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Forbes

Technology

Mark Sparrow, Contributor

Creative’s Aurvana Trio LS Earbuds And SXFI Amp Are A Dream Team

The Creative Aurvana Trio LS are some of the best-sounding wired earphones you can find and they are such a bargain. Creative

People often ask me how much they should pay for a good pair of earphones. The truth is, it’s not as simple as the more you spend, the better a pair of earphones you’ll get. While it’s true that the higher-end earphones and headphones usually sound amazing, occasionally an affordable pair of earphones come along that can wipe the floor with some very expensive products. A case in point is the Creative Aurvana Trio LS that I’ve just reviewed.

These super-affordable wired earphones are some of the best I’ve heard in recent years. For the money they are unbeatable. And before you say: “I can’t use them as there’s no headphone jack on my smartphone!”, they can work with jack-less phones by using the brilliant little Creative SXFI headphone amp which plugs into a smartphone’s USB or Lightning port (with an adapter) and produces the most sublime audio output.

The Creative Aurvana Trio LS earphones are the latest addition to the company’s popular Aurvana headphone series. They are high-quality earphones with a new and efficient single-9.3mm driver design. The driver is a miniature speaker that packs a powerful punch and offers incredible audio performance with clearer highs and a deeper bass thanks to LSR (Liquid Silicone Rubber) technology.

These fine-sounding wired earphones are beautifully made and feature 9/3mm drivers made using Liquid Silicone rubber. Creative

The way the drivers are glued together produces a more fluid sound and a bass that’s mellow and fulsome, while the treble is packed with detail but without ever verging on being harsh or rasping. If I were reviewing these earphones in a blind test without knowing their price, I’d swear they cost way more than the price they sell for.

Included with the Creative Aurvana Trio LS are silicone ear tips in a variety of sizes that create a comfortable fit, even in my difficult ears. The tips have a proprietary sealing design that ensures a good acoustic seal that locks out quite a lot of unwanted ambient sounds. The cable has a sawtooth design with ribbing that helps stop annoying microphonic when the cables chafe.

The ribbing on the cable mean there’s less chance of those annoying scraping noises reaching the ear when the user is jogging. The cable also has a tiny inline remote control with a single button that can be used to control the music as well as accept or end phone calls. The Creative Aurvana Trio LS have built-in microphones for making calls or issuing commands to a voice assistant.

The cable of the Creative Aurvana Trio LS have ridges that help to reduce microphonics, those annoying chafing noises that can be transmitted along the cable. Creative

Although you can use the Creative Aurvana Trio LS with any phone or music player with a headphone jack, it’s also Super X-Fi certified and specially tuned to work well with Super X-Fi products, such as the finger-sized Creative SXFI AMP. SXFI delivers high-definition holographic audio and sounds as if you’re hearing audio from a multi-speaker system. It can work with Android Phones Windows PC, macOS, PS4, PS5 and Nintendo Switch.

I’d strongly urge you to buy the Creative SXFI headphone amp with the earphones because it is awesome and affordable. This little gadget is smaller than a packet of chewing gum and has a 3.5mm stereo jack at one end and a USB-C port at the other end. It can connect to an Android phone using the supplied cable or an iPhone if you have one of Apple’s Lightning-to-USB adapters.

The amp has a volume rocker switch and a single button for controlling the music. There’s also another button that toggles between 7.1 surround sound and regular stereo. A msall LED on the amp changes color depending on the resolution and type of the source file. The DAC inside the SXFI amp is an excellent AKM AK4377 which is probably why this little gizmo works so well.

The SXFI Amp from Creative is a tiny gadget with a great DAC and amplifier that can produce superb sound and even handles up to 7.1 sound using the SXFI button. Creative

I tried the SXFI headphone amp with my iPhone and the Creative Aurvana Trio LS earphones. The sound was stunning. The combination of the SXFI amp with the Aurvana Trio LS earphones created a sound that was beautifully balanced and full of nuance. I auditioned them by listening to the new album Lua Adversa, by Portuguese fadista Cristine Clara. The detail in this beautifully crafted album was reproduced with so much atmosphere and detail. The sound has a superb analog feel with soft bass and not a hint of distortion or hard digital edge. By the way, if you get a chance to listen to Cristine Clara’s superb album then please do. It’s on TIDAL and other music streaming services.

Creative may not be a brand that springs to mind when considering high-end sound, but the quality of these amazingly affordable earphones and the brilliant little SXFI headphone amp means you can have a superb sound from your smartphone for less than $100. It’s a no-brainer.

At one end of the Creative SXFI Amp is a 3.5mm stereo jack while the other end has a USB-C port that connects to a smartphone. Creative

Verdict: Creative has produced a stunning pair of wired earphones in the Creative Aurvana Trio LS that I think sound stunning for the money. I can’t fault them. The Creative SXFI amp is a brilliant little DAC and headphone amp that produces beautiful music and has that 7.1 surround sound technology that works well with some gaming consoles. For my tastes, I was perfectly happy with the regular stereo setting rather than using the SXFI setting, although I can imagine it could be great with devices that support 7.1. It was a genuine pleasure to review these earphones and the SXFI amp. The two products sell for less than $100 together and can reproduce a sound that could rival far more expensive setups.

Pricing & Availability: Creative Aurvana Trio LS are available now and cost $39.99 / £36.99 / €39.99. The Creative SXFI Amp retails for $59.99 / £49.99 / €49.99. In the UK you can snap up a bundle of the earphones and the amp for the ridiculously low price of £54.99.

More info: uk.creative.com or us.creative.com

Tech Specs:

Creative Aurvana Trio LS