If you’re like me, you may be tired of the deluge of “New Meta” releases that promise a more natural sound profile, but still have the same compromises IEMs have always had—unnecessary tuning risks and subpar build/ergonomics. That’s why Prisma Lumen, Prisma’s $1400 reference-tuned entry into the “Light Twin” series, is arguably the most significant IEM I’ve seen released.
Lumen’s price obviously places it into the “high-end” market space, but because high-end IEMs are often the worst offenders when it comes to tuning risks and ergonomics (as well as nonsensical marketing), I feel—to its credit—Lumen doesn’t exactly fit in with the high-end crowd.
Prisma Lumen is neither focused on flashy marketing of nebulous qualities like “resolution” or “soundstage,” nor does it try to maximize these intangible aspects at the expense of sounding accurate. Lumen (and its sister Lux) also come in a shell design that is so well-considered it makes most IEMs—especially much more expensive ones—look and feel incredibly immature.
Before I go further I should add a disclaimer though: I had some level of input on development of these products prior to release, though not in the typical way reviewers influence manufacturers.
In early 2024 I’d been discussing IEM measurements with Josh (aka veebee, sole proprietor of Prisma) fairly regularly both in public spaces as well as private conversations. This led to Prisma adopting a similar approach to me for measuring IEMs—using a 711 coupler inserted into a pinna, instead of the cylindrical fixture most people use. This coincided with Prisma also making a conscious effort to take data from the B&K 5128 very seriously, and doing so much earlier than many other brands who have only recently begun to use data from the 5128.
That said, I have no financial entanglement with Prisma, and my evaluation of this IEM has nothing to do with anything other than the actual performance of the IEM. The closest thing I have to entanglement is that I would consider Josh a friend, but I have many friends making many products in this sphere, and all of them will tell you exactly how few punches I pull when talking about their creations.
I still have criticisms of Lumen, but I think you’ll find they’re few and far between. Let’s talk about why.
What we like
- The best sounding IEM or headphone I have ever heard. Neutral, with slight warmth.
- Excellent balance of subjective aspects across the board.
- Incredibly thoughtful shell design that looks so clean Apple could’ve made it.
What we don’t like
- Stock cable and case are on the bulky side
- I would prefer ever-so-slightly less bass
- Price is quite high, many will not be able to afford it
Build, Comfort, Design, and Accessories
Right out of the gate, Lumen is the best looking audiophile IEM I’ve ever seen. Pale green and with gentle curves, the simple aluminum shell and smoky glass faceplate with near-imperceptible branding is an ideal remedy to the constant flood of sparkly rainbow vomit, gold-plating, ugly logos, and BOLD TEXT branding you’ll find on most other IEMs.
Visually, Lumen earns the highest praise I could give, which is that it looks like an Apple product—minimalist, with every contour screaming consideration for the fact that people are going to be seen wearing it. It’s one of the few IEMs I would not be embarrassed to be seen wearing in public. Not that it needs to be emphasized further, but this IEM is so firmly in my wheelhouse visually that I wouldn’t be surprised if that had an effect on how I receive the sound.
Note for the readers, I was very meticulous with my photo-taking; Lumen’s faceplate text will not always be as clear as shown in this review. This picture is a more realistic representation of what it will look like at a random angle.
Lumen is also one of the few products in this price range that looks and feels its price. Every facet of the construction looks and feels intentional; the shells are robust while not being overly heavy or bulky, and even aspects as simple as the flush-ness of the nozzle with the surrounding shell, the seamlessness of the shell and faceplate, and the placement of the venting all seem optimized to be minimally intrusive.
In terms of comfort, Lumen is again a mold-breaker in this price range for me. Unlike so many of the other IEMs in this category that justify their price with driver spam (and thus, have bigger shells than strictly necessary), Lumen is on the small-medium side shell-wise, with a reasonable nozzle profile and angle, and soft but sufficient ear-facing molding. It isn’t quite an all-day wear for me due to having the typical IEM issue of a slight occlusion effect that gets fatiguing after a few hours (which is still longer than I wear any other IEM except AirPods Pro 2). Slight under-venting aside, Lumen is still among the most comfortable passive IEMs I’ve used.
The packaging is where some people may feel Lumen underperforms for its price, but for me it’s another area where Prisma went about it almost exactly how I’d want. It completely forgoes using foam or a massive, showy box, instead optimizing for smallness. It comes in a tiny cardboard box that can fit the case (holding the IEM, protective sack, and cable) and a small accessories cutout for 4 sizes of AET07 eartips and a 4.4mm swappable termination. I dislike oversized boxes with a bunch of unused space that I’m going to be throwing out anyway, so for me, something minimal like this is great.
The cable is probably the main downside I perceive with the package here, and it’s also the only place I perceive Lumen to have capitulated to the peculiar value system of typical high-end IEM buyers. In simple terms, Lumen’s cable is a bit too bulky and heavy for me to enjoy using. Especially since the earpieces are rather petite, it feels a bit weight-imbalanced between cable and earpiece, so I opt to use my white Truthear GATe cable instead. I assume this choice was made because shoppers in this price range would want the cable to feel sufficiently “premium,” (which to them often just means heavy).
Additionally, the cable terminals on the IEM are minorly recessed, which works great aesthetically with the stock cable, but does mean some IEMs with non-recessed 2-pin connectors may have trouble seating all the way into the terminal. That aside, the cable itself feels soft in the hand, and fits well enough aesthetically—I just don’t like the experience of actually using heavier cables like this.
The included hardshell case is what I’d call “good, but not to my preference,” since it is again a bit large/bulky for my taste. It’s big enough to fit the IEM and cable neatly, but thankfully not big enough that it won’t fit in my sling bag (which came in handy this past CanJam). I do wish the cable was smaller because it’d mean the case could also be smaller. The case is wrapped in a reasonably plush-feeling leatherette with the Prisma logo stamped on it, and the earpieces come placed in a mesh baggie with the Prisma logo emblazoned on an outer tag.
Lastly, Lumen comes with 4 sizes of AET07-type eartips—a decent, narrow-ish bore tip. While I would’ve liked the inclusion of another bore size of tip, I find no real sonic issues with the stock tips, so I can’t say I feel all that bad that other tips weren’t included. The evaluation of this IEM is going to be given with stock tips, but I should note: due to how this IEM was tuned, I found every single eartip in my collection to sound pretty darn palatable (unlike most IEMs I’ve evaluated, where I usually have a clear preference for whatever minimizes the treble downsides). My favorite ended up being DUNU Candy tips, simply due to fitting more comfortably than the somewhat conical AET07-type tips.
Overall, the accessories package here is, for better or worse, in-step with what a buyer in this price range expects. But the look, build, and comfort are a clear cut above what I’ve come to expect from similarly priced offerings from 64 Audio, DUNU, Noble, Symphonium, Thieaudio, or Sennheiser. While these companies often do one of these things well, none of them do all of it well. This is where I would’ve expected a “single man” company like Prisma to compromise vs. the established brands in the market, but the fact that Lumen is just made by one guy doesn’t show at all in the build or comfort, and in some respects (looks) I feel Lumen’s got a clear advantage versus… well, everyone.
Light Twins
Lumen has a sister named Lux, which is part of Prisma’s effort to offer consumers two choices: Reference/neutral in the form of Lumen, and exciting/V-shaped in the form of Lux. Both offerings have the same (spoiler: exceptional) midrange tuning, while Lux has more bass below 100 Hz and more treble above 8 kHz. I was given units of both to evaluate, but if I’m being honest, Lux isn’t especially my jam sonically, so I’m only gonna talk about it for a bit here. While yes, Lux shares every aspect of Lumen’s incredibly thoughtful build, comfort, and design (which is great!), the sound itself is a flavor which is already represented reasonably well in lower price tiers.
Now, it’s arguably the best implementation of that sort of signature around, so if people really like the “New Meta” flavor of V-shaped tuning that’s been in vogue lately (things like the Hisenior Mega5EST, Kiwi Ears KE4, or any of Crin’s recent IEMs), but want a better shell design and more refinement throughout, Lux is still a very solid option… it’s just not nearly as exciting as Lumen when it comes to sound quality and what it represents in the market.
In short, Lux seems more aimed at the typical IEM consumer who’s used to IEMs having large bass and treble boosts. I think it’d also be especially good for lower volume listeners who may need a bit more excitement in the bass and treble for their experience to feel sufficiently “full range.”
But Lumen… Lumen is another story.
Sound
These measurements are taken on my ITU-T P.57 Type 3.3 system consisting of an IEC 60318-4 coupler mounted in a GRAS KB006x clone pinna. These measurements are a placeholder until the unit arrives to Andrew Park for measurements on our B&K 5128
Prisma is among the few brands taking targets based on “JM-1 Diffuse Field + preference tilt” seriously from top-to-bottom, and it absolutely shows in the measured performance here. This is easily the most “linear” IEM I’ve ever evaluated. That said, measurements on test fixtures aren’t everything; there are a few places where my perception and the measurement disagrees, so be aware, it does not and will not sound exactly how it measures above for everyone.
Touching on my minor qualms first, Lumen has a slight bass boost above what I’d call strictly neutral, but unlike most sets that sport a similar midrange tuning, it actually seems to understand the meaning of the word “balance.” No massive sub-bass or overblown mid-bass here, just a mild elevation that slightly highlights the fundamentals of bass guitars, and the size & decay of kick drums.
Even though it’s a touch warm for me, it’s among the best IEMs I’ve tested in terms of balancing bass quantity and quality. When testing my bass “disqualifier” tracks, I was shocked that it was the first time in recent memory when an IEM wasn’t absolutely swamping me with kick drum decay or bounciness, or mucking up the presentation with overly-plump bass guitar.
“Lose Yourself to Dance” on Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories has a large kick drum fundamental around 50 Hz, and IEMs with too much bass will make the interaction between the kick and the rest of the mix sound like an indistinct mudfest. Radiohead’s “Ill Wind” has a guitar with a ton of 65 Hz energy, and adding to that the kick drum panned center that has a first overtone around 60 Hz… not only will IEMs with too much bass make it sound plodding and blurry, but it’ll make the stereo imaging between these two elements harder to place/separate too.
Basically every IEM I’ve tested in the last three years has failed these tracks spectacularly, barring one or two exceptions, because most of these IEMs were simply too bassy to provide uncolored playback of well-recorded-but-bassy music that uses real instruments. Lumen not only passes all of my bass tests, including these, but presents the bass with authority, size, and impact sufficient to say they’re the best I’ve heard these tracks sound on an un-EQed IEM.
Many IEM enthusiasts may see the relatively reserved bass curve on the measurements and think “Oh, that won’t be enough punch or rumble for me,” but let me enthusiastically state that Lumen has among the most balanced—and yes, punchy—bass presentations I’ve heard. It’s incredibly adept at the portrayal of all of the things I like about bass like ”slam,” texturing, and the impression of size. It's all there, provided the music actually contains the information to begin with. I’d still prefer a hair less bass, but as it stands for me, Lumen is still sitting at the top with the best of the best.
Now of course, a big part of presenting bass is how the bass integrates with the midrange, and how the midrange is tuned overall. Well, the midrange here is the actual best I’ve heard. It’s so good that I’m genuinely not sure how any IEM in the future could realistically improve upon it. It is a near-perfect balance of warmth and texture, of euphony and accuracy, such that I don’t know that I’d be able to get anything outright better for my own taste without EQ (and even if I did try EQ, I’m not sure I’d be able to blindly discern a distinct preference for the EQed version).
My “harsh” test tracks with super-biting electric guitars or blaring horns were rendered texturally-dense and with the richness and complexity they should have, but without an ounce of harshness. On more typical “good” tracks, the ones that have exceptionally-recorded vocals, guitars, strings, pianos, or really anything occupying the midrange? It sounds correct, absent any caveats or exceptions.
Vocals of any gender have the intimacy, expressiveness, intelligibility, and detailing that they should have, free of any nasality, strain, or any sort of muffled quality. Snare drums always sound perfectly balanced between their resonance and stick attack, and guitars and strings specifically are rendered downright effortlessly, with all the harmonic density and bite they should have. In case it’s not obvious, I have no real downsides to relay to the reader with regard to the midrange.
The interpersonal variation inherent to devices like these means there will always be compromise; absent the ability to control the frequency response when the IEM is actually placed in the listener’s ear, IEM tuners are best served choosing a baseline midrange response that minimizes the distance any one person will deviate from an expected “good” or “natural” response.
Lumen’s midrange is the perfect example of that baseline response. Unless people have much wider/narrower canals or much stiffer/looser eardrums than the average, I think Lumen’s midrange is likely to be received quite well. Even if a listener happens to differ enough anatomically not to get the intended response, I think it’s unlikely they receive something outright terrible—which is often the best that can realistically be done in a passive IEM.
And yeah, I’m confident in saying Lumen’s midrange is exactly that; the best that can realistically be done.
Now to the treble, where my issues almost always get to “dealbreaker” status with IEMs, causing me to put them down and never touch them again once I’ve finished writing the review.
Again. Best I’ve heard. And this time it’s not like the midrange where there’s a lot of close competition from less expensive options. Lumen is head-and-shoulders above the few other IEMs I would say have treble I actually enjoy (one of which I had to help tune myself). It is the most versatile, smooth, accurate treble I’ve encountered.
That said, it’s not quite perfect. It’s very close, but Prisma still has physics as its opponent, and not even those with limitlessly-deep pockets can overcome physics.
Because any IEM is functionally a speaker playing into a tube terminated with a membrane at the other end, it has peaks that arise based on standing waves corresponding to the length between the ear tip and the eardrum. As such, with Lumen I still get a slight length-based peak around 7.5 kHz. This peak is rather well-managed—nothing like on the Truthear Pure or Hexa where it adds considerable glare—but it is still technically there, and reducing it slightly with EQ does improve the sound a bit.
One note for readers is that if their ear canals are longer, this peak will shift down in frequency, and may leave in its place a bit of a dip. Some “longer canal’d” listeners did seem to find it too dark in the mid-treble for this reason, but I have no such issue.
That all being said, I cannot stress enough how small of a problem this peak has actually been when actually listening to music; I have had no desire to engage EQ to attenuate this peak.
Furthermore, the issues I usually have in the upper treble with IEMs are non-existent. Lumen hasn’t even a trace of the excessive glassiness on cymbals, grittiness on snare drums, wispiness on vocals, plastickiness on acoustic guitars, or papery creak on strings that I’ve come to expect with IEMs. I’ve not experienced even one iota of sibilance, harshness, or grain when listening to Lumen. Even if with some recordings I get a bit of chalkiness because the mix has a peak in the spot around 7.5 kHz, it’s still well within the bounds of manageability.
As someone who’s been begging for an IEM that stops capitulating to the trend of insane upper treble boosts, I’m extremely glad the first IEM I can say really, really works for me up there also has an exceptional midrange and bass balance. Because that means for all of what people call “technicalities,” Lumen is also fantastic, being well-balanced between all aspects with what I hear as minimal compromise.
The sense of impact, mass, and weight, and how that balances with the sense of immediacy, snap, and precision is damn near unparalleled, specifically when it comes to how all of them are balanced. Yes, there are heavier, thicker-sounding IEMs out there, but they usually lack precision or immediacy. And yes, there are nimbler, snappier IEMs out there, but they usually lack a sense of density or weight. Thanks to its sensible approach to tuning, Lumen balances these two aspects of what people call “dynamics” the best I’ve heard, doing an outstanding job of both, declining to force listeners to choose between having one at the expense of the other.
The other “technicalities” admittedly matter much less to me, but I’ll touch on them briefly here. The sense of spaciousness is considerably better than most sets I’ve heard, but my barometer there is “Can I discern the panning accurately? Is there any weird quirk that causes something to be placed in an unexpected/incorrect way?”
The relaxation of the “JM-1 DF” midrange helps a lot regarding things sounding too congested or like they’re stepping on each other’s toes fighting for the spotlight. The control in the treble stops things from sounding disjointed, placing some things at an artificial distance (or height) while others are artificially close. In short, the imaging and spatial presentation here is just… how I gather the music is supposed to sound.
The sense of clarity and “resolution” of images is almost totally unencumbered; everything present in the track is ready and able to be unpacked with little-to-no effort. Lumen isn’t battering you over the head with colorations to elicit a sense of “fake detail” though. That sort of artificial enhancement is something that basically never works for me (it usually sounds less detailed due to errant peaks masking actual information in the mix). I never felt like Lumen was doing anything other than reproducing the music as it actually was, little details and all.
Overall, I can’t think of an IEM that sounds better, or really even close to as good, both in terms of its excellence at certain things (midrange) as well as how well balanced it is across the board. Genuinely, I can’t think of a single honest-to-god dealbreaker to do with the sound quality of this IEM that wouldn’t be solely down to how an individual’s anatomy affects its behavior in their ears.
Reviews are always a deeply subjective account of an individual experience, but as someone who’s pretty deeply familiar with the sources & ranges of interpersonal variation, Lumen is the first IEM that I think truly represents a reasonable middle ground in this market filled to the brim with things that are almost always more risky, and infinitely more compromised.
Comparisons
If you’re familiar with me, you know that price not only doesn’t matter to me, but is often inversely correlated with sound quality. Many of the IEMs I rate most highly are relatively inexpensive, and many expensive IEMs don’t rate very highly for me. As such, most of the IEMs I’m going to be comparing Lumen to aren’t super pricey, but they’re all IEMs that I actually like enough to keep around. This means I won’t be comparing Lumen much to its “competition” in the ~$1400 price range because I haven’t bothered to keep any IEMs around in that range (at least, not ones that are trying remotely similar things).
But still, it’s worth putting this in, just as a catch-all; yes, I prefer Lumen to (insert kilobuck IEM), and I even prefer it to (insert much more expensive IEM). Yes, that includes Subtonic Storm, Mysticraft Hex, or whatever other super expensive IEM people often talk about as the peak of sound quality. Lumen is more comfortable, better looking, and most importantly, better sounding than those IEMs (to me).
vs. Hisenior Mega5EST
Arguably the IEM that started the whole “New Meta” wave in earnest, and it’s an IEM I still have fondness for… but Lumen basically represents exactly what I would’ve changed about this IEM given the opportunity.
The shell is smaller, a cuter color, made of metal, free of any obtrusive branding (FEBOS!!!), and overall more in line with what feels like a premium product to me.
The sound fixes every issue I had with Mega5EST: the bass is better controlled and less lumpy sounding, the midrange is both sweeter and more accurate sounding, and the treble is free of the whispery sizzle that bothered me most about Mega5EST.
Lumen also hits harder, with better precision and detailing in the midrange and treble, and images much more cleanly as well. The only real loss Lumen takes in this fight is that Mega5EST has a bit more of a detached spaciousness thing going on, but I will gladly trade away the sleepy, distant presentation of the Mega5EST for the more immediate, punchy presentation of Lumen.
While Mega5EST represented a fantastic IEM at the time of its release (and it’s still solid), Lumen represents the true, honest-to-god evolution of that approach to tuning, fixing basically every issue while improving on the ergonomics and design massively. If you want a Mega5EST upgrade but with an even more normal tune… here it is. If you want something more similar to Mega5EST’s overall tune but still more refined, Lux is there for that type of listener too.
vs. Softears Volume S
A departure from the “New Meta” trend, Volume S is an exercise in balancing potentially problematic colorations sensibly enough that they work very well together. Even if in this case it means true neutrality is kind of off the table, it’s one of my favorite IEMs.
Volume S’s standout quality aside from its overall balance was the bass punch and texturing, and to my ear Lumen either matches its performance or slightly exceeds it. I think in terms of texturing and punch they’re on an even playing field, but when it comes to “cleanliness,” I find Lumen to be less rounded and hazy sounding on bass instruments and male vocalists.
Volume S’s main downside is the midrange being a little too colored for true neutrality. Well, Lumen fixes this too, while improving on Volume S’s (already quite good) treble response, and again has a more visually-appealing, better built shell. While I think for $350 Volume S is still a great option, Lumen is on par at minimum, and a linear/all-around upgrade at best.
Vs. CrinEar Daybreak
While Daybreak is insanely respectable for its price, unfortunately like Mega5EST, it’s just too bright and bassy for me to ever feel like actually using it. The midrange is absolutely fantastic, but the “distraction” factor with this IEM—like basically every “New Meta” IEM—is quite high, such that the midrange never actually gets to be the star of the show.
Lumen, by contrast, was made with the understanding that with the JM-1 + preference-adjusted midrange, all of that bass and treble is not only going to distract from the midrange, but literally sound worse on their own because the midrange isn’t colored enough to counterbalance the bass and treble boost with sufficient texturing in the former case, and sufficient fundamental weight in the latter case.
So yeah, Lumen has a better midrange, but much more importantly, it actually lets the midrange shine while letting the bass and treble support it and vice versa. Instead of overshadowing its best quality with bass and treble that is neither needed nor appropriate, Lumen’s entire frequency response works together as one cohesive unit.
Of course, Lumen also looks much better and has a much better build, but to me where Lumen really stomps is proving just how unnecessary all that bass and treble is. At its price, Daybreak is killer, but if we’re just talking sound quality, Lumen handles this with very little difficulty.
Vs. Truthear Pure
Yeah, I know, it’s $90, but it was literally my #1 IEM until Lumen came along (mostly due to the treble and midrange)
Obviously I’m biased in favor of Pure since I helped tune it, but Lumen is basically exactly what I wish Pure could’ve been without the design/price constraints… so yet again, Lumen is a linear upgrade in every single metric.
So if you like Pure but really want to ball out, Lumen is what I would consider the logical conclusion of the philosophy that went into tuning Pure, absent all of the compromises we had to make when tuning it. I doubt many people shopping for Pure will be able to afford Lumen, but if you want to know what I wanted Pure to sound like, Lumen is at least worth trying to hear at a show.
The IEM Market & “New Meta”
Something I’ve felt deeply while being a part of communities centered around IEMs is that—even with differences in taste set aside—IEM consumers seem not to think they deserve better than what is already available, so they just buy whatever is the least bad in their price range. They compromise, either learning to be happy with the flaws they get, buying something else with a different set of compromises, or capitulating and pulling out the EQ.
Call it being realistic, call it adaptation, call it coping, but buyers have learned to accept flawed products. It’s not exactly their fault; even in a veritable ocean of available products, there just aren’t many well-rounded products to buy regardless of price. But by purchasing these flawed products, consumers signal to brands that the status quo is A-OK, so improvements—if they’re made at all—are made at a glacial pace, and are often purely down to the benevolence of singular individuals (if Crinacle ever dies, this market may well be screwed).
This loop of consent on the part of consumers and opportunism on the part of brands has allowed the market to stagnate in mediocrity, while the frequency of releases (and prices in the high-end bracket specifically) continues to soar.
Which brings me to the “New Meta”.
What “New Meta” IEMs ended up being was never the intent or the logical conclusion of what I alluded to years ago in the article that started all of this. The intention was for tuners to reckon fully with the lessons the 5128 and HRTF-based targets had to offer, and to utilize that knowledge—along with IEMs’ near-limitless potential for tuning customization—to actualize what would’ve been the first ever wave of truly accurate, truly full-range headworn audio devices.
But what started as a reviewer’s shorthand to encapsulate a bunch of similarly decent, but also similarly flawed IEMs (“New Meta” courtesy of Super* Review) morphed into what any decently catchy idea always turns into in this space: a way to sell more products.
IEM companies saw that products being talked about as “New Meta” were getting tons of hype and selling well, so they did what they do: they looked at the graphs of the Hisenior Mega5EST, Moondrop DUSK DSP, and DUNU DaVinci, said “Oh. We can do that.” And sold a bunch of similarly flawed products, aping IEMs that were never all that exceptional to begin with, hoping they’d get the same sales numbers as the others.
(And of course, they did so without bothering to engage with the underlying theory or science that led to the original products, or the implications of said theory/science. It’s exactly what happened and continues to happen with the Harman target.)
The loop of hype, regurgitation, and consent this market knows so well churned onward, and here we are more than two years later only now getting to anything I would say actually resembles a “meta” worth treating as an honest-to-god evolution of IEM tuning.
Not thrilled to be the arbiter of language, but someone’s gotta do it: “New Meta” does not mean, nor did it ever mean “neutral,” or “the new best way to tune IEMs.” It was only ever a term to group alike products, and even the person who coined the term didn’t especially love any of the tunings in this group.
So going forward, that term should be used to refer to products of a similar nature; neutral mids with extra bass and treble, and should not be used as an indicator of goodness or overall neutrality. I do think some products should still be tuned in the “New Meta” style—clearly some people like it—but I think we need to abandon the idea that the “New Meta” sort of tuning is ideal, because now we have a clear example of what that actually looks like… and it looks quite different.
Yes, Lumen is the first genuine example of what the original theory behind “JM-1 DF with preference adjustments” would’ve produced as an IEM genuinely worth treating as a meta worth emulating. So for the love of god, please don’t lump it in with all of the other “New Meta” stuff. It lacks the bass and treble boosts which tied the Mega5EST, DUSK DSP, and DaVinci together. (Lux on the other hand is a great example of New Meta tuning).
Similarly, please don’t come away from this review calling Lumen’s sound signature “New New Meta” or “True Meta” or any other catchy-but-meaningless names that will be used to ignore the theory of tuning and its implications, and instead only be used to effectively market products.
Call it what it is, and what it was always supposed to be: Neutral.
Conclusion
I bring all of this up because it would be straight up wrong to group Lumen into a tuning movement that was entirely borne of the complete misunderstanding and hype-chasing that is typical of this market.
Every part of the marketing, packaging, build, design, comfort, and sonic performance of Lumen makes it clear Prisma is completely uninterested in the way this market typically works… and thank god for that.
Prisma is not letting marketing, driver spam, tuning quirks, or hype do the heavy lifting to sell a mediocre product (especially not for multiples of what it’s actually worth). Prisma also isn’t just engaging with the surface level of the science or community, learning just enough to speak their language and effectively sell them products.
Josh is legitimately engaged with the current state of the science around IEMs, as well as sincerely listening to what the community has been asking for. He is truly attempting to provide something that does everything well, with as little compromise as possible in as many areas as possible, all while selling it for a price that is just enough to sustain the business.
So now, we arrive at the questions most audiophile reviews must end on: Should you buy it? Is it worth the money? My answer to these questions for the past few years has always been some version of “Eh… it’s good not great, probably best to wait for something better to come along.”
Well here it is. Lumen is, without question, the “something better” that I’ve been telling people to wait for. A reference-tuned IEM built on a full understanding of how incredibly special it can be when an IEM’s full potential is realized to produce a full-range, exceptionally-tuned portable audio device with a beautifully-designed shell and a solid ergonomic profile.
Yes, it’s expensive, but this is what a product looks like when it’s actually worth every penny of what you spend. This is what a product that actually represents an evolution of IEM sound quality sounds like. This is the kind of product people should be buying to indicate to manufacturers “this is the excellence we expect from our products, and we won’t settle for less.”
Prisma has raised the bar. Let’s see if the market rises to meet it.
Sound score
8.5/10
Overall score
8/10
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://headphones.com/blogs/reviews/prisma-lumen
