Creative Labs Aurvana DJ Headphones

Unlike several years ago, if you're a music lover looking to purchase a pair of headphones these days you're spoiled for choice. Where once you could pick from a smattering of known and unknown brands such as Sony and Sennheiser, now there is a host of options. Thus it is no surprise to see Creative taking a stab at the market with its Aurvana DJ headphones. A full size set of over-the-ear headphones, they are a decent option if you're a dance music fan, but the overall sound quality and balance leaves a little to be desired for other genres.

This isn't really a surprise as the Aurvanas are billed as DJ headphones, but it is still disappointing for them to only perform with one style. As you'd expect, these headphones exhibited strong bass that extends deeply and resonates for a long time. It gave our dance music a nice kick but did tend to overshadow other elements in some of our more instrument driven tunes.

Meanwhile the highs were fairly good with a warm, sweet tone and minimal tinniness, which was a surprise considering the DJ slant of this model. Our piano based tunes rang out crisply and clearly.

However it was with guitar driven music that this model fell down. The mid range was extremely harsh, lacking any real clarity or smoothness. There was quite a bit of sibilance evident in cymbals and the sound was on the whole lacking in tightness and control.

We found the soundstage to be adequate but nothing special, with a fairly flat three-dimensional presentation. Overall, we'd say considering the price these headphones are a decent buy for bass heavy rap or dance music, but anything instrumental suffers from a lack of cohesion and clarity.

The design of the Aurvanas is fairly standard. They are comfortable to wear thanks to the pleather cups and headband and while they fit nicely they don't apply too much pressure to the head. The cups are extendible to help achieve a better fit and while they aren't noise-cancelling headphones they do block out a reasonable amount of external sound. Aesthetically speaking they are a little boring, with a blocky silver design that definitely won't stand out in a crowd. As is typical with DJ headphones the cord is long and has a spiral section enabling it to stretch to be even longer.