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

The Jupiter was just a muffled mess for me. The Andros sounded amazingly even keeled out of my AK100ii when I listened to them at canjam neither bloated in bass, nor bright in the treble. I probably could have listened to it all day.

 

Andromeda does has certain elevated regions in the trebles, but not too much that it becomes sibilant. I can see how it seems V shaped (some sparkle/hotness in treble + bassy foundation), but IMO it's more a downward sloping with some peaks.

 

OK, let's take this slowly. I made a normal argument with pros and cons. My verdict was that the Andromeda are good IEMs but do not match the term 'linear'. But it seems that some users are not capable of reading without bias. They only read cons and take it for a personal insult. We're back to Head-Fi, I applaud you!

Most recent first: MH1, VE8, NF6, PP8, Jomo6 V2, PM3 (headphones)
The very first track I played was Gregory Porter - Hey Laura, iPhone 6S Plus (lossless) > iFi iEMatch (not perfect source, but it'll have to do for early impressions). I noticed the voice being warmer, thicker and dull when I was expecting realism and neutrality.

I was writing on the NF6 review at that time. A monitor I rated with exceptional treble above 6 kHz. Surely I noticed a treble peak with the Andromeda. From 6 - 8 kHz there is a strong increase. Yes, this can be problematic when pushed to the limit. I have two tracks in my playlist that I use to determine sibilance (yes, they are prone to sibilance, that's why I use them - but linear responses are not sharp): From Metallica's S&M album and Adele - Cold Shoulder.

On my second audit, I was playing with the VE8 for an evening and an hour before. I rate the VE8 as too warm, but they have more present and realistic mids to my ears and the treble is perceived flat (not enough to counter the warmth). The Andromeda still have a recessed midrange in comparison, however, I did not find them fatiguing because I already adjusted to VE8's strong bass. it does take some time to get used to the bass of both IEMs, in my opinion. It's not what I consider natural, realistic or linear.

Now, k4rstar had a bad day. I won't take it personal. He just wanted to bash. But his logic is a bit weak. Saying my source sucks and then claiming the Andromeda will sound great from an iPhone...

 

it seems like your experience with these are pretty different from people's own experience with them, but its hard to understand why/how from your post. for example, rather than saying things like they're v-shaped, or have a dull midrange, or aren't linear, and stopping there, it would be more helpful to offer a point of comparison for each. it would also be helpful to know what sources were used, since as you point out they are tricky to impedance match. iphone isn't bad (as @k4rstar states, he doesn't say they will "sound great" from it as you state above, fyi), but i definitely found them more lean and brighter than i'd prefer with the iphone. folks here have made some good suggestions of sources and how they affect the sound. i've heard the andromeda with both the sony zx-2 and ak120 and both added a bit of warmth and meat onto its bones (which aligned to my listening goal)... the ak120 being the warmer of the two. neither sounded sibilant to me, the ak maybe rolled the treble off a tiny bit more or de-emphasized them more so than the zx2. neither are mega-buck daps, which is great, cause i find the IEM and DAP space to be f'ing annoying, and i just want something that i like and not perma-wank myself with different IEMs and/or DAPs. i know you write reviews for some place, and i haven't read them, so i can't say whether they differ from your posts here. but more of a frame of reference or background would be helpful and more productive rather than a string of absolute-sounding statements.

 

@k.e. - Have you tried the iPhone straight into the Andromeda without the iFi IEMatch? I'm not sure why you are using the IEMatch with an iPhone since that is one of the few devices that is near silent with the Andromeda. I use an iPhone SE which should be very similar to the 6S and I don't like the IEMatch in-between the two.

 

@k.e. I've just re-read several of your Andromeda post's, and unless I've missed it because I just woke up. You fail to mention anything about what tips you've tried with them. I'm not saying a change of tips will give you a different opinion, but tips are another factor that change the Andro's sound, and a crucial overlook on your part.

Another happy iPhone SE user here too, although my main DAP is a Sony ZX2.

 

I don't even see a reason to further discuss this. The official (uncompensated) measurements have been posted before and here I am to confirm them. They match what I heard.

That's because the Andromeda sounds up to 6 dB brighter on my iPhone 6S Plus 128 GB as measurements show here (0, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 ohms) and that would completely falsify any judgment.

 

Tell me any tips, source amp and cable that can turn this into a linear graph:



Again, we are not discussing whether Andromeda sound good or not, because I already agreed that they sound lively and good. But I don't see anything linear or natural around here.

 

Sorry, I can't let this slide. The reason I write reviews is because I have a lot of experience and my interest in this hobby hasn't slowed down in the last 7 years. I even have a working background with an IEM company. I spent a lot of time learning the terminology, comparing and analyzing to phrase what I hear. English is not my first language. I have Wikipedia open in a tab with every review I write to double-check and confirm that I am using the correct term. If I write "mids sound edgy" that means there is a peak around 5 kHz. It's not a word I make up of which I think it sounds fancy. Writing a review takes a lot of work and in the end I only do it for somebody to tell me "good review, Klaus."

You can bash Headfonics all you want. I won't say there isn't a single half-hearted review on the site, but I think Marcus does a damn better job as most sites out there. He is also very precise about his wording and if the truth is ugly, he will still put it in the text, even if it won't show in the final score directly. I can't say this for every site. It is an honor for me to write for him.

 

Looks like you already went back on your word.

My, my, aren't we getting defensive. I don't recall saying that any of the above would make the Andromeda's linear, only that tips would affect the sound as well. If you're to uptight to try for yourself, then so be it.

 

I always welcome second opinions, from people whose opinion I respect. Openly mocking your baseless post in a condescending manner was pretty much to signal I don't value your opinion at all as I think you write reviews for products you receive for free or at discount. I won't get into the dichotomy of (semi-)professional audio reviewing with you as I'm sure your self-delusions will prevent us from making any progress. You also appear to struggle to properly to correlate measurements, both compensated and raw, with what we perceive subjectively.

This strawman argument is even weaker than the one you sent me in PM. Since you seem eager to get the last word in despite not seeing the point of discussing this any further I'll throw you one more bone. Why are you using the IEMatch with an iPhone 6S when all that will accomplish is raising the OI, and as you noted, making the sound less linear and more forward in the treble? When did I say the Andromeda was linear? How are you qualifying what you perceive as linear on a graph? Is it a perfectly flat line? With what compensation?

Natural sounding is another story. This itself is a debate that could have its own thread (and has, maybe you should go read some of them) but the Andromeda seems pretty natural to me. It dips into 1kHz which leaves a slight emphasis on the emotional areas of the low and upper mids, which is the opposite of dull. If you say your preference is for drier monitors or diffuse field tuning dreck then that is fine, but that contradicts some of the other vocabulary you use right away. PM3 less dull in the mids than Andromeda? BRB blowing my brains out.

I recognize English isn't your native tongue and I applaud your continued interest in the hobby, but thankfully as you aptly point out this isn't Head-Fi and I can take the time to call out total bullshit so people with less experience don't have to read it and be misled.

 

You can take a list of my published reviews here. I received ONE discount 4 months AFTER the review. I intend to use it as a benchmark for further reviews.
I kept: two customs, a Noontec headphone and the 1More budget IEMs. I offered to send them back after the review. All of them. I have sold none and now use them as reference for future reviews.
Claiming I write reviews for freebies would be quite unfair and simply untrue. Making these claims without knowing me says a lot about you.



Andromeda are lacking in the area from 2 to 5 kHz. The male presence/ recognition is 2 to 4 kHz. That's a fact. Instead they boost bass and bleed into the midrange up to 600 Hz. It makes the male voice sound thick and warm. When has that changed?
As for "dull", in audio terminology that is a lack in 6 kHz and above. Guess where Andromeda have their lowest volume? 6 kHz. Definitely doesn't affect voice harmonics...

 

Hmm. Not necessarily.

There's still a lot of debate about target curves for IEMs. For example I do not like curves resembling the DF target with its big 3-4kHz bump. It's not only a matter of personal preference, it's a matter of how I perceive IEM tonal balance compared to a close-to-neutral speaker reference. Marvey and others have stated something similar before. I know you don't agree with this, but IEMs that have become known for their good midrange around here like the Andro and UERM do not resemble the DF (or similar) target at all.
The IEM targets are supposed to emulate speaker tonal balance with IEMs, but in my opinion they're missing too many important aspects. Listening to IEMs is not like to listening to speakers and I really think we can't take just take FR measurements of speakers in a room with a dummy head and use that as an IEM curve - the sound fields are just too fundamentally different.

The OI has a great influence on its tonal balance, especially the lower midrange warmth. I didn't like the thickness from near 0 OI. Your review had a nice graph showing the influence of OI on the sound. Why not show a graph how the FR looks with varying OI?

I wouldn't quote measurements as "facts" when there isn't even a universally agreed upon standard on how to interpret them.

Insertion depth has a great effect on treble measurements. The 6kHz "lowest point" could very well become the highest point with a slightly more shallow insertion depth, at least in the measurements.

Why not judge it based on what extracts their optimal performance?


One thing that bothers me is how everyone keeps mentioning high efficiency, when they're mainly just highly sensitive. Even the old UE TF10 has a specified efficiency that's higher than the Andromeda's, although the Andromeda is probably quite a bit louder from most devices.

 

I think people should mention what kind of volume they're listening at when reviewing iems. Anything can go from being u shaped (implying a nice curve instead of sudden leaks and drops) to linear or from linear to mid centric and vice versa, etc. when you're listening to them at super loud levels vs super low levels. I'm not even sure which way it works but for me, hd650s sound mid centric at lower volumes and more v shaped at higher volumes. After adjusting myself to fit the volume where i think they are the most neutral, which according to measurements from my shitty phone mic, are about what people here listen at (80-85), I've finally understand why peeps here love them so much. And this took a few months, not days or weeks.
Neutrality's a finicky thing, and it's best not to fall for bias from your own measurements or "experience". Another member here has also gained a reputation for dismissing almost everything after less than a week's worth of auditioning.

 

Only two customs. Only 4 items. Lmao.

 

Thank you for coming back to the topic, Serious.

This is the second time I hear this and I am almost absolutely certain that the first time it was also from you. But, well... and also this huge Andro fanbase, of course.
I mentioned my comparisons. Do they all sound too crunchy for you?
Have you tried Sonarworks? I'm pretty sure that software would try to fill up Andro's vocal range too.
Which genres do you prefer?

Here are some IEMs with a similar midrange characteristic: Vega, Stage 3/ VE3, Shozy Zero (upper mid boost), InEar StageDiver 4 (absolutely no compensation)
They also sound more realistic in the mids to you than the ones I compared the Andro with? Or is Andro the exception?
I'm not too familiar with UERR. I auditioned them the same day the ProPhile 8 was revealed and I only remember preferring the PP8. I don't remember them as having a similar character to Andro. Would be worth to double-check and compare on the same measurement rig.

My first test track is always male Jazz vocal. Because that is easiest for me to hear coloration. Second track is always female Jazz vocal. Only if both tonalities sound correct, I can be sure the midrange is accurate. For tonality, I don't compare with other IEMs. I compare to speakers or what I would expect a voice to sound. Then I insert the earphones and see if they match my expectation. After I'm done with my test playlist, I use a sinus sweep.
I'd say nowadays I'm fairly accurate at describing what the frequency response looks like without seeing the measurements. We have tried this many times before. The Andro would not have been an exception. Measurements look exactly like what I heard.

It's a fun signature. Yes. But balanced and realistic are not the same. If you boost bass, the tonality becomes warm. Balance the treble, the midrange is recessed. Of course not every vocal range will be perfectly balanced. Lower notes will be warm and higher notes will be bright. It's not rocket science, these are the basics of coloration. Coloration is something the mind can easily adapt to, though. So I think it's important to also compare IEMs with speakers. There are some earphones I can just insert and say "they sound natural". Andromeda are not among them.

 

The iPhone 6s Plus' OI is 6.09 ohm while the iEMatch has about 1 ohm set to Ultra.

There definitely still is a lot of debate about target curves. But I just can't be coincidence that every target curve peaks in the 2-4 kHz range. How big the bump should be is another story, but the Andromeda's FR will pretty certainly be smaller at given frequency.

With speakers the room has a fundamental effect on how the sound is perceived at the eardrum. By taking eardrum dummy head measurements in a perfect room with neutral speakers we will get a very good impression of how a neutral eardrum FR should look like. I see nothing fundamentally wrong with that. Why should those results not be used to determine how IEMs should sound?
However what is a perfect room and a really neutral speaker? And furthermore who of us has access to nearly perfect speakers and rooms to compare headphones with. As everybody knows speaker sound can vary significantly in different rooms and with different positioning and listening spots. My guess is this variation of speaker sound causes some of the tolerance we can muster up for different IEM FRs.

It's my review btw.. Thanks I can do a graph that will show the variations of the FR. IMO a flat line as a 0 ohm reference makes the graph easier to interpret though.

I think you are referring to the Andro's 115 dB SPL / mW versus the TF10's 119 dB SPL / mW? Let me clear this up: Those dB SPL / mW specs are only valuable with given headphone impedance. Together with 12.8 ohm Campfire states for the Andro and 32 ohm for the TF10 they both calculate to about 134 dB SPL / V. I measured an impedance of 6.6 ohm for the Andro at 1 kHz, what will result in an even higher 137 dB SPL / V.

Fletcher-Munson like your post. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour

 

this is precisely why i cannot fully strike out the Andromeda from my list. it worked real well with my fiio x5iii at the store.

 

I have never read the site in question, but I think the above is part of the reason why people are calling it a shill site. I am not sure why the words wouldn't be directly correlated to the final score. From your text, I infer that you are increasing the final scores to give the appearance of a positive review.