Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi review: Solid earbuds at a good price

Creative never fails to put out products that are incredibly value for money, and the new Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi is no exception. Building on a great foundation from the Aurvana Ace 2, the Aurvana Ace Mimi also uses all-silicon, solid-state xMEMS drivers, but it pairs that hardware with a sound personalisation feature powered by Mimi – a company that specialises in sound personalisation and hearing test apps.

The TL;DR version:



The Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi sounds great thanks to the xMEMS drivers inside, as well as the sound personalisation feature helping to fill in any gaps in the wearer's hearing.



Note: You can find the Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi at the official Creative online store.

This allows the earbuds to use a hearing test to detect frequencies that might be affected by hearing loss, and customise sound profiles such that the wearer’s possible hearing loss is compensated for. Perhaps you’re thinking, “I’m still young and I don’t have any hearing loss, how could this possibly benefit me?”. Well, hearing loss doesn’t just come with age, and we’ll dive more into that later in our review of these S$189 earbuds.

Design and comfort

Looks-wise, the Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi is incredibly similar to the previous flagship, the Aurvana Ace 2. The main visual difference is that the case is now clad in dark blue plastic rather than the smoky translucent plastic used in the Aurvana Ace 2. Personally, I much prefer this colourway.

Inside, the glossy bronze interior has been switched to a shiny dark grey which keeps the case sleek and not too eye-catching. The earbuds also use the same dark blue plastic, and it’s excellent since the matte finish keeps the earbuds clean and free from fingerprints and oil smudges. However, this plastic material might not be the most durable, especially if you’re prone to dropping your belongings often.

The earbuds and case are very lightweight, at just 4.7g for each earbud and 37.2g for the charging case, resulting in a total weight of 46.6g. These earbuds sit snugly in the ear and are comfortable to wear even for prolonged periods of around 5 to 6 hours.

The stem design is quite prevalent on most of Creative’s true wireless products in the last few years, and the touch controls are all clustered around the top half of the stem. You’ll want to download the Creative App to access all the Aurvana Ace Mimi’s features, as well as touch control customisation and firmware updates. We’ll talk more about the app in just a bit.

The earbuds have an IPX5 water resistance rating, which means it’s perfectly safe to use these earbuds in light rain or even splash a little water on them. However, you’ll want to avoid places like the beach where sand might get into them. 

Features

Unlike other Creative earbuds, the Aurvana Ace Mimi doesn’t have the company’s signature spatial SXFI technology. Instead, these earbuds seem more focused on providing great sound that works by essentially filling in the gaps in the frequency response that your ears might not be able to hear so well. This is a rather smart move in our opinion, since Creative already has many other earbuds that support the SXFI technology and the company doesn’t need yet another one in the lineup. 

Once you download the Creative App and connect the Aurvana Ace Mimi, it’s quite simple to set up. On the page, you get four features to choose from. First, there’s Equaliser, which gives you control over 10 bands from 31Hz to 16kHz, or you could just choose from a long list of EQ presets. 

Then, there’s Ambient Control where you can choose the intensity of the Active Noise Cancellation and Ambient Mode features. The ANC works quite well to block out environmental noise and commuting noise, but it does fall short when wind noise is introduced. Even just having a fan gently blowing wind at me caused a noticeable buzz in the background. Ambient mode is pretty good, especially at the max level. It actually amplifies the noise around you instead of just letting it in. The clacking of my mechanical keyboard is a bit sharper and more noticeable than usual when listening in Ambient mode. 

Then, there’s Personalisation, and this is where the magic happens. You’ll have to find a quiet area to do the test, and it really has to be quiet because the app will pause the test if noise levels are too high. Once you’re done with the hearing test, the app will show you a graph that indicates which frequencies require a bit of a boost and by how much.

Hearing loss doesn’t just happen because one gets old. One can get mild hearing loss simply by constantly being in loud places such as bars, clubs, concert venues and even just by listening to music at loud volumes. Most of us will have our hearing affected to some degree, it’s just a fact of life.

However, we do have to emphasise that the Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi is not intended to be a hearing aid and doesn't have the same sort of hearing aid feature that the Apple AirPods Pro 2 does. The Mimi sound personalisation only applies to music and voice calls, and does not apply to the ambient mode function.

Crucially, the sound with personalisation turned on is much better, it feels a little more spacious and vocals sound richer and more intimate. There’s no doubt it’s filling in some gaps in my hearing (the biggest gap seems to be a 10db loss in the lower mids, which isn’t too bad).

Lastly, there’s the Custom Buttons option where you can edit the touch controls. There’s a good range of options to choose from for the double and triple taps, but long taps are limited to just volume controls.

The Aurvana Ace Mimi is a little special, since they actually support Auracast. Auracast, in case you didn’t know, is a relatively new technology that beams out audio streams from a source device like a TV, and it allows earbuds and headphones to “connect” to these audio streams. This means multiple devices can tune into a source.

So if you’ve ever gone to a sports bar and struggled to hear the commentators over the noise, Auracast might be what you wished you had then. Or if you’re at a museum and you want to tune into a specific language’s audio stream, you could connect with your own earbuds instead of the tour headset that’s commonly provided. Sadly, this technology is still quite rare to see but you’ll be able to scan for broadcasts from the Creative app and connect if there’s one nearby.

On the subject of connectivity, the earbuds support Bluetooth 5.3 and the SBC, AAC, LC3 and high-res LDAC codecs, which is nice. Creative claims the Aurvana Ace Mimi will last up to 7 hours on a single charge, with another 3 charges in the case for a total of 28 hours. With ANC turned on, I did manage to get close to 6 hours on a single charge, which is decent but nothing extraordinary. The case can be charged wirelessly or with USB-C.

Wireless and audio performance

Inside, the earbuds have a dual-driver design, pairing the xMEMS driver with a traditional 10mm dynamic driver. We tested these earbuds with the sound personalisation on, since that’s the main selling feature for this product and most people who buy these earbuds will probably do the hearing test and personalise the sound signature.

Right off the bat, it’s noticeable that the left-right separation is very good, with accurate instrument isolation and imaging.

The earbuds are very detailed and precise, able to pick up small details that might otherwise be lost in the mix. There’s a prominent bass emphasis, which can be a bit overwhelming in bass-heavy songs like Bad Guy by Billie Eilish or The Hills by The Weeknd. This can be tweaked in the equaliser function if a bass-heavy response isn’t desired.

The midrange is handled quite deftly, guitar strums are clear and distinct with nice body and texture. There’s nice breathiness in vocals, but it doesn’t impact the clarity and timbre.

Treble is the highlight of these earbuds, with shimmery layers when cymbals and wind instruments are present. High-pitched female vocals are excellent with plenty of energy and sparkle while making sure there’s no sibilance or distortion.

We also tested playing music with the personalisation turned off, and the sound signature was about the same, just with a little less impact in the bass and a slightly flatter overall sound.

Our Take

The Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi is a worthy follow-up to the Aurvana Ace 2, with really good sound thanks to the xMEMS driver and the Mimi sound personalisation feature. The battery life is merely average, but the ANC and Ambient mode work well. Its S$189 asking price is therefore reasonable. Yes, you can nitpick at the materials, but consider that other "affordably-priced" flagship-class earbuds like the Nothing Ear (S$229) and LG Tone Free T90S (S$299) cost more and don't really offer much over the Creative and it's hard to come to any conclusion other than, yes, Creative has successfully given us another set of earbuds that offer tremendous bang for the buck.

If you are shopping for earbuds on a budget, you must shortlist the Aurvana Ace Mimi.

Note: The Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi is priced at S$189 and is available for purchase at the official Creative online store.

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