These noise cancelling earbuds from Creative start with a puzzle, how do you get them out of the very solid packaging, the answer lies in a small sheet that lives inside the packaging. Having spent a while solving the puzzle the result was worth the wait.
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They are of the ear stuff type which as they are noise reducing they have to be, they come with three sizes of silicon plugs that should fit anyone from an older child upwards.
A small 13 language manual should get most up and running as the most important facts are in diagram form, luckily for me the first language was English.
The normal multiple pages of health and safety warning are there if you want to destroy the outer sleeve of the box as they are written on the inside of it, of course as few ever read the words this need not apply.
Apart from the main lead and the two spare pairs of silicon buds there is a small tool to fit/remove them and an adaptor to turn the provided lead into something useable of aircraft.
The lead is 1.3 metres long with only the first 30cm being a dual lead at the phone answer, play/pause and track selector control this becomes a single rubber coated lead that ends in a right angled gold plated 3.5mm plug.
Finally in the solid Perspex box is a rather nice case to keep the earbuds in rather than the normal curled up mess that emerge from people’s pockets or bags. I suspect the 15.5x10x5cm box will languish in a drawer until the owner chucks it away as they have no idea what is was for.
Sound quality from the balanced armature driver was rather good and anyone taking a call will probably appreciate the in line microphone at the 30cm point in the cable. The cord is black so unlikely to get the attention a white one used to get as the owners were often targeted for the ‘i’ device it was often attached to.
They are stated as for Android iOS or Windows and I tried them with all three operating systems without problem.
95% noise reduction is claimed which it certainly did in my tests in a room with a TV at a normal volume for me wearing the Aurvana it appeared muted to others the TV was working fine.
Wearing them on the tube and train meant I heard what I was listening to and not other people’s conversations and perhaps the biggest plus little external noise from the often deafing tube.
The one problem with noise cancelling items when walking along is that the more efficient they are the less you hear so the more important your eyes are.
Apart from the normal diet of MP3 when out and about I also attached them to my audio system and played a range of selected WAV files with both low and high registers that are often lost when the sound files are compressed for MP3 and I was happy the sounds I heard with these earbuds, the things you will not hear with the earbuds in are the phone and doorbell and possibly the baby crying.
The Aurvana In-Ear 2 Plus are available from the link below for $99.99.
http://us.creative.com/p/headphones-headsets/aurvana-in-ear2-plus
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