Ice Lab Prismatica Review: Do You Want The “Storm”?
The IEM market is falling into a mannerism. The portable audiophile market itself is getting smaller too as Airpods and TWS earphones started to dominate the outdoor music listeners. This perhaps sped up the IEM companies to shorten the product life cycle, as well as adding more and more drivers, and as many different types of drivers as possible in one earphone to attract attention.
This is perhaps why the traditional 1DD or full-BA setup IEMs are not as easy to find as before. Sure, using newer technologies and drivers (such as hybrid planer drivers and EST drivers) definitely has its own advantages – yet this doesn’t mean that the absence of these drivers doesn’t lead to disadvantages in performance.
Good examples are our good old Sennheiser, our loyal 1DD believer DITA (although they’ve recently made their first hybrid but still… it’s just a project-based special product), our recently reviewed Horizon Doom, and Ice Lab. Who might ask who Ice Lab is… so let me introduce it to you – as well as their newest IEM, the Prismatica.
Prismatica uses a 5BA setup which is a classic move just like using a single DD nowadays. Some might say it’s boring and or “too common”, which I’ve also thought sometime before. However, it’s the sound that changed the perception or perhaps the stereotypes that I had towards full-BAs. Starting with a brief introduction of Ice Lab themselves, today we’ll review Pristmatica – a 5BA flagship priced at $880, also the prime mover for Ice Lab to start gaining attention within the local market as well as abroad.
Ice Lab: They’ve Been Cultivating for a decade…
Ice Lab is a Hong Kong brand that’s been in the audiophile scene for quite almost a decade now, yet stayed surprisingly unknown to the outside world as they’ve been strictly serving the Hong Kong market only. Ice, the founder of Ice Lab, has been manufacturing his own earphone and cable products proprietarily, hence Ice Lab was the type of brand that was familiar to the locals for its guaranteed services and qualities, yet kept secret from the outside world for so long, as the manpower weren’t enough to cover other countries… until recently.
A Special Gold Variant! (Prismatica Gold; Already Sold Out)
Ice Lab started to gain awareness recently not only because they are now ready to go abroad but also because Prismatica was exceptionally good. Some friends might have already encountered or experienced their products including Prismatica as Ice Lab now started to establish overseas agents as well as joining overseas shows such as Canjam NYC and Canjam SG. As a celebration of Ice Lab’s success through Prismatica, a special Prismatica Gold was released which was limited to 18pcs and was also quickly sold out. Anyhow, talk the talk, let’s get into the actual review.
The Wholesome Packaging
Prismatica comes in a roomy black packaging box. Once removed the outer sleeve reveals the windowed inner box that displays the IEMs as well as the case. Opening up this inner lid shows all the accessories and including. Other than the earphones, Prismatica comes with the following materials:
- Metal carrying case
- Leather cable strap (with a keyring)
- 4.4mm custom-grade stock cable
- 3 pairs of Symbio Mandarin silicone tips
- 3 pairs of Symbio Mandarin Silicone-Foam Hybrid tips
- 2 pairs of Foam tips
- Ice Lab Micro fabric cloth
- Metal Warranty Card
Earpieces: Full Metal Jacket
Prismatica is a 5BA IEM, but not any 5BA IEM. Ice Lab introduces their 5BA setup to be the “Prismatica Kaleidoscope” in-ear monitors, which has deterred the usual limitations or drawbacks of a full-BA setup, as well as using 5BA, providing a 360-degree spherical surround soundstage. Below is brief information on Prismatica’s specifications.
- 1 x Knowles ultra-low-frequency driver
- 2 x Sonion composite ultra-high-frequency drivers
- 2 x Full-range drivers
- Crossover: 3-way PTBC
Applying Ice Lab’s exclusive PTBC crossover technology to Knowles Ultra-low BA woofers and Sonion Compound High-frequency tweeters allows Prismatica to have performance that surpasses or is equivalent to using dynamic drivers and EST drivers. Prismatica is also introduced to feature ACG’s strongest dynamic bass, and all of these proprietary tuning and technology are housed in fine-machined aluminum housing.
Although I’ve wished to gain further details about the proprietary technologies, Ice Lab insisted on not disclosing all of the recipes behind their tuning. Well, we know the essential specs and it’s the sound that matters all for us as the customers, so we’ll leave it there. The earpieces are
Custom-grade, Proprietary Stock Cable
Prismatica comes with a custom-grade stock cable. The 24.6AWG thickness wires are made of silver-plated copper and LCOFC (Long Crystal Oxygen-Free Copper). The thickness of this cable is just about the average level, if not slightly thinner. The wires are very soft and pliable, not causing any microphonics or touch noises.
All parts are finished with lightweight CNC metal, yet they don’t make the cables necessarily heavy. It’s not a type of cable that you could freely use while running but commuting and using outdoors for general purposes would be just fine. There are silver metal tubes that could spin around on the plugs and Y-splits, which is an interesting gimmick.
Next Page: Sound Impressions of Prismatica