Campfire Andromeda 2020 Review

This won't be anywhere near being a full review, but perhaps these impressions will come in handy to anyone looking to pick a pair up. All impressions will be out of an Apple USB-C dongle running a mix of local FLAC files and YouTube Music.

The primary comparison will be to the original Campfire Solaris which, despite its being large and cumbersome, remains my favourite IEM I've tried to date; I also consider it to be significantly better than the newer 2020 Solaris variant, though I'd be lying if I said that I didn't much appreciate how much more securely the Solaris 2020 sat in my smaller pinnae. That really is the only thing I felt the Solaris 2020 improved upon with respect to the Solaris lineup, as everything from treble fatigue to headstage placement were thereby compromised.

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As popular as the Campfire Solaris has been, its reputation doesn't hold a candle to that of the original Campfire Andromeda. It feels fully fair to say that the original Andromeda was what propelled Campfire Audio to the mainstream despite the voicing of a lot of their IEMs being... significantly more polarising than those of the Andromeda, its assorted variants, and the original Solaris; a case can be made for the Campfire Ara, but at least based on extended store demos I'm reasonably certain saying that the Ara is far too glarey and fatiguing for me personally, much as I did enjoy its uncannily non-BA-sounding low end.

The first thing that stands out to most people with respect to the Andromeda and its assorted variants appears to be headstage, and speaking as someone to whom headstage performance is a premier factor in gear selection, I can say that the Andromeda fails to disappoint. Having said all that, I much prefer the Solaris in this regard.

The original Solaris outclasses the Andromeda 2020 in terms of headstage performance, and it's not even close.

While I can appreciate how nebulous the stage the Andromeda presents is with sonic elements thrown far out-of-head compared to a lot of IEMs in the intermediate space (not that I'm particularly familiar with a myriad of models compared to many on the forum but I've gotten to try some nice toys from the like of JH, 64 Audio, Fitear, and assorted others over the years, though I don't think I've ever heard a UERM), there's just not a lot in terms of layering and delineation going on; it sounds like what the Sennheiser HD800 is to me in the world of headphones out of modest upstreams-- massive headstage, yes, and you're given a general idea of where features on that sonic tapestry lie, but it's comparatively vague with less material directly upfront.

While the Campfire Solaris presents sonic elements that are intended to be prominent directly in front of the listener to juxtapose sonic elements intended to be placed further back, thereby establishing better contrasts of depth and layering, the Andromeda 2020 simply has everything either quite in-your-head or indeterminately off somewhere in the distance-- it's a laudable effect to pull off with IEMs, but not much my preference. The "edges" of the images are more indistinct, but this makes for a more pleasant unfocused listening experience at the least.​

Speaking of the HD800, I should point out that I don't hear the Andromeda 2020 as being particularly dark, unlike what some other members have reported.

ANDROMEDA 2020 MEASUREMENTS:
NOTE: channel matching in bass is better than shown in this specific measurement. I just forgot to save those results, these are a sloppy IDGAF measurement job that ought be good enough for getting a general idea of things as compared to the Solaris. No one should take any single FR graph at face value:

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It's been many years since I got ears on the original Andromeda, and the specifics of my listening impressions weren't coded to memory. All I distinctly remember was the fact that I had tears streaming down my face in public while listening to Jeff Buckley's Grace album (specifically Hallelujah and Corpus Christi Carol, I believe) on the Andromedas out of my phone at the time, which would have been a first-generation Motorola Z Play. Whatever the original Andromeda sounded like to me at the time, I feel compelled to say that the treble of the 2020 variant somehow comes across as less refined to me than that of the original Solaris; I actually find myself fatigued by the treble of the Andromeda 2020s on extended listening sessions, and this is using Spiral Dot++ tips with the nozzles as deeply-inserted as they can possibly go.

The actual treble levels may be comparable to those of the Solaris, but the character of that of the Andro 2020 is just rougher and more bothersome, especially at higher volumes.

Campfire Solaris (YELLOW); Campfire Andromeda 2020 (GREEN):

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Speaking of volume levels, I find myself cranking gain on my phone listening to the Andromeda 2020s relative to the Solaris. Both models have recessions in the upper midrange, but while the trough on the Solaris centered around ~4kHz actually works for me and doesn't impact perception of overtones and harmonics, I often struggle to find a comfortable listening level with the Andromedas. It's something of a tenuous balancing act of filling in the upper midrange recession and keeping the treble from grating on my ears too much.

In terms of being able to delineate busy passages and flesh out individual sonic elements, the Andromeda takes the cake. It's not got a lot of BA timbre to my ears, not enough to be genuinely bothersome at least, but decays are abbreviated enough that I was actally going through a surprising phase of finding new things in music I've listened to for years, which isn't a phenomenon I've encountered in quite some time. Bit uncanny, not un-fun, but this comes at the expense of having less "romantic" decay compared to the Solaris, and more natural-sounding microdynamics besides. The overall voicing of the IEM actually comes off as a bit too warm for me at times, likely due to how the upper midrange sounds more recessed to me than that of the Solaris, but even with the overarching sound profile skewing a bit muffled with some material the BA resolving ability stands out.

Textures are somewhat overemphasised on the Andromeda 2020, like a photograph that's been touched up with boosted local contrast, but it's not as extreme a case as in several other BA-only IEMs I've tried. That's not a lot of IEMs I have to admit, so take that statement with a grain of salt. To compare to headphones, which is more my wheelhouse, I'd almost like to say it was somewhat comparable to the Klipsch HP-3 in how it was almost hyper-real, with the Solaris having more natural timbre and nuance from not chasing an exaggeratedly high-resolution sound (out of equivalently mid-tier systems of decent synergy), much like the Sennheiser HD600. I fully admit bias towards dynamic drivers and so it's fully possible that my partiality to how these drivers convey certain inflections and nuances won't necessarily translate to anyone else's preferences.

There's no contest with respect to sub-bass extension and general macrodynamic impact-- the Solaris wins here. Listening to the very end of My Chemical Romance's Vampire Money, there's a VERY prominent 40Hz buzz to close the song out that, on the Solaris, makes my eyeballs rattle; the Andromeda 2020s are able to present that low bass hum, but it's done so in a more matter of fact and clinical manner, nowhere near being as brain-liquefying as the Solaris.

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The Andromeda does have a fair bit of bass kick to it which is impressive for an all-BA design, I'd easily say it surpasses a decent DD IEM like the Etymotic ER2XR handily in this regard, but while there's good impact and sense of dynamism from the bass through the midrange, there seems to be a fair bit less control in the upper frequencies: hi-hats, chimes, and sibilants just have a bit of a less refined, hashy character on the Andromeda, at least when directly compared to the Solaris. I DO hear the Solaris as being bright on certain material at times, but it is at the least smoother and more deliberate in its rendering of upper frequencies. Again, the Andromedas are just a whit rougher sounding to me, which ends up being a massive bother when I'm listening for extended periods of times.

At least with respect to how they sound off of the Apple dongle, neither the Andromeda 2020 nor the original Solaris are particularly clean in their sonic blackground-- there's a persistent greyness to the furthest reaches of the soundscape, and it's not to hard to "feel" a haze in front of sonic elements if you're familiar with how they sound out of more "pristine" systems. You won't get Samsung AMOLED-class performance on either of these, but speaking as someone who much prefers IPS panels to VA ones, and whatever sonic analogy is tantamount thereto, it's not a bother at all.​

The stock Smoky Litz cable that comes with the Andromeda is much thinner-feeling in hand than the Super Litz that the Solaris is shipped with, and the difference is more tangible than it is visible as far as I'm concerned because they don't look too much different in width. While I appreciate how much more supple the Smoky Litz is I do have to admit that I'm worried about this cable stiffening up sooner than later as well. I used to have fit issues with the original Solaris, but sizing up to larger tips than I typically use (I settled on using ML Spiral Dot++es to allow the nozzles to sit as deeply as the chamfered inner chassis allows to mitigate treble glare), things are fine now. They attenuate more outside noise than the Solaris and sit far more securely in ear now.

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If I had a choice between the original Solaris and the Andromeda 2020, I'd like to pick the Solaris in spite of how uncomfortably the larger shells sit in my ears. Unfortunately the bass in the one channel's died again, seems another dynamic driver's crapped out, so I'm giving up and just rehomeing the stupid Solarises. I have no clue what the (censored) is wrong with my ears that the ADLCs in the Solarises just don't seem to like em. Screw it.

 

I used to use a Lavricables Ultimate IEM cable with my Andromeda 2020 but recently the left channel has gone dead. I'm eventually sending it back for repair but I'm traveling in Asia at the moment (first Wuhan, China, now I'm in a little town in Japan called Tajimi, north of Nagoya) and didn't want to be left without my Andromedas.

I took a visit to e-earphones in Nagoya where I had the opportunity to listen to five or six non-copper (or at least not pure copper) cables, and eventually settled on the "Vision" cable by Nobunaga Labs, a palladium-plated 4N silver cable with eight cores. Ideally, I was looking for a pure silver or silver/copper mixed cable since, based on what I'd read, pure metals should always sound better than anything with plating. I'd also read that palladium-plating should have a bright and incisive sound, and that's not really my style, so I was surprised to discover that I actually really loved this cable, as I've never heard my Andros sound this good before. The sound is insanely detailed with a lovely sparkle, but I don't find it to be bright or fatiguing; in fact, it's very balanced with deep bass, clean mids, and a surprisingly precise headstage. I am in love. And the thing isn't even half burned in yet. Ordering from eBay to the US will run you about $400 iirc, but I paid $250.

Just goes to show that no amount of reading and theory can replace having a listen for yourself! I'm lucky enough to be able to travel in Asia where they actually have stores for these kinds of things; it's a shame that we have nothing like this at all in the US.