Creative Aurvana Ace 2 Review: Premium Audio Experience without a Premium Price

The wireless earbuds market is a tough one, with so many random brands churning them out every now and then, while promising active noise cancellation features with excellent sound quality at various price points, it’s tough even for us reviewers to recommend a good pair of wireless earbuds, but thankfully, the Creative Aurvana Ace 2 is an easy one if you are looking for a premium and immersive audio experience without spending a bomb.

Granted, Creative might not be at the forefront of wireless earbuds compared to ChiFi brands and other consumer electronics brands, but we have always understood how the company would rather deliver an excellent audio product that lasts a long cycle compared to the competition.

The Aurvana Ace 2 might not be the prettiest wireless earbuds, but it is unique enough to get people notice you with its semi-transparent casing on both the charging case and earbuds, I’m not a big fan of the rose gold-plated walls inside the case, but it does blend well with the charging case design.

While the Aurvana Ace 2 looks like any AirPods Pro inspired earbuds, each earbud features a dual-driver design that comprise of a xMEMS solid-state driver and a custom-tuned 10mm dynamic driver, which not only aim to deliver big and immersive sound, the former also ensures that high-frequency details are presented accurately to the listener.

The Aurvana Ace 2 also supports high quality Bluetooth streaming with support for Qualcomm aptX Lossless, though LDAC is sadly missing, but it should satisfy most listeners not unless you can differentiate every detail difference on 16-bit and 24-bit audio. On top of that, the Aurvana Ace 2 uses capacitive controls on its stems for controlling music playback, but you sadly don’t get in-ear detection which you will have to pause your playback manually every time you take them off.

To be very honest, this is a much-delayed review as I have been using it since six months ago, while I’m also spoilt with too many great sounding wireless earbuds on my table, the Aurvana Ace 2 is the default earbuds I’ll pick it up every time I want to tune into my Spotify playlist, not only details are extremely well presented on Asian pop tracks I listen to, every bass thump feels just right to get you into the mood, its acoustics and vocal presentation are particularly impressive, I can hear guitar strums on Jazz tracks with superb precision, Jacky Cheung’s vocals sounded so warm as if he’s singing right in front of me.

I have brought the Creative Aurvana Ace 2 with me on trips, it has excellent active noise cancellation that greatly reduces ambient noise in planes and trains, its ambient sound mode is better than some other earbuds I’ve tested but still not on par with the first gen AirPods Pro, as it can unintentionally make a table fan whirring noise and keyboard typing sound louder.

As for battery life, it is close to what Creative claims at 6 hours on a single charge with ANC turned off, while in most cases I have ANC turned on and can still manage around 4.5 hours before the low battery warning starts playing in my ears, the charging case offer up to 3 full charges and can be charged wirelessly on a Qi charging pad, which is a great convenience.

At US$129 (RM610), the Creative Aurvana Ace 2 is a reasonably priced pair of wireless earbuds, you are definitely paying for its unique pair of drivers that offers an immersive listening experience that only premium priced earbuds can offer, but it misses out on certain essential features, such as Quick Pairing and In-Ear detection, which should have been there and shouldn’t cost much to have them on, but overall, if you want to have a great premium audio experience without paying for a premium price, I highly recommend you give the Creative Aurvana Ace 2 a go.

Get the Creative Aurvana Ace 2 at Creative.com and Lazada.