If ALL you care about is sound quality at an affordable price, don't sleep on the Aurvanas
Prime Day purchase. I found the Creative Aurvana Ace (*not* the Ace 2\*) renewed for $35. Because I wanted to try the xMEMS drivers, how could I not.
Well, I've been using them for a few hours, and I gotta say, if all you care about is sound quality, price, and comfort, these should be on top of every list. For many situations, they sound as good or even better than my Technics AZ100s, for 25% (or in my case 10%) of the price. Maybe the shortcomings are dealbreakers for most, but if they're not, then they're a must-buy.
Quick rundown review:
Case: Small, which is nice, but otherwise crappy. The buds are really hard to get out because of the way they're seated in the case, and you have to rotate them 180 degrees to put them in your ears. Plus, the lid isn't particularly secure, and case doesn't feel the most premium. It's also really hard to put the buds in. Wireless charging, but no fast charging.
Comfort: Pretty good for me, actually. Buds feel lightweight and fill my ears, but not uncomfortably so.
App: Mid. Few features. You CAN'T program any single presses on the buds, so you're restricted to double, triple, and hold. I know that prevents accidental presses when adjusting the buds, but at least give us the option. The EQ is quite nice though. 10 Band with a dozen or so presents and fully customizable. And at least it's called "Creative" (which is easier to search for than "Audio Connect" when I'm looking for my Technics app, or "Smart Control Plus," which is what I have to search for when I want to use my Sennheiser Momentum TW4s).
Battery life: Advertised as 6 hours (with no ANC). That's not going to be enough for most people. I've not done real-world testing but I'm cautious. Lack of fast charging makes this worse.
ANC: because I have the "cheap" model, no adaptive ANC here. It seems OK but far from the super ANC you get from something like the liberty 4 pro. Highs (like me typing on my mechanical keyboard) come in very easily with hardly any cancellation. Lows are cancelled... less than OK. Ambient mode is actually pretty good on the middle level, letting in the sound without too much distortion. I'd say that my AZ100s (which aren't known as ANC masters) are slightly better at ANC, and are about the same for ambient mode.
Mic: Not tested (I'll get to why in a second). Aaron's test shows that they're pretty good, relative to the competition. [https://youtu.be/NkIGkyDcBvs?si=Ev84j4dUmaWxz\_yO&t=382](https://youtu.be/NkIGkyDcBvs?si=Ev84j4dUmaWxz_yO&t=382)
Sound: The reason we're here. They sound amazing. SoundGuys gave them one of the highest scores ever, and I have to agree. The xMEMS drivers provide such precise output, especially above \~ 1 kHz. You can really hear every single pluck of a string, or exactly how a singer is breathing. They create a wide, open, clear soundstage, especially when playing Atmos content from Apple music (without unnecessary fake reverb). And it's clear and detailed--it's not sparkly, tinny, or sibilant. (You can get it to sparkle if you like with EQ, but that's a little too much for me). Instrument separation is divine. On Yosi Horikawa's "Bubbles," for example, you can hear each different drop of each different type of ball surrounding your sound field. They're a little bass heavy and can get a little boomy with a little too much bleed depending on the track and music style, but if you like a V-shaped signature, you'll probably enjoy the boom. Or you can pretty easily EQ it out. Of course, the bass it's as precise as the treble, but that's a small issue. I've been doing a few A-B tests, and in like 75% of the songs/pieces I've been listening to, their sound rivals my AZ100s (which are far and away my favorite buds that I own), and maybe even exceed them. The AZ100s slightly more controlled bass gives a more balanced, while still warm, sound, but man listening to these is a joy.
**PROBLEMS:** (1) NO multipoint connection! That's a real bummer for me, since I'd like to use the buds to play music from my phone and then to be my mics on Teams meetings on my computer. Once you start using that feature, it's sad to miss it (especially for buds with an MSRP of $150 and a new "regular" price of $75). (2) As I said above, NO single-click option on the buds (fine if you have another easy control, like the CMF Buds Pro 2 and their click wheel, but a real bummer otherwise). (3) NO auto-sensing stop if you take the buds out of your ears (and in fact just the act of taking them out is likely to affect the volume). (4) As another reviewer noted, if you hold them wrong when you're putting them in your ear, the mics will feedback and squeal. I've not had that happen when they're close to my ears *yet*, but I suspect it will. (5) As much as I like AptX, one of the bummer of AptX Adaptive is that you can't control the bitrate at all. I'd probably prefer some dropouts to the software bumping the rate so low that it sounds like AM radio, and that's happened once or twice.
So there you have it. They're by far my favorite sub-$50 earbuds I've ever tried And even at the $60-75 range their sound quality exceeds anything else in the class. If I'm going somewhere where I know I want really good sound quality, won't need tons of ANC, know I won't need all-day power without a boost, and might be afraid of losing or damaging my AZ100s, I'm bringing these. I might spring for the Ace 2 just to have AptX Lossless to force a high quality signal, but I'm not disappointed at my $35 miracles.
\* The only difference between the Ace and Ace 2, as far as I can tell, is that they have a cooler, gold case, have adaptive ANC, and allow you to choose between AptX Adaptive and AptX Lossless, and the regular Ace doesn't haver Lossless).