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I am always equally excited by, and skeptical of, new technology. I’ve been doing this job for quite a while, and the list of cool-but-failed tech grows longer every year. As interesting as some new development is, what matters most is how it’s implemented. If the actual product ends up being more expensive, lower performing, or just mediocre, maybe the new technology wasn’t actually that great to begin with. It just seemed, or was marketed, that way.
Which is where I’m coming from with MEMS, or micro-electromechanical systems. These solid-state “drivers on a chip” are making their way into mainstream products, most recently in these Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi earphones ($129.99, all prices USD). They’re interesting enough that I checked out the company that makes the drivers, xMEMS, at CES.
The Aurvana Ace Mimis aren’t the first Creative earbuds to use xMEMS drivers, but they are the first to also include Mimi personalized EQ. They also have noise canceling, Bluetooth 5.3, and a claimed 28 hours of battery life. They are also IPX5-rated. Interestingly, they drop the aptX support found in the slightly older, and when new, more expensive, Aurvana Ace 2 earphones. They do support the LDAC and LC3 codecs if you crave better sound than AAC or SBC. Paired with the MEMS driver is a 10mm dynamic driver. The case even has wireless charging. Which is to say, it’s an interesting package for the price—as long as they sound good.
In the box
With the Aurvana Ace Mimis you get a soft pouch, a USB-C-to-USB-A charging cable, and five pairs of silicone eartips, ranging from extra small to extra large. I always appreciate a greater variety of eartip sizes, since I often feel stuck between sizes when there are only small, medium, and large.
Use
The earbud-plus-tail design isn’t loved by everyone, but for my ears, they often fit better than all-earbud designs. I can see why listeners with longer hair or who wear earrings might disagree. The case is small and all curves, easily fitting in a pocket among whatever else you’ve got in there.
Creative Labs’ Creative app covers a wide variety of its products, but despite not having any images of headphones in the screenshots on the App or Play stores, it is the right app. It’s easy to navigate with big, colorful buttons. In the settings, you can enable low-latency mode if you want to use the Aces for gaming, and LDAC if your device supports that Bluetooth codec.
The headline feature, of course, is the Mimi personalization. Annoyingly, you need to sign up to use this feature. Once you do that, the test takes about four minutes. You hold an on-screen button when you hear a series of descending and ascending tones. The app asks you to be in a quiet environment before you start, and it does mean quiet, since the tones themselves are played softly to more effectively test your hearing.
Once done, you get a graphical representation of your hearing acuity for each ear, as well as the ability to hear what your personalized EQ sounds like while listening to some music and effects. Once back in the app proper, you can not only toggle this EQ but also vary its intensity with Softer, Recommended, and Richer options. You can retake the test whenever you want.
For me, and I assume most of you, the result is a small boost in the treble frequencies. Assuming you’ve taken care of your ears through your life, age-related high-frequency loss is normal. If you haven’t taken care of your ears, you might have more loss at more frequencies. The personalized EQ sounds like you’ve turned up the treble a little. I’m pretty neutral on personalized EQs, since fortunately for me, the end result isn’t that different. It’s also not much different from getting earphones that have a little more treble to begin with or just adjusting any app’s EQ. That said, it does give the earbuds a different sound, one that’s likely closer to “neutral” than you could get on your own.
Sound
Since you’re not in my head (lucky you), I did my main listening tests without the personalized EQ. I found the Ace Mimis to have clear mids and treble, with a nicely fast transient response. There was a little less deep bass than I typically like, but there was enough bass overall. So, these are fairly well-balanced earbuds, especially for the price.
Something worth noting: enabling ANC dramatically changed the sound. It significantly increased the bass, making it a bloaty, muddy mess. If this were how these ’phones sounded normally, I’d give them a 4/10—it was that bad. Hopefully, this is something Creative can fix with an app or firmware update. If you want to look at it another way, the ANC isn’t great, so it doesn’t add much. It takes a bit of the roar out of airplane noise, but not a ton.
There were occasionally other app-interaction issues as well, with the EQ preset “sticking” so I could hear the EQ even if I turned it off or changed it. Putting the Aurvanas back in their case then taking them out seemed to solve this issue. They’re only a few weeks old as of this writing, so hopefully Creative can get the bugs worked out.
With “Ventura Highway” by America (Homecoming, 24-bit/192kHz FLAC, Rhino Entertainment / Qobuz), the acoustic guitars in the intro were brilliantly smooth and clear, and seemed to appear well out over my shoulders. There wasn’t as much high treble extension—“air” so to speak—as I’ve heard, but that’s not really a complaint. The vocals were dead center, though their lower registers were a slight step back from the higher harmonies and guitars. The bass guitar was enough to fill out the sound, but was clearly a supporting character to the treble. To elaborate on an earlier point, when I turned on ANC, it sounded like the bassist had cranked up his amp to 11, and the amp could barely handle it. I like bass, but this was not good bass. Too much, and more “bad car subwoofer” than “best rave you’ve ever been to.”
On “The Twist” by Frightened Rabbit (The Midnight Organ Fight, 16/44.1 FLAC, FatCat Records / Qobuz), there was great immediacy to the cymbals, hi-hat, and tambourine. When the guitars and the rest of the band came in, Scott Hutchison’s voice didn’t get lost. There was plenty of growl with the guitars as well.
With something more bass-centric, like Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Beach House” (The Loneliest Time, 24/48 FLAC, Silent Records / Qobuz), the stars of the show were the percussion and guitars, along with the bass. People who hate bass would probably say there’s too much. I found it just right. It’s worth noting that it’s easier to reduce a frequency than boost it. Basically, I’d describe the Aurvana Ace Mimis as having a “smile” sonic profile, with the outer edges rolled off a little. I think most people would like it.
Comparison
Given their performance, it made sense to compare the Ace Mimis to slightly higher-end earbuds. The Edifier NeoBuds S earbuds ($179.99) are among my favorites. They have a plethora of bass for sure, but the treble is excellent as well. With “1979” by the Smashing Pumpkins (Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, 24/96 FLAC, Virgin Records / Qobuz), the Edifiers had better low bass, and of course a lot more of it. The lower mids were fuller too. While certainly present, the snare and hi-hat lacked some of the immediacy they had via the Aurvanas. I still liked the NeoBuds’ bass better, but it is a lot. The Aurvanas are better balanced while still having that “smile” to their sound profile.
I didn’t love the Beats Studio Buds+ earbuds ($169.99), but they’re surprisingly well balanced for a company that made its name with bass-heavy headphones. That legacy is all but forgotten with their modern offerings. If anything, they’ve pivoted in the other direction. One thing they have going for them is the design—the Buds+ earbuds are absolutely tiny. They practically disappear into your ears. If you have big ears, maybe they would. In the fourth movement, “Hoe-Down,” of Aaron Copland’s ballet Rodeo, with Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic (Copland: Rodeo & Billy the Kid, 24/192 FLAC, Sony Classical / Qobuz), the Beats had strong midrange and treble, but barely enough bass to give this track the power it should have. The brass instruments were bordering on brittle. The treble wasn’t bad, but not great either—it sounded artificial. With the Aurvanas, the trumpets and wood blocks were more noticeable, and there was more bass. The brass sounded more realistic as well, and the strings less harsh. Which is to say, the Beats+ earbuds sound like what you’d expect in this price range. The Aurvanas sound better than that.
Conclusion
I’m a little disappointed with the app issues, since they sour what would otherwise be some excellent earbuds for the price. Looking around at some other reviews I’ve found online (and there weren’t many at the time of this writing, since these are quite new), it seems most people haven’t noticed these issues, but their conclusions about the sound tell me they were listening entirely with ANC on.
The app can be fixed, and hopefully it will be, because the hardware is great. The tuning is very well balanced for $130 earbuds, and if the clarity and fast transient response turns out to be a hallmark of MEMS drivers, I’m excited about the possibilities.
So I recommend the Aurvana Ace Mimis . . . with some caveats. If Creative can work out the bugs, these ’phones would be a fantastic bargain.
. . . Geoffrey Morrison
Associated Equipment
- Smartphone: Google Pixel 9 Pro
Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi earphones
Price: $129.99
Warranty: One year
Creative Labs
31 International Business Park #03-01
Creative Resource Singapore
609921, Singapore
Website: www.creative.com
