The Watercooler -- Impressions, philosophical discussion and general banter. Index on first page. All welcome.

[emdeevee]

Any opinions on Ice Labs Spectrumica? The feedback some people had on discord was very very promising with claims of it outmatching many of the last years flagships. The metal build seem a lot nicer than many fragile resin 6k+ iems and the design really speaks to me haha

Bit tempted especially at its pricepoint, but would be great to know more about it.

I've spent the last couple weeks with Spectrumica and I am pretty smitten, tbh. It's not a specialist, very approachable, balanced but, for me, highly emotional tuning in a light, sturdy and beautiful shell. I would have a hard time nitpicking it, it does what it does brilliantly and I especially like the different flavor BCD (non Sonion) which enhances the bass with nice thump. Someone mentioned it lacked subbass, which I don't agree with unless you're expecting Duality or Fir Frontier levels. I am having serious difficulties criticizing it, and I haven't even addressed the pricing.

I can absolutely see this placing in the top 3 for $2k and under in upcoming polls. Ice Labs (and FlipEars) are on this year!

 

[drftr]

I went through all 7,067 pages of the cooler, and still don't know what to buy..

Hang on! Almost there! Your favourite gear will reveal itself tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow

drftr

 

[fabio19]

I've spent the last couple weeks with Spectrumica and I am pretty smitten, tbh. It's not a specialist, very approachable, balanced but, for me, highly emotional tuning in a light, sturdy and beautiful shell. I would have a hard time nitpicking it, it does what it does brilliantly and I especially like the different flavor BCD (non Sonion) which enhances the bass with nice thump. Someone mentioned it lacked subbass, which I don't agree with unless you're expecting Duality or Fir Frontier levels. I am having serious difficulties criticizing it, and I haven't even addressed the pricing.

I can absolutely see this placing in the top 3 for $2k and under in upcoming polls. Ice Labs (and FlipEars) are on this year!

I think Spectrumica is WAY underrated.

 

[emdeevee]

I think Spectrumica is WAY underrated.

I never did a Canjam post, but if I had, I would have mentioned Spectrumica as one of my three main show takeaways. The others being Legion and Mefisto.

 

[Conan1974]

Then go ahead and hook the speaker cables up to your IEMs. Or at least try to. Then I think you will see where expertise comes into play... However, to me, cables have absolutely zero to do with whatever's inside them. I don't care if a cable is made of tin or ten pounds of pure silver, zero shielding or shielded in platinum bars. Honestly. If it can achieve a sound with a particular IEM that I am looking for, one that no other cable can, then it's worth a considerable amount of money to me. If it's super expensive but can't achieve that sound, then it's worthless.

Are You saying that the speaker makers have no expertise?
The cables for IEM are just a smaller versions of the big ones.
I know that all the audio gear makers do know what they are doing, but glorifying or blowing out of propotions ( this is what You just did, in my opinion)of what they are doing, is not the way. Nothing explaints such a difference. If You would need such a amazing expertise, there would be just maybe a part of the brands, that are now active on the market. Or all of them would be very expensive, and we know that this is not the case.
If You look around, there is plenty of brand, making cables, cables that are working. So i would say it is not that difficult.
I am not a cable bieliver, and not because i just do not believe, no, i checked some cables and there is no difference. Why would it be, they are from the same material.

 

[phiemon]

I am not a cable bieliver, and not because i just do not believe, no, i checked some cables and there is no difference. Why would it be, they are from the same material.

Oh you lucky devil. A word of advice: don't make my mistake and don't ever think of questioning your convictions out of curiosity. That could prove fatal. Stay the way you are

 

[warrenpchi]

I went through all 7,067 pages of the cooler, and still don't know what to buy..

And you're still alive and well! Just goes to show, don't actually need to buy anything.

I’ve had a little bit of ear time with the Spectrumica and thought it was fantastic. I would highly suggest trying to demo it first, but from memory, that was one that I would love to spend more time with to really assess.

I've spent the last couple weeks with Spectrumica and I am pretty smitten, tbh. It's not a specialist, very approachable, balanced but, for me, highly emotional tuning in a light, sturdy and beautiful shell. I would have a hard time nitpicking it, it does what it does brilliantly and I especially like the different flavor BCD (non Sonion) which enhances the bass with nice thump. Someone mentioned it lacked subbass, which I don't agree with unless you're expecting Duality or Fir Frontier levels. I am having serious difficulties criticizing it, and I haven't even addressed the pricing.

I had a brief audition with Spectrumica a couple of weeks ago, and yeah, it's quite nice. It's not endgame, as others have pointed out, but it's stiil a nice set with a good mid-bass + mid-range focus that plays well with many contemporary genres.

 

[fabio19]

And you're still alive and well! Just goes to show, don't actually need to buy anything.




I had a brief audition with Spectrumica a couple of weeks ago, and yeah, it's quite nice. It's not endgame, as others have pointed out, but it's stiil a nice set with a good mid-bass + mid-range focus that plays well with many contemporary genres.

" It's not the end of the game, as others have pointed out "................
That's true, but based on the prices on the market, if Spectrumica had cost up to 3500 usd, no one would have complained. I think.....

 

[Conan1974]

Oh you lucky devil. A word of advice: don't make my mistake and don't ever think of questioning your convictions out of curiosity. That could prove fatal. Stay the way you are

no worry, i did already the needed comparisons( Albedo Flat One from silver, Chord from copper) and there was nothing worth extra penny. So if i buy a cable, an expensive one, it will be purely for the looks.
But so far, i have what i need, i still have speakers cables, even that i have sold the speakers. They are waiting for new ones, i hope somewhere in the future.

 

[phiemon]

no worry, i did already the needed comparisons( Albedo Flat One from silver, Chord from copper) and there was nothing worth extra penny. So if i buy a cable, an expensive one, it will be purely for the looks.
But so far, i have what i need, i still have speakers cables, even that i have sold the speakers. They are waiting for new ones, i hope somewhere in the future.

No idea, never heard of it. Maybe you've never heard the “right” cable?!

Joking aside, if you ever happen to come to Berlin, let me know

 

[Conan1974]

Thanks

 

[TheMiddleSky]

So many strong contenders for up to $1000 (most of them price exactly at $800 too!): Dita Mecha, Jomo Onyx, UM Stardust, Flipears Legion, and Fatfreq Quantum.

So far I quite like UM Stardust, a bit surprised even for myself, as usually I don't really prefer their sound tuning, especially on higher end model. Will do more extensive comparison with Flipears Legion around next week. As far as I remembered, they both tuned really differently though.

 

[wolfstar76]

All of a sudden Fugaku is portable??

drftr

Let's re-define portable: anything that you don't need to plug in the power outlet on a wall is portable.

 

[warrenpchi]

" It's not the end of the game, as others have pointed out "................
That's true, but based on the prices on the market, if Spectrumica had cost up to 3500 usd, no one would have complained. I think.....

Well, value is in the ear of the beholder, so to each his own. That said, if I were looking to spend around that much ($3,500 USD), it'd probably be on something else.

 

[szabb27]

I got them a few days ago too, sadly I didn't love them , As much as I wanted to connect with the sound it truly did not. From the weird-ish bass that takes the mids and veils the frig out of them, to the recessed mids, to the overly huge soundstage (which makes me feel a bit of a disconnect from my music), to the sort of unnatural treble. It might be an unpopular opinion, and ofc sound is subjective. Regardless, I'm super stoked you're liking the set though!

thanks @Dandelion777 for bringing up this topic and staring a little so called "constructive criticism" about the Legion

I owned the set as well for a few days, unfortunately it was an underwhelming experience when it comes to sound

It has some positive aspects, don't want to be unreasonable, but they sound decent at best IMO
... beautiful shell design, nice stock cable, even the pouch in which the IEMs are inserted in the packaging screams quality BUT other than the large stage which is as well hollow and feel somehow empty , I as well cannot say this is a good sounding IEM
Bass is just loose and the BC implementation is just not helping it , mids are somehow veiled , high end is ok...although not the best either

I expect this will trigger some upcoming discussions, but being part of the community and sharing what we experience with a certain product is the core of this platform...at least that is what I think
As a closing note, I bought this as a result of the many positive reviews and endorsements ... as a regular guy tryings out as much stuff as I can, I can confidently say this is at most a mediocre sounding set (subjective opinion)