Ice Ice, Baby! ICELAB’s Spectacular Spectrumica

Sound Impressions

I’ve been actively listening to Spectrumica for the past two weeks, following a burn-in period of at least 150 hours. As per Ice’s suggestion, I’ve accumulated well over 200 hours of listening time on my set, and I strongly suggest any new owner do the same, because the change in sound – especially bass tightness and treble finesse – after a prolonged burn-in period is not subtle.

All impressions for this review are made with the stock cable, using Sony’s original WM1Z Walkman as a source, with the volume ranging between 45 and 60 in high-gain. The Walkman is a warm-neutral source with excellent resolution and staging, so listening with different sources will likely yield different results.

Also, as mentioned earlier, tips used are SpinFit’s CP145, which will sound slightly different to the stock Eletech and HiBy tips, so bear this in mind when doing your own listening. 

Where relevant I’ll mention the tracks used to illustrate the impressions below, but as usual, my test tracks generally don’t stray too far from female vocal pop, indie pop, and alternative genres, with a sprinkling of both female and male singer-songwriter, electronic and light/classic rock.

No metal, no hard rock, no rap and no R&B, and any jazz, classical or ambient tracks are only there for comparative purposes.

Tonality

I hear Spectrumica as having a very balanced, but also selectively punchy, fun and slightly warm W-shaped tuning. There’s a subtle but solid bass emphasis, occasionally elevated but never too-forward vocals and midrange instruments, and a gentle lift in the mid-treble that manages to stay polite, clean and sparkly regardless of how busy the track becomes.

Out the box, bass was fractionally bloomy, mostly in midbass. It was also rather pillowy, with a lighter touch and more diffusion in the transients. Pre-burn-in, the kickdrums in Brandi Carlile’s The Story had a softer thud than I’m used to, for example. Post burn-in, much tighter – bass now less elevated but hits harder, with faster transients.

Bass also blended better with lower mids after burn-in, with no bass bleed. Massive Attack’s Angel, with its pounding bassline, sounded tight, clean, and full of texture. The bassline almost ripples through the track, but at all times allows the vocals to step forward, clear and detailed. It’s a perfect example of how Spectrumica handles electronic music with finesse.

Electronic drums, like those in Alanis Morissette’s Uninvited, from the brilliant City of Angels soundtrack, punch deep and resonate across the stage. Despite their dominance – something that’s in the track, not artificially done by the IEM – they don’t intrude on any other element.

This track, with its haunting atmosphere and Morissette’s distinctive vocal delivery, becomes an almost cinematic experience through Spectrumica. Every electronic percussion hit feels both powerful and precisely controlled.

Bass timbre, especially percussion, is excellent. Different textures of the drum skins in Babatunde Olatunji’s Stepping are distinct and incredibly detailed. This masterpiece of West African percussion showcases the IEM’s ability to render organic textures with startling realism. You can almost feel the different materials and techniques used across the various drums and percussion instruments.

This is bass resolution and extension of the highest order, aided I suspect by the subtle overtones from the bone conduction driver. Where pre-burn-in I felt midbass dominated, post burn-in the bass sounds more balanced, evenly spread between sub-bass and midbass.

I’ve heard more guttural IEMs with deeper, more elevated sub-bass, but I feel Spectrumica strikes an ideal balance across all the bass frequencies. There are no notable dips or gaps, which give the bass a fulsome sound that accurately depicts what’s in the music, without overstepping or worse, receding.

It’s not neutral, to be sure, but nor is it overly exaggerated. That said, it might be worth pointing out that some fellow enthusiasts felt Spectrumica’s bass is occasionally heavy-handed, bordering on overpowering. 

I personally don’t hear it like that at all, and in fact, I’m likely to switch to other IEMs to get a more potent bass fix when the mood calls for it. Spectrumica’s is a satisfying, saturated and richly-textured bass for sure, but overbearing and dominant? Not once have I heard it that way, and I’ve thrown plenty of bass-heavy tracks at them to test for that.

As such, while I feel Spectrumica can satisfy most bassheads, for me it’s definitely not an IEM tuned with bassheads in mind at all.

Moving up from the bass foundation to the midrange fundamentals is as smooth as you’d expect from an expertly tuned IEM. While upper bass doesn’t intrude on the lower mids, there’s just enough lift in that region to impart a slight sense of warmth on male and lower-range female vocals. This gives vocals a touch of lushness that makes them so easy on the ear.

BEYRIES absolutely melts my soul with the opening track of her Landing LP, Alone. The Canadian singer-songwriter’s delicate, intimate vocal style is perfectly suited to Spectrumica’s lush midrange presentation.

This is no dull lushness either; vocals are detailed, articulate, nuanced. Lyrics are so easy to hear, even during busier passages.

Vocal timbre is outstanding throughout. Whether it’s Black crooning about a Wonderful Life, or the silky-voiced David Gates of Bread singing about the Guitar Man, or the intoxicatingly higher-pitched Angel Olsen taking a Chance, vocals are not only perfectly imaged in the centre of the stage, they’re also presented with the full range of subtle inflections and cues that breathe emotion into the music.

You can almost feel it when a singer takes a breath, or has slight dryness in her mouth. Vocals are both realistic and earthy, presented mostly as they’ve been recorded, but with a hint of romanticism that makes everything sound just so good.

At no point does Spectrumica suffer from veiled or recessed instruments or vocals, nor is it obnoxious or shouty. There’s some slight elevation in the upper mids, but the rise is so gentle, both on the upward and downward curve from the 3kHz ‘peak’, that the result is detail without any sort of fatigue.

Try as I may, I couldn’t push Spectrumica’s upper midrange into fatigue territory. Even with my go-to torture test, Seven Lions’ Island, not only was I met with a highly-energetic track, it was actually a pleasure to listen to.

The only reason I can think that someone would take issue with how Spectrumica presents the upper mids and lower treble is that they may not be edgy enough, in-your-face enough, if you’re after maximum grit and bite. For everyone else, it should be an absolute cruise of a listen.

And so, the treble. I’ve taken issue with e-stat treble in the past, but mostly because it’s usually tuned so airy and ethereal, it can make upper vocal harmonics sound lithe and hollow, scratchy and dry.

Not so Spectrumica. Cueing up Missy Higgins’ Shark Fin Blues, I can’t hear any of the sibilants that often creep into Missy’s esses, even at volume. I can hear the moderately elevated upper mids on this track as Missy hits the higher notes, but only because the treble is tuned well below the midrange – pretty much throughout the range. 

That’s not to say the treble is dull, far from it. There’s shine and sparkle where called for, but it’s crystalline rather than cutting. Max Richter’s violins sing sweetly in his recomposed version of Vivaldi’s Winter 1, with sublime detail coming from the different string sections in the orchestra.

I can’t actually remember the last time I heard so much detail in a treble presentation that’s so polite. I can imagine trebleheads scratching their heads in both disbelief and frustration, but Spectrumica proves at least this: you don’t need to stack your tuning with tons of treble for maximum detail.

Take Nils Lofgren’s Keith Don’t Go, for example. His steel guitars are razor sharp, but they’re also full bodied, textured and palpably real. This emotional ballad demonstrates how Spectrumica can render even the most cutting instruments with body and weight rather than just edge.

For someone like me who doesn’t index for treble, and usually wants only as much of it as absolutely needed for proper balance and fidelity, I find myself enjoying the high notes as much as everything else with Spectrumica. I can count on one hand the number of IEMs I’ve experienced this with before, and that’s not a compliment I pay lightly.

With all this praise, is there a flaw in Spectrumica’s tuning? 

Honestly, not for me.

Maybe if you’re someone who wants more – be it more saturating bass, a more forward midrange, or more intense treble – then you might not find enough of your vice in Spectrumica’s balanced tuning. Likewise, if you’re after an IEM that floors you at first listen with a crazy amount of something, either tonally or technically, Spectrumica might not be as immediately impressive. 

But despite the balance of its tuning, I don’t for a second find it boring. Nor do I think that the balance, in this case, equates to reference. Instead, it has musicality and warmth in equal measure, which to me sounds both natural and, when the music calls for it, fun.

Continue to technical performance…