Creative Aurvana X-Fi

Creative introduced us to its own Aurvana X-Fi Noise-Canceling Headphones, for the same price ($299.99) could they really be better than the industry leader? As it turns out, yes and no. Listening was indeed a pleasure, with the Aurvana X-Fi delivering very good sound quality in both our music and spoken word tests. The sound was equally clear with the noise canceling function enabled as without (Bose gives you no option).

How you intend to use the noise canceling capabilities will determine which of these headphones is best for you: We found the Aurvana less effective than the Bose when blocking out ambient noise in our screechy Computer Shopper server room and on airplanes. But the Aurvana was better when being used just for the purposes of listening to music in an already quiet environment the QuietComfort 2's noise canceling added a quiet hiss to the background sound that the Aurvana's didn't.

Like the QuietComfort 2, the Aurvana comes with a selection of accessories to help fit any listening environment a quarter inch adapter is just what's needed for plugging into a studio sound system, a two pronged adapter is ideal for certain airplanes, and a five foot extension allows you plenty of room to move.

(The cable connecting the earpiece to what you're listening to is itself three feet long.) One difference : The Aurvana requires two AAA batteries, as opposed to the QuietComfort 2's one.

That extra battery likely powers two other audio enhancing features the Aurvana X-Fi introduces, which may be turned on or off with buttons on the right earpiece (where the power switch is also located).

The first, the X-Fi Crystalizer, is billed as a way to restore "detail and vibrancy" to compressed music (such as MP3s) and movies, and activating this especially during orchestral passages definitely brightened and livened up the sound. (We don't recommend using it when listening to radio programs or podcasts, however the Crystalizer had the opposite effect there, dulling the bass sounds a bit too unpleasantly for our taste.) The other option, X-Fi CMSS-3D, supposedly gives stereo music and movies a "virtual surround sound" feel, but we were dissatisfied with the results, which stripped away the crispness and clarity the noise canceling and Crystalizer add.