Creative Aurvana Trio
High-resolution, triple-driver headphones that rock
£129.99 FROM Creative, uk.creative.com FEATURES Triple-driver array, 5-40,000Hz, braided and replaceable cable
The Aurvana Trio headphones are part of Creative’s premium line of high-resolution audio products.
Before we dive too deep into their sound quality, it’s worth mentioning why triple-driver headphones are so much better than those with a single driver.
Inside each earbud is a triple-driver array; two precision-balanced armature drivers deliver clear mids and highs, while one biocellulose driver exclusively replicates accurate and powerful bass – so, instead of one driver being forced to produce all areas of sound simultaneously, triple-driver headphones divide and conquer the full audio range, often with spectacular results. These headphones have a measured frequency response of 5 to 40,000Hz – about double what the human ear is capable of hearing.
While the sound quality is substantially better with triple-driver headphones, the trade-off here is that they might be a bit larger than you expect. Due to their size and protrusion from the ear a bit, they’re not exactly low-profile – and not necessarily the kind of headphones you’d want to use while lying in bed. That said, in an effort to make them as comfortable as possible, Creative packs four pairs of replacement tips in every box, including one pair of foam eartips that better conform to the shape of your inner ear and help seal out noise. The supremely light design also means you can keep them in your ears for hours without fatigue.
Rollicking highs
Connecting the earbuds to the right-angle 3.5mm jack is a braided cable that drastically reduces cable noise and, as an added bonus, is completely replaceable if it ever begins to fray. On it, you’ll also find a (rather plasticky) universal inline remote with a built-in mic and a pause/play control.
The sound is great, with crystal clear mids, rollicking warm highs, and hearty, controlled bass. In fact, Creative’s Aurvana Trio headphones are possibly the bestsounding in-ear headphones we’ve ever tested. There’s astounding clarity in nearly all areas, helping you pick up on small guitar flourishes or cymbal rolls in places you hadn’t heard them in the past and, most of the time, can even help you distinguish between MP3 and uncompressed WAV files.
The clarity and sound reproduction smoothes out even the lowest-resolution music in your collection, and the broad frequency response helps cover the highs, lows and everything in between.
If you have the money for some truly spectacular in-ears, these are well worth the price. They’re comfortable, sound great and offer extreme clarity in nearly all areas of the audio spectrum.