Photo contribution Shane D Rymer
The new Aurvana In-Ear3 Plus earphones by Creative promises to bring a high-end studio sound with noise-isolation and more to a conveniently sized set of earphones with in-line remote and microphone. While these earphones are not specifically targeted to video production, we asked our Creative Director and a member of the professional video community for a review.
Love at first… Sound? Review by Shane D. Rymer
When I was given the product, immediately, I thought, ‘yet another pair of ear buds claiming a studio quality sound only to dash the hopes of replacing my bulky studio headphones on the shores of crappy audio.’
When the Aurvana box was in my hand, for a moment I was immediately seduced by the slick packaging, colors, and marketing tags like “micro studio speakers” and “up to 98 percent noise isolation.” Thankfully, I was saved by my own marketing mind, ‘yeah, yeah, yeah- heard it all before’.
Taking them out of the package, the first thing I noticed was the braided copper-colored cable; it is lush looking and feels nice on the skin, but more importantly, it reduces tangling. Also, having volume and phone controls, as well as a mic on the cable, is extremely convenient. My hopes were building.
I plugged them into my computer and then tried to put them in my ears. At first I was a bit clumsy because they fit in a very specific way. After I figured out the correct position, I pulled up Spotify and thought, ‘Ok, here we go’. I clicked play, and within seconds I was disappointed.
The low frequencies were not present and what I could hear was very cheap and “tinny” sounding. Also, I could hear everyone in the office around me. ‘So much for the noise-isolation’, I thought, ‘but maybe something is wrong… maybe they aren’t fitting right’.
So, I adjusted them and pushed them deeper into my ear almost like wearing an ear plug, and that made the difference. Suddenly the low frequencies came alive with a deep sultry feel and the mids and highs were crispy. Also, I could hear just enough from the people around me to stay aware. ‘Wow! OK, I can work with these,’ I thought.
So after a couple of days, I am convinced that I finally have found a replacement for my headphones for video editing or outdoors activities.
One thing that made a difference in sound was the adjustment of the ear tip. The original ones were a bit too big and kind of formed a seal in my ear so that it if I moved my jaw or opened my mouth slightly, I would feel a suction in my ear canal. The eartip set comes with three different rounded sizes, and by going down in size, the suction was eliminated. The eartip set also comes with a squishy cone-shape that conforms to the ear.
The earphones come with a quality pouch lined with soft leather, but as a vegetarian, an alternative lining would be a good option. The bag is big enough to store everything including a cleaning tool (I haven’t had the earphones long enough to need to clean them, but the tool looks pretty effective for removing… ear-gunk?)
In summary, the Aurvana In-Ear3 Plus earphones by Creative have produced what I didn’t think was possible— awesome quality sound in an ear-bud with lush, well-designed features. Guess what my wife(also a videographer) is getting for her birthday?
You can purchase the Aurvana In-Ear3 Plus earphones here.
Check out more of the hottest tech gadgets on the market here
Graphics provided by Aurvana & Shane D Rymer
