A collection of Campfires

Between my own purchases and a generous loaner from @M3NTAL, I currently have more Campfire IEMs in my possession than you can shake a stick at. I have on hand:

Andromeda (OG)
Andromeda Gold
Astrolith
Axion
Blackstar
Bonneville
Cascara
Darkstar

Just for fun I'm going to write down some thoughts on all of these.

Andromeda OG
The myth, the legend, the original Andromeda. I'm guessing most people here have heard this by now so it's not worth going into detail on it. I have owned the OG previously and haven't heard it in many years but it holds up really well and frankly I don't think CFA should have ever futzed with it. It's a near perfect IEM from low ohm sources and remains truly special. I'm tempted to pick up a pair to have again because they possess that crystal clarity that just makes music shine. The only flaw on this is its BA bass and timbre, which are not deal breakers if you enjoy the overall sound. I am curious how the Fathom and Ara compare.

Andromeda Gold
A distinct release from the other Andros, this one has extra bass drivers, no crossovers, and a different balance to the tuning that makes it a good all rounder. I liked this, but I didn't find the extra bass drivers added much and the tuning wasn't as much to my taste as the OG. It lost some of the spaciousness and speaker like presentation of the OG. Glad I got to hear them because I know these are well regarded and I can see why, but to me the hype is not justified.

Astrolith
The new king of the hill. I wrote about this extensively in the Astro review thread. Dual planar that combines deep lows and sparkling, airy highs with seemingly endless resolution and speed in a tuning that can morph from V-shaped to U-shaped to L-shaped depending on the tips you use with it. Likes power, scales up to the highest tiers of downstream gear, just a monster of an IEM. My fave.

Axion
An experiment released in CFA's last Multiverse event, the Axion is a bullet shaped IEM that uses full range Silicon Dynamic Drivers. These produce a big, bold sound with nice extension on both ends but these are so power hungry that make the Astroliths look demure in comparison. I can run these on Ragnarok in high gain with barely any hiss. They just eat up power. CFA bundled it with a USB cable that powers the IEMs and honestly it's not enough. You can get loud with the included cable but the sound is harsh and brittle. Connecting it to the Rag significantly ramped up the refinement and to some extent the resolution, but these are hardly resolutions monsters. Even powered by Rag, these show some harshness on sibilants and it's generally just not a pleasing listen. Kudos to CFA for trying something different.



Blackstar
A limited edition release that was pitched as a more neutral take on the Bonneville, the Blackstar is my cup of tea. It has nice, powerful bass with its dual magnet DD driver and the clarity of BAs for the mids and highs. It has some bite and sparkle to it but isn't overly sharp and works well to my ears as an all rounder. It's been superseded by the Darkstar. If the DS didn't exist I'd be lusting after the Blackstar and it's a tuning I wish they would incorporate into their regular lineup.

Bonneville
I was amped for this one because I've seen tons of people praise it as their favorite of the currently available CFA IEMs, and I totally get way. It's got big, fun bass and a V-shaped tonality that many people love. I personally don't love V-shaped IEMs so the Bonneville didn't hit the spot for me, but I totally get why so many people have gone head over heels for it.

Cascara
The CFA I was most primed to love, by virtue of its single DD driver. I've been a single DD driver ride or die since moving away from the OG Andromeda and still have a lot of love for the purity of single DD designs. Sadly, the Cascara is also V-shaped and even more of a "fun" style tuning than the Bonneville. That is to say it's a total bass cannon and the mids get overpowered. The highs have some peakiness to them that grate on me as well. In denser tracks the Cascara simply can't keep up, becoming a muddy, smeared mess. I got these on a deep discount from the CFA marketplace site with a Black Friday coupon on top of the already discounted price and even then this hasn't been worth it to me and I'm in the process of returning them.

Darkstar
A collaboration with Drop, the Darkstar is a nearly identical revival of the Blackstar. It has a slightly darker tuning, with less prominent highs which results in less sparkle and bite. This won't be to everyone's tastes but for me it makes the Darkstar a very easy listen and I can wear them for hours without any kind of fatigue. The Darkstar also is the first CFA release to feature a new biocellulose version of their dual magnet DD driver in the bass and it is simply a beast of a driver. Powerful, extended, textured, expressive, fast, it produces the best bass of any IEM in this list and I am so stoked for CFA to utilize this driver in future releases. In particular I hope they do an update to Trifecta with these drivers.

 

What’s the MSRP of everything combined?

I know you will hate the Ara.

 

Hmm, some back of napkin math says this is over $10,000 in IEMs, if all purchased at their original full prices.

 

Everyone should send @Merrick more CFA IEMs to add to this list, that would be really fun. I could send you my Moonrover but I modded it by taking the screws out to give it more neutral bas and open up the soundstage and can't remember the "super safe" place I put the screws.

 

Ara is OK with the right tips, but yeah it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

Are the above notes based on standard tips?

 

Ah, good question. No, the above notes are with TRI Clarion tips, although the Darkstar and Astrolith I’ve rolled a ton of different tips on including the stock ones. The cables used were the Timestream Ultra and Timestream regular. Listening done on Rag 1 connected to Yggdrasil GS, ibasso DC Elite, and Aune M1P.

 

Honestly I’m super curious to compare the modded Moon Rover to the Astrolith.

 

I'd like to personally thank Ken Ball for allowing me to buy these wonderful iems. Even if I don't feel the BA bass and timbre at times.

 

I can’t think of any other IEM that really sounds quite like the original Andromeda.

 

I was a little nervous sending $7k of man jewelry during the holidays. Super glad it worked out and had some good ears to check them out.

I have custom tips from Campfire coming that fit the Bonneville and separately the Solaris/Dark Star/Black Star, etc. shell. I've invested in the long keep for them.

For some reason, getting a .STL file is crazy $$ in Phoenix.

 

I’ve got the Modulate tips coming for Astrolith and Darkstar. They said the tips would be ready at the end of last week but I guess the holidays have backed them up more than expected because I’m still waiting. Oh well.

@M3NTAL Thank you again for the loaner! I’m blown away that you’d send all these out.

 

Excellent write up @Merrick! I'm probably going to order a Darkstar as it sounds like my type of tuning. I was curious, is the stock cable as bad as it looks, or is it 'good enough' when it comes to comfort and or tangling?

Worth it to get a Time Stream instead?

I've heard the Astrolith (and ended up returning it). While very impressive it's a bit huge for my ears and can be too revealing of the garbage music I tend to listen to. A smaller and more forgiving IEM sounds perfect.

 

The included cable is a standard Litz cable, so it’s quite thin and can get tangled. I really like the Darkstar with the base Timestream cable but you may want to try the stock cable to see if it’s a good fit for you.

 

This might not be the case anymore but I do wonder whether the base Litz cables are deliberately higher inductance, which would explain why moving to the Super Litz or something aftermarket that's VERY chunky results in a significant bass boost on the Andromedas that seem to track with the freq v impedance curves.

Mind the Y Axis, I am very zoomed in here, but here's the Andro 2020 with four different cables out of the Magni Unity (sub-1 ohm):



And then the same four cables, but now out of my FiiO dongle's 3.5mm out which has 1.2R impedance (I'm sorry for different colours than above, these were all taken at separate times while things were hectic); the differences are less pronounced, but they're more or less in the same order as above:



Of course this is just FR so won't tell the whole story, but interesting regardless