Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi review: Is Mimi worth the upgrade?

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I’m not gonna lie. When I first heard the name, I thought the Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi was some cutesy sailor moon reskin of the Aurvana Ace 2. I was expecting a glittery pink version of the Ace 2’s translucent case (which I love!), but then I got this:

As it turns out, the Mimi in the name comes from Creative’s partnership with Mimi Hearing Technologies, a company that specializes in sound personalization technology. Basically, you take a hearing test and get a personalized sound profile that’s tailored specifically to your ears.

It sounds like magic, but…

How does Mimi work?

One thing I have to point out is that I’m going to make a lot of comparisons with the Creative Aurvana Ace 2. This is because the Mimi isn’t a successor to the Ace 2, but an iteration of it.

Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi vs Aurvana Ace 2 — I wish they kept the design elements from the Aurvana Ace 2 though.

Credit where its due, Mimi isn’t the only thing Creative adds to the Ace 2’s younger sibling. The company kept what makes the Ace 2 amazing, and improved on elements that set it back.

For instance, it retains the xMEMS solid-state drivers that gives the Ace 2 it’s signature sound quality. But it also swaps out the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset to improve universal compatibility – especially with iPhones and China-branded phones.

On paper, this looks like a downgrade. Gone are the Snapdragon AptX features like lossless audio. In its place is LDAC, which is still high quality audio, but not lossless. However, I happen to use a Snapdragon-chipped phone in my review of both the Ace 2 and the Mimi and didn’t notice the… well, loss.

In fact, the Mimi sounds better.

Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi Sound Personalization — You can also choose to lower or increase the level of sound personalization.

First up, getting your sound profile involves a little bit of effort on your end. You need to give it:

10-15 minutes of your undivided attention
A quiet room

Once you start the process on the Creative App, you’ll be listening to a spectrum of beeps and boops with the single instruction of lifting your finger only when you can no longer hear the sound. It’s actually pretty easy.

How does the Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi actually sound?

And, wow. That xMEMS driver still delivers the impressive soundstage. It still delivers that vocal clarity, and that strong (but not overwhelming) bass. But it does it better.

Based on my sound profile, years of blasting industrial metal seems to have sheared off my ability to hear higher frequencies. Having Mimi enabled adjusts these frequencies to creates a sound profile that’s just pleasing to hear. To call back what I wrote about the Ace 2:

“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.”

With the Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi, I’m not only just hearing those Spanish guitars. Yes, there’s instrumental separation, but they’ve become a part of this layered soundstage; further enhancing the cohesion of the track. While I can further tune the sound with the Equalizer, I didn’t see any need to.

So next I’m thinking, “What if this is some marketing gimmick?”. I mean, it could very well be an auditory placebo effect. To test it out, I passed them to my partner and played her favorite track with my personalized settings. Her verdict was a slightly unenthusiastic “They sound alright“.

After convincing her to take the sound profile test, a second listen led to an “Oooooooh” of impressed admiration that I don’t hear all that much for myself

ANC and Call quality on the Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi

I’ve long been testing the robustness of ANC using the WTF test – or the Wesley Throttle Factor. My colleague Wesley has the auditory self-awareness of an auntie at a wedding whispering how fat the bride is. She’s still loud – just breathier – and has no idea why everyone is staring at her.

The ANC on the Mimi is only an improvement depending on your preference. While the Adaptive ANC on the Ace 2 inadvertently made me only hear Wesley, the Mimi’s ANC takes the more traditional approach of muting sound in general. But in this aspect, it only does an okay job. It mutes out low-frequency hums, but I can still hear Wesley when he’s not even at his loudest. Similarly, I can still hear traffic when I’m next to a highway.

However, transparency mode is much improved over the Ace 2. The pass-through sounds a lot more natural without that overamplified robotic distortion.

The levels of ANC and transparency are adjustable within the Creative app and I had them maxed out for this test. Overall, my scores would be:

ANC WTF: 4.5/10
Transparency: 6/10

Similarly, call quality on the Mimi isn’t affected by the loss of Qualcomm’s Clear Voice Capture – if caller feedback is anything to go by. Both sides have no issues hearing each other, and I am still reliably audible in noisy environments.

How is the Mimi in day-to-day use?

Call me shallow, but my only resistance to replacing the Ace 2 with the Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi as my daily driver is the design. I wish Creative kept that translucent look on the Mimi because, man, those things are beautiful to look at.

But earbuds are for listening so, in the end, I’ve been carrying the Mimi with me for the past 2 months.

In terms of build and interface, the Mimi is exactly identical to the Ace 2. It’s still an excellent fit in my ears without fatigue. Creative also employs customizable double-triple-long tap touch controls on the stems which prevents accidental input.

Somehow, they managed to squeeze in an extra hour of battery in to the earbuds (up to 7 hours) and 4 hours into the case (28 hours). I find myself remembering to charge the case more often than it actually needs charging.

Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi wireless charging — The case also supports wireless charging.

Bluetooth latency is also lower on the Mimi. Mouth movements in video sync up much better, and they can be used for a game of Overwatch 2 or CS2 in a pinch.

Software support for the Mimi is where Creative really pulled through, at least on Android. My biggest complaint with the Ace 2 was getting it to work with the Creative app. Thankfully, the experience with the Mimi has been smooth, from setup to sound personalization, and reliable connection.

One thing to note though, there’s no on-board memory on the earbuds. This means that if you’re using a Mac, you’re not going to experience that Mimi magic. I believe this is more an effect of Apple’s walled garden than anything else, but Creative says they’re working on improving the Mac app. In the meantime, my workaround involves routing the music through my phone using Spotify Connect.

Should you get the Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi?

If you’re looking for something within the RM500 – RM700 price range then yes, the Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi is a strong contender at US$130 (~RM607).

If the music is all that’s important to you, then I’d recommend the Mimi. But if ANC/Transparency and software support is more important, then are definitely some better options out there.

At this price, you’re also getting additional features such as SXFI (spatial holography), Auracast (multiple point Bluetooth connections), and wireless charging on the case. To me, the main value proposition is really on not having to fiddle around with the EQ settings. All you need to do is take a simple hearing test, and you’re given the best possible sound these things are capable of.

And I think that alone makes up the price.