[Precogvision]

Prisma Audio is a one-man operation ran by Josh, or "Veebee" as many know him by on Discord, based out of Melbourne, Australia. The Azul is his first labor of love sporting 2BAs and clocking in at $300 USD. You can find the product page here.

Some words from the product page:

Smooth. Clean. Extended. Sometimes in life, you find that less is more, and that's the exact mindset we had when tuning Azul. Two balanced armature drivers, perfectly in sync, provide crystal clear highs and deep bass. A neutral, relaxing presentation places you in the middle of your music. A balanced soundstage keeps every instrument perfectly in place.

All this is wrapped in a precision 3D printed shell, and closed with a machined blue anodized aluminium faceplate.

And, as always, it's designed and made in Melbourne, Australia.

The product page photo:

What it looks like in real life (my photos):

I currently have MRS's unit on hand for review, but here are some early impressions:

You can see above that MRS has made some updates to the graph tool as well! Anyways, the closest point of comparison to the Azul is the ER4XR. The Azul, then, is foremost a reference monitor that aims to present sound in a clear, unadulterated manner. Some people might not know this, but I actually really dislike the ER4XR: Textureless, limp bass, compressed imaging, and pretty horrible timbre.

There's no doubt that the Azul suffers on some of these same fronts. But the Azul has a few tricks up its sleeve. It kills some of the shout, and more importantly, takes the treble in a very different direction. Those who have heard the ER4XR or ER3XR will know that they are fairly dark monitors; by contrast, the Azul has excellent treble extension with perhaps a tad too much attack incisiveness even. Something else that stands out about the Azul is its macrodynamic contrast - it doesn't sound nearly as "flat" for decibel gradations as the aforementioned IEMs - which presents itself not dissimilar to the venerable Moondrop Blessing 2.

Admittedly, I was fairly milquetoast on the Azul when I first heard it. All I heard were the hallmarks of the ER4XR, an IEM which I may respect, but again, that I do not personally like. But that's changed, and the Azul's been growing on me as I put more hours on it. I've noted this before, but the more time I spend listening to an IEM, the more critical I will be of it; in other words, the phenomenon often dubbed "burn-in" is most closely a negative one for me. A quick look at my impressions versus reviews of most IEMs will lend credence to this. Alas, the Azul has surprised me, and to me that is the tell-tale sign of a solid piece of work.

Reviews:

Prisma Azul Review - Uncolored (In-Ear Fidelity)

Prisma Azul - Hard to Hate, Hard to Love (Animus Hates Everything)

Prisma Audio - Un-neutered Neutral (eloelo on Head-Fi)

Prisma Azul Review (Audio Discourse)

Prisma Audio Azul Review - It's Legit! (Super*Review)

Prisma Audio Azul Review - When Less is More (Headphones.com)

 

[Whymez]

I've been hesitant to write a review of these IEM's due to my lack of experience. But, what I can say is that I've been pleasantly surprised by nearly every aspect of this IEM.


I'll lay my personal biases first. I do know Josh/Veebee personally and I was the first person to receive a retail unit. That being said, I paid for the unit with no incentives or discounts, and with the prerogative of the Azul's being my new beater. I also prefer a neutral monitor with a dislike towards sub-bass shelves... I'm looking at you Harman. I've also been closely following his progress on many community forums and servers.

Firstly, the Azul is placed in a weird price range. It's thwart with renowned competition that all have different tonality's that are bound to fit someones preference. The ER4XR being the closest to the Azul in tonality, and the Moondrop B2 and B2D being the kilobuck killer it's known for. My opinion is that it's a hard pill to swallow to pick the unknown quantity over the famous and endorsed favorites in the community. However, I don't think the Azul should ever be overlooked amongst this competition. It plays to its strengths incredibly well.

Packaging and Build:
Real thought has been put into this. It only contains the accessories you need while still providing that special feeling through little touches such as the individually numbered metal cards. It's perfect, smart and includes no wasted resources. A lot of of audio companies can learn from this. The provided Azla tips are a great touch and are my preference on my IEM's. The only fault is that it would of been nice for the tips to be separated in a compartment rather than all the sizes mixed together, but that's nit-picking on something you would only interact with until you found your size. The cable is a twist style that is soft and hangs light over your ears. It's easily the most comfortable cable I have owned. I can't comment on the sound of the cable as I hear very little difference in cable rolling IEMs. But I will fight someone to the death over how cables do make a difference!

The build is incredibly solid and leaves my 64 Audio U18T for dead. It almost has a Shure-esqe feeling of it being able to be chucked around and dependable through it's metal faceplate and 3d printed resin shell. The fit is good, but not great. I find that the nozzle is too shallow leaving the Azul to break its seal while talking or simply moving my jaw. This is temporarily fixed with different sedna tips (xelastic and deeper fit). I still find it comfortable and easy to leave in for long periods of time.

Sound:
Most of what I'd say has been said by other reviews. There is no doubt that the Azul has fundamental disadvantages with it’s 2BA design. The soundstage is non-existent and plays music like it’s between your eyes, the bass is lacking if you’re into that, and for the price, it’s hard to justify over the DD bearing, driver stacking overlords of the Chi-Fi world. So, the Azul must resort to its strengths, and I believe it pulls it off.

Lows. The timbre is the biggest miss here. However, it makes up for it through it’s clean and snappy response to 200hz and below. It’s incredibly precise and clean.

Mids. It’s almost bang on where I like it. It does have some warmer aspects on otherwise a neutral tonality which avoid the Azul from being too clinical. A little bump around the 200-300 hz mark would help for me, but I could say that about nearly everything bar the Andromeda. Your female centric vocalists like Hiatus Kaiyote and Odette sound great on these things.

Highs. It’s correct. The Azul hasn’t fallen into the sibilant trap that must other IEMs of this tune would. Although, it does get close. It adds extension where I think the Azul needs it and does macrodetail wonderfully.

If I could have this tone signature in every IEM, I would.

Summary

The key word I keep coming back to is clean. It’s an engaging reference IEM which creates its own niche amidst the competition. It also pulls punches with some of the bigger players such as the Andromeda and Clairvoyance, which I have both personally owned. It’s so wonderfully thought out and hones in what it’s good at. It just oozes care and attention throughout every aspect.

Ultimately, this IEM made me second guess whether my U18T was worth it while I predominately use the Azul in my daily activities.

Jeez, I got carried away with the short summary.

 

[paulwasabii]

First, let me be upfront and say the neutral/neutral bright is not a sound I would normally look into but supporting a young guy as he launches his first product is something I can get behind. I do like the ER4XR so another take on the neutral sound isn't the worst idea and the ER4XR always feels like a brain probe. That being said, my preference is more of a slight V than neutral so my opinion and usage leaned in that direction.

Out of the box, not enough bass and too much treble. I am not a quiet listener which works on the bass side as that slight bump in the mid-bass is fine but the low end is either shallow or not there. Yes, I get it, BA bass. Not really though, add an EQ bump and you are back in the bass. At that point, yes now you are finally hearing BA bass and it sounds quite good because it is BA bass and you can dial it up enough to hear the low end with no problems. Still not going to rumble hard, but the slam is nice and the added warmth does wonders for the mids. Do consider the included AZLA tips too. Typically I use AZLA to open the mids and bass control in boosted bass sets. I kept tip rolling until I used EQ, then AZLA's were a better fit. For me, like night and day as the out of the box level is simply too low for me.

Second problem, too much treble. The gentle 1-3K slope gets you through the mids in fine shape, but then the 8-10k rings like a bell in my head. At non-quiet listening levels, snare drums crack too hard, cymbals, bells, other higher frequency instruments pop out of the mix in a distracting and eventually fatiguing way. At lower volumes, yes, much better. For me, there are nice laid-back vocals and then this high level of treble can simply overtake the vocals on some tracks. Again, Azul takes to EQ like a champ as there is so much extension and level so bumping it down under the fatigue level makes a huge long session change for me. The more important part for me was dropping the snares and others back in line with mids and balancing against the bass. Similarly, the treble can have a bit of sibilance and dropping the level helps.

After addressing the high and low, the mids come into focus. As I said, the gentle rise avoids shouty or overly sharp vocals for me, the bit of boost to the bass adds some body and weight at the expense of the out-of-the-box ultra clarity and edge. If I was going to use the "only 2 BA" card, it would be the details and resolution in the mids. Sure, there is some gain to removing the bass EQ, but it never feels fully transparent, in the room with the vocalist to me. Certainly not bad in any sense, but it is when the price creeps into my opinion. For me, I really had to address the lows and highs to fully enjoy the mids.

Staging is an interesting one as I have read the opinions on it. My opinion, it needs a better source or amp to really open up. The Q5K is more of an in-head experience. At lower volumes, an in-head experience. Using the Q5K with an Aune B1S performs magic on the Azul as it does on other multi BA sets. First, it widens and deepens the stage, but the height really is the surprise. All those distracting cymbals and high instruments rise above your ears filling that space between the vocals and instruments at your ears. So while you get some enhanced layering and imaging with the height, it just kept grabbing my attention in an unpleasant way. My opinion, the staging is ymmv but I have dialed it in to the point where I wouldn't say it is mostly in-head at all with the Aune.

Summary: Bought it to support Josh and Prisma, but altered the tuning enough to like it very much. I say that as a big compliment to what he delivered, the bones are good, just needed some edge tweaks to bring it closer to my preference. Add some color to the uncolored one.

Eye candy:

 

[eloelo]

Already done my impressions here https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/prisma-audio-azul.25104/reviews

Just wanna take another pic of Azul

 

[mochill]

Interesting

 

[dudinacas]

Spoiler: Photo

I've been looking for a ~$300 neutral reference point to help refine my views on IEMs, and knowing my ear canals couldn't handle the fit of the Etymotics I decided to go for the Azul. I just received it today, and wanted to give my quick thoughts on it as this IEM is fantastic. Big props to Josh.

First things, the accessories are great - while these IEMs don't come with as many accessories as other cheaper IEMs I've owned, the ones that come with it have all been carefully thought out. The case feels very premium, despite being faux leather, and the cable is probably the most comfortable that I've owned - four core with an incredibly soft hand feel although microphonics are noticeable. It also comes with six pairs of Azla Sedna eartips, which I found easy to get a seal with and the wide bore size works well with the intended sound signature. Build quality is impeccable, and the metal faceplate paired with resin shell makes them both look and feel exceptionally well made.

Now my initial thoughts on the sound signature: while this neutral sound isn't my absolute favourite (that would go to the Intime Sora Light), I feel it is very well done. Definitely the standout part of this tuning is the treble - the air past 10k really makes things like cymbals shine and adds to an overall very light and airy sound. The midrange is well balanced: in fact I would have rather had some more pinna gain a la Etymotics, but the lack of an upper mids emphasis leads to a wonderfully smooth tonality. As for the bass... well, it's BA bass, and it sounds very lean out of the box. However it IS extremely clean, and adding a shelf with EQ (or the bass switch of your amp) reveals a surprising amount of slam for songs that need it. Despite not being my perfect sound signature, it is very hard to find anything to fault with the Azul's tuning - it just works for basically anything you throw at it.

As for the intangibles, I haven't really noticed the issue with 'in-the-head' staging that some others have pointed out. Most IEMs have very similar staging to me and the Azul follows suit. Not spectacular, but certainly not poor. Imaging is above average. I don't have experience with many IEMs at this price point, but I can say that the Azul easily beats any of the IEMs I own at the moment (Sora, Buds+, SSR) in terms of resolution.

Overall, I'm very impressed by the Azul, and hopefully this stops me from spending any more money on IEMs for quite a while I'm excited to see what Prisma come up with next.

 

[eloelo]

3 tips I really liked with Azul, after some tip rolling:

Misodiko S450D. Soft widebore dual flanges get a good seal without the deep fit. Boosts bass and adds warmth. OEM versions are available for cheaper

Sony EP-EX11M. Soft and seals easily. Boosts the midrange, making it more forward.

Spinfit CP100. Sometimes tweaks sound in a weird way for other iems, but smoothens the treble for Azul nicely imo. Soft and comfy.