ZDNET’s key takeaways
- The Inventive Aurvana Ace 2 headphones can be found now for $149.99.
- These earbuds are game-changing and sound higher than any pair I’ve ever tried.
- The one con is that it took me some time to get them to attach with my Pixel 8 Professional. (Seems the earbuds need to be out of the case earlier than you pair them.)
For some time now, my go-to earbuds have been the Denon PerL Pros. The sound these infants ship is wealthy and thrilling, stuffed with simply the correct amount of bass and treble and an ideal mix of midrange.
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However that point on the prime of the mountain may very well be coming to an finish, because of the Creative Aurvana Ace 2 earbuds. These new units make use of xMEMS speaker know-how to ship a readability of sound I’ve by no means heard in a pair of earbuds.
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Creative’s Aurvana Ace 2 earbuds
These earbuds punch way above their weight and well into audiophile territory.
Behind this sound are the brand new xMEMS drivers, that are solid-state semiconductor MEMS audio system. MEMS stands for Micro-Electromechanical System and incorporates each transferring and non-moving electronics, in addition to transferring mechanical bits to supply sound. For the Aurvana Ace 2 earbuds, the transferring piece of the equation is a tiny silicon membrane that creates sound when an electrical sign is handed by way of it.
The benefit of MEMS know-how is that these drivers can produce the next frequency response vary, can shift from one sound to a different with exponentially quicker pace, and are much more sturdy than conventional drivers. Meaning they’ll produce increased highs and decrease lows, accomplish that quicker, and last more whereas doing it. On prime of that, MEMS audio system are IP58 rated, which suggests they’re totally dustproof and waterproof.
In different phrases, these earbuds can take a beating and carry on treating (your ears to superb sound).
However do they ship on that promise?
Heck yeah.
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Significantly, I used to be totally ready to name xMEMS a gimmick and say, “Good attempt.” In the long run, I got here out a believer, and the Aurvana Ace 2 earbuds impressed me in methods I by no means thought doable for a pair priced at $150.
The specs
In case you’re curious, this is the specs for the earbuds:
- Frequency Response – 5–40,000 Hz
- Working frequency – 2402–2480 MHz
- Noise management – Adaptive Hybrid Energetic Noise Cancellation, Ambient Mode
- Whole battery life – as much as 24 hours with a playtime of as much as 6 hours
- Weight – 1.64 oz
- Driver – xMEMS solid-state driver, 10 mm dynamic driver
- Audio Codec – LC3, AptX Lossless, AptX Adaptive, AptX, AAC, SBC
- Mics – 3 omnidirectional with a sensitivity ranking of 1 kHz – 38 dBV/Pa
- Management – customizable contact management (through the Inventive app)
- Siri/Google Assistant assist – sure
- Water resistance – IPX5
- Connectivity – Bluetooth 5.3
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One of many extra vital specs is the frequency response. You will not discover many earbuds able to reaching down to five Hz or as much as 40,000 Hz. That is spectacular.
My expertise
As I stated, I wasn’t anticipating to be blown away by a pair of $150 earbuds, however wow, was I ever. The primary piece of music I performed was the Godzilla -1 unique rating, and I had by no means heard such large sounds out of a pair of earbuds. These sound extra like over-the-ear headphones than tiny earbuds. And it did not matter what style of music I performed by way of the Aurvana Ace 2 earbuds, they had been able to producing stunning, superb symphonic sounds all the way in which to hard-hitting, crunchy distortion, with out lacking a beat.
One piece of music that was significantly spectacular was the reside model of Zeppelin’s Kashmir from the 2007 O2 Area present. Listening to that made me really feel as if I used to be proper there on the present. Even the Denon PerL Professionals weren’t able to producing such correct, agile sounds with a large sufficient area to make it really feel as entrance and middle as doable.
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These earbuds will get into your head in methods you can not imagine. And the depths of bass they’ll plumb is about as spectacular a factor as I’ve ever heard from such a small gadget.
These earbuds provide the smoothness of audiophile-quality bookshelf audio system and feed it instantly into your ears for an expertise in contrast to something you’ve got ever heard.
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I would sound as if I am overselling it…however I am not. With reference to sound, I am about as choosy as they arrive. The Creative Aurvana Ace 2 earbuds have reset the bar for me, and I can’t think about one other gadget knocking the crown off their head.
In case you’re searching for some seriously-special sound in a really small package deal, you can not go mistaken with the Inventive Aurvana Ace 2.