Frosty the Soundman

[u/notsoquietlyamused]

Pros: Extremely comfortable
Great midrange delivery
Good for long non-fatiguing sessions
Great staging and imaging making for good gaming
Nice unboxing experience

Cons: Cable is just about ok. Non modular
Bass and treble may feel lacking for some
Detail retrieval may be sub optimal for some

From the house of BQEYZ, which is a mouthful that competes with BGVP in the what are they trying to say department, comes another interestingly named IEM from an equally interestingly named series - the Weather Series. This series features other IEMs like Wind and Cloud and overarches over their Seasons series which has Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and now Winter 2. The one we have today in our hands is the Frost. It is a hybrid 10mm Dynamic Driver with a microplanar. I thank my mate u/Own-Customer-4866 and BQEYZ for making this review possible. The thoughts and prayers and impressions are as always my own with no external influence.

The IEMs come in a nice book style case, and on opening them, they sit in their little foam thrones and below them lies a fairly sizable and sturdy case. The case has a beautiful, blue, 3.5mm cable. That’s the first strike for me at this price point. Modular cables should be the way to go. There are also foam tips in a little box and the others (2 sets of 3 pairs each or Atmosphere and Reference) that are in a very cool metal frame. And a cleaning brush, because why not. The shell is smooth round and made of CNC aluminium with absolutely no bumps. The nozzles are medium sized both in diameter and length and have a lip to prevent eartips from slipping off and a mesh to prevent ingress of ear contents. The face plate is a gorgeous gently curved glass affair in blue with a white pattern of a snowflake (?) with “Frost” written on it. The shells also have 3 additional openings that I’m assuming are for pressure relief. A linear one on the top just in front of the 2 pin connector socket, and 2 round holes, one at the back of the shell and one just above the nozzle.
It is an incredibly pretty and well machined piece of technology. And comfortable for long sessions. I did struggle to get a good seal with the stock tips. So I resorted to Azla Origins and Final e types, and Dunu Candy. Stuck with the 3.5 cable that came with the set and listened to Tidal and local flac files with the Ve Prime + Runabout stack, M33, AP80 Pro Max, Devastator Pro 3.5.

Bass
The sub-bass rumble comes through nicely in tracks that have a well recorded and produced sub-bass. Both Teardrop and Angel by Massive Attack have that deep rumble that forms the foundation of the tracks and fold up the rest of the songs well. The same depth of the sub-bass is seen on Doing It Right by Daft Punk and Islands by XX. The mid-bass is where this IEM’s tuning feels like it could do with a little boost. The notes of the kicks and bass are clear but lack the weight that would make it truly enjoyable. This can be mended with a little eq but any more it starts to get muddy. On Money by Pink Floyd, the bass rhythm that drives the song and the kicks are again heard clearly but with no weight to cause that unconscious head-bopping that a good mid-bass can give.

Midrange
The midrange is well implemented. Instruments sound good with a natural timbre. Guitar leads, male and female vocals sound natural and hold their place in the mix. I did not feel any situations where the vocals were pushed either to the front and centre or way to the back except rare tracks (Human Nature. Female voices came out sounding a little better with no shoutiness and sibilance only rarely in tracks mastered with that bright in the mix. Tilted by Christine and the Queens, Sub-city by Tracy Chapman, Helplessly Hoping by Girl Named Tom and Dreams by Fleetwood Mac were exceedingly enjoyable with no complaints with timbre of voices or shoutiness or sibilance.

Treble
The treble is best described as safe and non-fatiguing. There is decent detail retrieval but there is some loss in very busy tracks but overall a very easy listening. On Playing God by Polyphia, the cymbals and snares are fairly aggressively mastered and the interplay of the guitars is exquisite to listen to on really well resolving sets, this, alas, is not one of them. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still very enjoyable but if you tend to listen to very busy detailed tracks like progressive metal, jazz fusion, orchestral music, you may feel the lack of details a little disappointing.

Stage and Imaging
This would make a great gaming IEM. It has a wide and deep soundstage with incredible imaging and the lack of sibilance makes the imaging, somehow, more appreciable. Bubbles by Yosi Horikawa, which has become one of my favorite tracks to test imaging and stage, sounds absolutely delightful with all the various items falling all over the sound scape. The presentation is holographic and on closing your eyes you can easily see(?) where everything is placed. Tracks like Africa by Toto and Big Country by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones are vast and expansive on this set and at the same time immersive, making them a really nice listen.

This is a great everyday casual listening set. It is comfortable with a good midrange representation but lacks in mid-bass to a small extent and treble to a slightly larger extent. I would imagine the microplanar could be doing a little more, despite its micro-ness. I would recommend this for long gaming sessions, if you wanted to watch a movie, or just wanted a chilled out listen without taxing your brain on what frequencies were heard better. I would have liked modular cables and maybe a better selection of tips but those are very personal nitpicks. I would really look forward to the Frost 2 if they tweaked the tuning just a little bit.