Campfire Audio Andromeda Review: Holy Cow, This is a Dream, Awesomesauce!

Thanks all. Might just rebuy the Mojo unless there are other ideas. I prefer a brighter / more neutral FR but it's hard to see any other options. I was also hoping for something with analog inputs to be able to use with a desktop DAC when I'm at home but maybe I should just buy another amp for that purpose?

Would be interested to know if any of those impedance adapters make a difference .

 

If your PC's volume hotkeys aren't granular enough, use 3RVX to tweak the step size. I use this when I'm running IEMs (and even the HD650) off my GOv2+ Infinity. Assign the "vol up" & "vol down" keys in the app, then set the "change size" to 1% (the lowest setting) for both hotkeys. Been a damn godsend when I'm using super sensitive IEMs with the GO. Mac users.. TFB! Maybe you can find something similar for your neck of the woods.

 

Personally I use Power Mixer and the scroll wheel of my mouse over the taskbar to change volume, and I wish I could access the native Mojo volume that way. f**k moving my hand off the mouse and my eyes off the screen to locate a device and click a physical button just to tweak volume .

 

I have had the Andromeda's for a month now, and initially I wasn't impressed and came very close to selling them, boy am I glad I didn't. The mid range sounded muffled and dull the first few listens, so I tried the Comply tips (worse, less detail and muffled), Spiral Dots (close to the stock silicone soundwise, but more comfy). Tried them from my iPhone SE (good, had some potential), Chord Mojo (way too dark and muffled). I felt they weren't worth the $$$, but I took them with me to work anyway.

After a few more hours listening they still didn't seem to have any thing to write home about. Then somewhere around the 10-15hr mark the midrange really started to open up and things started to sound good, then really good. Not long after, I was assigned a job that required 16 hour work days for a week, living on the road. I decided to bring the Andromeda's with my to use with my iPhone. Over that week I had a chance to listen for 8-10hrs a day and they really started to shine.

For me what really stands out are, the treble, the layering, the detail, and the overall tone, simply outstanding. They handle bass really well too, I tried them with a few 90's car audio bass cd's, Techmaster P.E.B. "Bass Computer" and Power Supply "Bass Boom Bottom", I had a chuckle, but it was a fun time, bringing me back to the day's of Alpine 6 crystal cd players, 15" Cerwin Vega/JL Audio woofers, MB Quart components (I hated their titanium tweeters), Sound Stream/PPI amps and Audio Control Epicenter's in slammed Honda Civic's/ 5.0 Mustangs.

It still bothered me that the Mojo wouldn't play nice with them. I saw the posts recently in this thread that related to adding impedance adapters, and after some poking around I saw that Ultimate Ears had a buffer jack for $10. So I ordered it and picked it up earlier today from them in Irvine. So far so good... No, actually great, for $10 it changes the Mojo sound to something closer to my iPhone SE, maybe a touch brighter. I love the way the Andromeda handles and delivers treble, always there, but rarely ever offensive or irritating.

http://pro.ultimateears.com/adjustable-ambient-filters-199

I'm also very impressed with the Chord Mojo, it's a fantastic travel solution that can handle IEM's, full size cans, and even efficient speakers !!! Even better at the Amazon UK price of $470 shipped to the USA

http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...nd-fostex-blh-speakers.1358/page-3#post-71559 post #57

 

Does anyone know what the buffer jack does compared with, say, one of those eBay adapters or the Etymotic ER4P to 4S adapter? Do we know how much resistance it adds? Not sure whether to buy one of those or one of the eBay ones?

 

I measured a little over 4 ohms from tip to tip. Email UE for exact spec And report back to us.

 

Thanks. I'll contact them. I'd read it was closer to 100 ohms (and when I had the UERM it seemed to make a big difference to how hard it was to drive out of my Rag) so it will be interesting to find out. For $10 it's not a huge investment though and I trust UE to make a high quality product more than an eBay seller so I'd rather buy from them!

 

Doesn't the Sony PHA-3 have an output z around 3 ohms? Could be a pricier solution.

 

I've had these for a day now. I posted a full review on the other site, but I'll spare you the cliff notes here (source is HTC10 phone for reference):

-sold Orion to upgrade to Andro, very worthwhile investment as it is an improvement across the board
-overall presentation is a slightly musical/sweet take on a reference tuning, all genres sound good
-bass goes deep, is extremely satisfying and doesn't sound like BA bass. notes are slightly thick but keep up in speed and don't bleed.
-mids are very much clear and in focus, I love how CA manages to have vocals dance over the instruments
-highs are ever-present but make a point to never displease with splash or sibilance despite carrying so much energy
-staging is excellent, not an insane out of your head experience but fills the area in between your ears and gives a sense of fullness to the presentation

Overall, a definite keeper for me and pretty much my ideal signature in a nutshell. Agree with Marv when he says Orion is Andro-lite, still a very worthwhile purchase at 1/3rd the price.

 

Awesome, nice cliff notes, k4rstar.

I picked up a used pair I'll probably get next week sometime. I'm really looking forward to it, though I hope my high expectations don't let me down - trying to keep those expectations tempered.

I definitely don't expect it to keep up with my y3->torp3->modded HD800, but if it can get close enough, I think I could be happy to downsize/simplify my rig and gain some mobility back.

-edit- fwiw, also picked up the sony zx2 at the same time