Creative Aurvana Ace 2 Review: Amazing Sound, But The Software Will Make You Angry

Creative is a brand I grew up using. Their sound cards, paired with Cambridge Soundworks speakers, were the only way to get hyped up at the Red Alert 2 menu screen. Fast-forward a good 25 years later, the Creative Aurvana Ace 2 TWS earbuds landed on my lap.

At around US$129 (RM602), the Aurvana Ace 2 is priced on par with the Galaxy Buds 3 (RM599) and 2nd Gen AirPods (RM629). With prices being equal, my first question was – What can the Aurvana Ace 2 do that my Galaxy Buds 2 Pro cannot?

More specifically, how can the Aurvana Ace 2 convince me to exit my comfort zone of seamless Samsung connectivity and software features?

It did that by aurally pleasuring me so well, I kept coming back for more.

The Creative Aurvana Ace 2 delivers amazing sound out of the box

Looks-wise, Creative Aurvana Ace 2’s form factor is what you’d expect from most wireless earbuds. However, it distincts itself with a mildly translucent case, bronze coloring, and metallic bronze internals that give off a steampunk aesthetic that I find quite attractive.

The Aurvana Ace 2 are the first earbuds to use xMEMS microspeakers, which use silicone instead of coils to deliver higher fidelity, uniformity, and clarity. Coupled with Snapdragon Sound, the earbuds don’t just sound great, they actually change the music you thought you knew.

I’m not kidding about that last part. I listen to a lot of country, and a particular favorite of mine is Marty Robbin’s El Paso. It was the first song I played on the Ace 2’s and I was flabbergasted when I heard the distinctive Spanish guitars strumming in the background, in parts of the song that I’ve never heard them before. And I’ve heard this song A LOT.

Keeping to the steampunk aesthetics, I played Steam Powered Giraffe’s cover of Icona Pop’s I Love It. All I can say is that the bass thumps, and I could hear a clear separation between The Spine, Rabbit, and Hatchworth’s vocals as they danced from my left to my right – it’ll make sense when you hear it. Moving on to metal, the erhu leading to the brutal growls in CHTHONIC’s Takao gave me goosebumps, and the hairs on the back of my neck were standing at the vocal clarity in the chorus.

These earbuds turned my colleague into a werewolf

My colleague Ivory didn’t really understand why I was smiling to myself and going “woah”, so I passed the buds to her (after a quick clean, of course). At first bopping to the music, she suddenly spins around to look behind her, look back at me, and goes “What the f…??”.

She was listening to I Hate Model’s Werewolf Disco Club, which incorporates wolf howls and swooshing wind. Again, this was a song she was very familiar with but, just like me, she’d heard it differently for the first time:

“One thing I’ve never noticed before was the light, almost whisper-like noises coming from the background behind me. It was almost as if I was in the forest surrounded by other werewolves, even though I’m certainly not in any way a werewolf (I’m hairless and vegan. J/k… just hairless).

This level of bass matches the speakers at music festivals where you can actually feel the bass rumbling in your soul. As a techno-head, I approve.”

– Ivory, who is (probably) going to ask for a pair of Aurvana Ace 2s for her birthday

So, unless you have a pair of really high-end earbuds, the Creative Aurvana Ace 2 will aurally blow any other pair of TWS earbuds in its price range out of the water.

Unfortunately, the same can’t really be said about the software.

The Creative App needs a lot of improvement

After initially pairing the Aurvana Ace 2 earbuds the old-fashioned way through Android’s bluetooth settings, I thought I’d check out any additional magic the Creative app would offer. This led to the main and only complaint I have about the earbuds.

The setup process was painful. It kept failing to connect and/or causing the app to crash. After a good 30 minutes of trying, I gave up. I tried restarting my phone and even using a different phone. Nothing worked. The buds were paired and working well on my phone. They just did not want to connect to the app.

They somehow magically connected the next day and I excitedly went to the options to find…. a barebone feature set. Not even a widget.

Your preferences may vary, but I like toying around with different features and settings. The only thing the Creative App brings to the table are equalizer settings which, quite honestly, is unnecessary because the out-of-the-box sound was already so good. Other than that, it also allows you to customize the touch controls, which are also intuitive by default.

The Creative SXFI (Super X-Fi) app was thankfully a much smoother experience. Basically, Super X-Fi maps your ears to simulate a multi-speaker setup, giving you a more expansive soundscape. The setup was easy, but requires you to take selfies as part of the mapping process. Playing music with SXFI on essentially converts the already-great sound into immersive experience, which I recommend for live and concert recordings.

The only setback? You have to play the songs from your SXFI app, meaning it doesn’t work with any other app such as Spotify, YouTube, or Netflix. You NEED to have your music files stored locally on your phone, which pretty much means that I only used it for purposes of this review.

Voice calls, battery life, and Active Noise Cancellation

The earbuds have an IPX5 rating, meaning you can listen to the rhythm of the falling rain while walking in the falling rain. Creative advertises 6 hours of battery life on the earbuds, with up to 24 hours of total playtime with ANC off. In my use, I don’t think they’re too far off on that estimate.

The earbuds are also light and comfortable, with excellent fit; although that really depends on how your ears are shaped. I also appreciate the touch controls, which employ double taps to prevent accidental touches.

In terms of voice calls, each earbud contains three microphones to pick up as much of your voice as possible, while the Qualcomm Clear Voice Capture noise cancellation removes unnecessary background noise. According to the marketing material, the algorithm also adapts to the environment over time, improving the call quality the longer your call lasts.

With this in mind, I decided the acid test was making a call next to the highway. My colleague said they could “hear me okay” and had no idea that multiple cars, bikes, and busses were passing by.

There were only two notable moments where the call faltered. The brapbrapbrapbrapppp from an especially loud kapchai resulted in a hissing static sound. The algorithm also muffled my voice in moments where my voice dipped or if I didn’t speak clearly enough. Overall though, these will work spectacularly in quieter environments.

The Aurvana Ace 2’s Active Noise Cancellation is…. strange

The Qualcomm Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation on the Aurvana Ace 2 doesn’t work like any ANC I’ve tried before. Instead of a blanket drowning out of sound, it seems to let voices pass through. I’m leaning towards this being a feature, based on Qualcomm’s product website that states it “allows natural noise leak-through to allow for awareness of surroundings”.

In a weird way, the ANC functions more like a conversation enhancer. Using it on a ferry ride to Batam, the ANC cut out the engine noise and idle chatter from other passengers, but I could hear the occasional cough or the couple next to me speaking… at least until the music comes on. While I’d say the ANC is decent, it will not work as intended if you’re planning to use it without music to drown out noisy colleagues at work.

The Ambient Mode on the other hand over-amplifies sound. I started to hear the hums of the air conditioner, every scrape on the table, shuffle on the floor in over-enhanced clarity. In total silence, the earbuds filled my ears with a faint static, as if capturing the movement of air around me. Again, these are gone the moment you turn on the music, but it’s not the best Ambient Mode I’ve used.

Sound quality is the only reason to get the Creative Aurvana Ace 2

Not gonna lie, if it wasn’t for the audio quality, I would have gone back to my Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. Although I miss fiddling around with software, having widgets, and waiting for the next feature update, I can’t use them without being reminded that the Aurvana Ace 2’s sound way better.

And perhaps the lesson here for me is that earbuds should be about sound first and foremost, rather than gimmicks and software. If it works and sounds great out-of-the-box, wouldn’t that be a straight-up recommendation?

If that’s the case, then yes, get the Creative Aurvana Ace 2.