Creative's answer to the Bose QuietComfort series of noise-canceling headphones, the $299.99 Aurvana X-Fi delivers excellent sound quality-but it's crippled by design problems. Listening was indeed a pleasure, as the Aurvana X-Fi delivered very good sound quality both with the noise-canceling function enabled and without, though we found the Aurvana less effective than the Bose at blocking out ambient noise. On the right earpiece, you'll find buttons for two other audio-enhancing features. Activating the X-Fi Crystal- izer-billed as a way to restore "detail and vibrancy" to compressed music and movies-definitely brightened and livened up the sound. The other option, X-Fi CMSS-3D, is supposed to give 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.
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