for those For those of us who can’t stop listening to music on the road, the past decade has been a whirlwind. We’ve seen the rise of AirPods and the consequent disappearance of the headphone jack, along with a plethora of microphone, noise-canceling, and other feature improvements that make listening on the go more convenient. One thing we haven’t really seen yet? A huge leap forward in audio quality.
With its new solid-state drivers, California-based xMems is finally giving us a real leap forward in the way headphones sound. Using the same technology used to produce microchips, these silicon earbud drivers offer a flatter, cleaner overall signature in addition to significantly increased robustness compared to previous technologies.
We first tested xMems’ technology in a pair of extremely expensive (and great-sounding) milled titanium earbuds from Singularity Industries, but it felt akin to trying a new eco-fuel in a Ferrari. The folks over at Creative Audio have launched two new pairs of earbuds (released at the same time with the confusingly named Aurvana Ace and Aurvana Ace 2) to make this new technology accessible to everyone. In essentially the same form factor and the same price as Apple’s standard AirPods, you can now hear the driver sound of the future. When it comes to sound quality for price, there’s no argument: solid state is the future.
twin
The two pairs of Creative’s new earbuds look almost identical in appearance, both using the familiar black elephant trunk design, with copper-gold accents on the outside of each earbud. You can tell which pair is which by the charging case. The standard Ace comes with an opaque black exterior, while the Ace 2 comes with a clear gray exterior that exposes a shiny gold interior inside the clamshell.
Photo: Parker Hall
On the surface, they both use the same xMems-powered technology, but the Ace 2 has better processing power. The Ace 2 also supports lossless Bluetooth audio and comes with adaptive noise cancellation instead of the non-adaptive, non-lossless technology inside the regular Ace. Both round cases offer 18 hours of battery reserve and Qi wireless or USB-C charging, plus 6 hours of playback inside the headphones. For the remainder of this review, I’ll focus on the Ace 2, which has the same drivers as the Ace but has the previously mentioned higher-end chipset. For just $20 more (MSRP), they’re an even better deal.
touch
Touch controls on the outside of each earphone allow you to tap twice to play or pause music, or press and hold on the outside of each earphone to increase or decrease the volume (the left side turns the volume down, the right side up). The buttons aren’t easy to use; I tend to use Creative’s headphone app and phone controls to jam the headphones when I need to, which works great.
One thing I like is their simple and easy to understand code for telling how much battery is left in the charging case. The red light indicates 0% to 30%, the yellow light indicates 31% to 70%, and the green light indicates 71% to 99%. It’s simple and helpful for those of us who keep our buds in our bags when we work out and rarely take them with us to recharge.
Speaking of gym time, you’ll have no problem sweating in these, or at least I didn’t, thanks to the included IPX5 waterproof rating. I’ve used them multiple times to the gym and even spent some time in the sauna without any issues.