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Cutting Edge Tech: Creative Aurvana Ace 2 xMEMS Earbuds -- DEMO & REVIEW
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Sep 20, 2024
There's lots to like about the stylish design and cool features of the Creative Aurvana Ace 2 TWS Earbuds, but what really stands out is the inclusion of xMEMS drivers. These are an entirely new technology that don't require magnets, and, as audio expert and tech reviewer Dave Taylor points out, they sound great! This review includes a demo of the Creative app and a sample mic recording so you can hear how the 6-mic pickup works. Check it out at: https://amzn.to/4ew1DPL Visit Dave's Q&A Web site at: https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ #creative #aurvana #aurvanaace2 #ace2 #xmems #askdavetaylor
View Transcript
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These earbuds have a totally different driver technology
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Let's check them out. Dave Taylor here, and I'm checking out these
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These are the Creative Arvana Ace 2, and they are really interesting
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Number one, perhaps most strikingly, is the translucent case, which makes them look really cool
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But it's what's inside this little earbud that's so fascinating. This is an XMEMS solid state driver
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So it's a micro electromechanical system. So it doesn't have any magnets
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And one of the big benefits of XMEMS is that it is far, far more
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responsive than standard magnet drivers. So one would think with earbuds made with this technology, it's
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going to have a really nice, super responsive sound, and it really
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does have a nice sound. But let's get there. So this has 10 millimeter dynamic drivers, but remember, they're
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XMEMS drivers, so they're not exactly comparable to other earbuds that have more traditional sound generation technology
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Adaptive ANC, and it's a six hours. The earbuds work six hours on a charge, and then the case, which
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is that translucent plus a cool copper color. This gives you three more charges for 24 hours total playback
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IPX5 water resistant. They use Bluetooth 5.3, and they also have the ability to work with
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Bluetooth LE audio. That needs a device that supports that, and we don't know how many
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devices out there actually have that technology in them. It's called Unicast mode
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It's up and coming. Suffice to say, I use these with my iPhone 15 Pro, and it worked
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just perfectly. They support aptX lossless and all the lower versions of aptX and
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AAC, which is why they worked so well with my iPhone, and SBC, and
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they have three microphones on each earbud. So in total, you have six microphones when you have these in your
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ears, so you get really good voice pickup, and I'm going to
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demonstrate that in just a second. So in the box, it includes a charging cable
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Let's see if I can get all this stuff to come out. It's a charging cable and three different sizes of ear tips, and
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they actually sent me two extra sizes of ear tips. So I have three sizes of ear tips, but actually five pairs of ear tips
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I'm not sure why. And the charging cable is USB-C, USB-A, and the ear tips are super
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easy to switch, which I appreciate. Every so often I get a pair of earbuds where it's a little bit of
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work to get it to actually switch, and that can be a little frustrating
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But even then, honestly, it's only for like the 60 seconds that
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you're struggling, and then you're done. But it is super important to try different sizes to make sure you
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get the right size for your ears, so you get not only the best fit
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and the best comfort, but you'll get the best sound, and especially
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you'll get the best active noise canceling. So let's see. It uses the Creative app, and it's a straightforward app
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I will also demonstrate that. In fact, you know what? Let's just jump into this demo
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Let's start with a voice recording. So what you're hearing now is my voice as picked up by the Arvana Ace 2
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Remember, it has six microphones, and so we should be hearing really
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pretty darn nice audio. And it also uses a technology called CVC, or Clear Voice Capture, which
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tries to reduce environmental noise. All in all, does a good job
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Now, hang on. Let me switch to the actual Creative app. So let's see
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Somewhere here. Here it is. And so it's already seen the earbuds, which is great
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And so now I can go into Equalizer, for example, and there's a bunch
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of presets. You can see my favorite is Footsteps Enhancer. Still, that must be a gaming one
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There's no question about that. I've just left it on Jazz, but you can do Flat, for example, and then
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you can see the difference here. And I can change things if I want. If I just really, really can't stand the audio at 4.6 kHz, then I can
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adjust that, or I can actually give myself a quick boost based or
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something like that. And then I can go here, and this is the easiest way to get to ANC, is
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I have ANC on. I can switch to Ambient mode, and it just said Ambient mode
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And now I can hear myself so much better than I just could a second
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ago, and I can just turn ANC off. So I can just turn it off entirely
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Ambient mode is probably the way to go in some situations. And then at the very top of the stem, there's a tap surface, as is
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super common, and you can actually customize what happens when you do taps on your left or right
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I will be candid that I don't remember what I've set, so I don't
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tend to customize things like this. As long as I can tap on it and it will pause, and then I can tap on
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it, it'll play again. That's like 90% of what I want out of these, and that's pretty much everything
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If there was a firmware update, it would tell me there was an update
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right now. So there you go. A nice demo, short and sweet
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So let me take these out, because of course, the real question is
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what do they sound like? And I've got to say, they sound really darn good
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I was very surprised. Now, one of the things that people have complained about with XMEMS
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as a technology is they say, oh, it doesn't really have any low frequencies
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It's really designed for mid-range and highs. I did not experience that at all
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I will say that the music I was listening to, and I went through
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some EDM and electronica and stuff, and it was just really, really lovely
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It's a big, full sound. It's a very precise sound. I found that the highs were very listenable
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There was nothing edgy or tinny about them. There was nothing harsh about the music reproduction
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It turned it up pretty darn loud. And that bass, there was plenty of bass
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It was very enjoyable. It was a very, very embracing experience. So I got to say that these are representative of a new technology
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and it's a pretty darn interesting technology, because there's a lot going on in here
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So there's lots to like. Now, I do want to say that I found the ANC
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to be pretty good. Again, it's an adaptive ANC. So the idea of that is that as it's doing active noise cancelling
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it's also listening to your environment, and it's adjusting its own algorithms to try to maximize the noise that it removes
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And that worked pretty darn well. I don't know that it's the best ANC I've ever heard
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And in particular, I found that with voices, it wasn't great, but with the lower frequencies, as is very commonly the case
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it did a really good job. I was standing next to a speaker playing different music while
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I was listening to my music, and it actually sounded pretty darn good, and I almost couldn't hear that other source at all
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Every so often, it would creep in for a little bit, but then my music would overpower it again, and it was just a really
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nice experience. So I think Creative has got a lot right here
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I should mention, some people have said that in the pass-through mode, in that if we go into the ambient mode on the app
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some people have said that it has some harsh sounds to notify
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that things have changed. I did not experience that. That might have just been a firmware that needed to be updated
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or something, but when I got these, it did have a firmware update, and I found that all of the different modes worked great
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Obviously, I'm going to leave it on ANC, even though I know that actually has some impact on battery life, still totally
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worth it. I think these are really good earbuds. They are at a competitive price, and it's a brand new technology
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and that might make it something where you want to check them out, just so you can keep up and find out that what does it
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sound like to have music reproduction with no magnets in the loop. Pretty interesting
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Now, we need to talk about price. Before we get there, I'm going to ask you to subscribe to my
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channel. Click on that subscribe button, hit that bell icon for notifications
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Give me a thumbs up if you found this of value. I hope you did
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And then these, with the case, let's see, I'll put one in the
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case here, oops, on the correct side. So this is the Creative Arvana Ace 2, and it is $149.99, currently
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discounted down to $119.99. And there's a $20 coupon, dropping it under $99, or say, under
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$100, for really nice TWS earbuds with a cool design, and they're great comfort, good battery life, good ANC
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What's not to like here, right? Definitely ones to check out. I also want to add that Creative has another version of these
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just called the Ace instead of the Ace 2, and the primary
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difference is there is that it doesn't include lossless aptX, and it doesn't have adaptive ANC
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It still is ANC, but it's a different technology. So I think those are probably pretty darn sweet, but if it
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was me, I would upgrade to get to the Ace 2, because I think
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these are really solid, and quite possibly, this is the state of the art with XMEMS at this moment in time
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Really slick earbuds, really cool visual design. Ones to check out. That's all I got
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Hope to catch you in my next video
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