The Creative Aurvana ANC is priced at Rs. 10,999.