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

Andromeda is in the house. Random thoughts, source being AK100ii and the prototype Black Diamond:

- Soundstage correctness. Andromeda has the most similar presentation of soundstage, including the shape and size, to a pair of properly positioned bookshelf. It emulates my being at the VIP seat of an open air concert.
- No more Jupiter vocal driness and treble shyness. Female vocals and higher-pitched instruments are agressively, confidently rendered, with nice full-bodiedness. Even UERM appears shy infront of Andromeda. There is plenty of air, and full of transient nuance sparks. Midrange still retains a strange (but in a good way) STAXness which was felt on Jupiter. I'm probably crazy and making things up.
- Bass is controlled and focused. One can always pick the inherent unnatural bass timbre of BA IEMs, so no bitching here, but it does seem more full-bodied and textured than Jupiter. OTOH, Andromeda and Jupiter do both have some rare but inexcusable bass overpowering some minor macro-details, when powered by AK100ii. Please note I didn't try any DAP other than the AK100ii.
- On Black Diamond, Andromeda holds her ground nicely vs. HD650 w/full mods. Black Diamond enriches the Andromeda's natural strength in layering and nuance-rendering. I'm pretty positive the glare is just digitalness, which isn't all that troubling to me anyways, but I can see people getting fatigue/uneasy on this one.

 

From my PM with @brencho, slightly edited.

UERM - the Old God. If you are familiar with UERM, skip this section. To begin with, my pair maybe has a bit of fit issues, and is susceptible of being ever so slightly bassy. It has a diffusive tuning akin to HD800, yet UE and Capitol somehow managed to pull together a precise imaging. Which is a miracle. OTOH, there are some problems. The hyper-neutral signature is very picky about source materials, just one step below HD800 (which I don't own, but have had extensive experience with). When material being fed is bad, UERM sounds atrocious. Treble will be a drywall saw. Some haziness - not the clearest blackground. Requires endless power, but at the same time being limitlessly scale-able. Planktons are abundant, but it grows on me. I found I frequently fell to bitching about modern recordings when using UERM.

Jupiter - hot damn shit, this is f'ing good. Bass is deeper and more rumbling than UERM with perhaps the same note weight, the good thing being that UERM needs close-to-zero output z while Jupiter can basically go with anything. Note that bass on Jupiters on very rare occasions (i.e. bassy compressed recordings, DR=4~7) can be overpowering, squeezing (not masking) some fine macro-details. This trait remains the same on Andromeda. Inexcusable, but maybe not necessarily bad, for that I had the new Noble Django side-by-side. Django has indeed better macro-detail cleanness and delineation, but the bass might be under-powering and unfocused. Midrange is more or less dry, and recessed depending on your taste - my scale of recession would be Jupiter (slight) - TH900 (constantly notable) - AQ NightHawk (unbearable). Treble is gently smoothened over, leaving only the worst recordings unlistenable.

Andromeda - this is where things get a bit complicated. IIRC Captain Merv said that Andromeda is more HD600 while Jupiter is more HD650. To some degree, I concur, but I think Andromeda shows more traits akin to HD800. Firstly, I am finding my AK100ii cannot drive the Andromeda to satisfaction. I was feeling a strong compression in headstage presentation and layering. This got largely mitigated when I plugged Andromeda into Black Diamond (more on this later). Soundstage is even grander than Jupiter, with a correct shape and size for an IEM. Akin to listening to properly positioned bookshelf speakers - Jupiter showed hints of such quality, and Andromeda being the first successful attempt. I felt a strong sound-of-wall-in-your-face presentation, much like when I was in an open-air concert VIP seat. On AK100ii though, shit get too intense and intimate, which is making me crazy. Bass is maybe 1~2 db shelved vs. Jupiter, but I don't know if it's because of the sensitive response to O.I. and AK100ii & BD having similar O.I. or what. Mid is a hybrid of the best part of UERM and Jupiter - adding up-frontness to Jupiter, and liquid euphonics to UERM. Treble however, is more akin to UERM. You can't deny that Andromeda is more revealing and studio-monitor-functioned than Jupiter. Yet I reserve to say it's bright - it's definitely less smoothened and peaky, but somehow it left me an impression of revealing than bright and pierecing. Overall note sustain is bit longer than Jupiter - me thinks evident on Hotel California. In exchange, I think more people will find Andromeda fatiguing as UERM or even HD800.

 

Griffon,

I’ve not heard the AK100 or Black Diamond (nor do I know their OI), most of my impressions have been with the AK240, so I don’t know if our sources differ enough to make the Andros sound significantly different.

My experience is that, while the Andros are certainly very resolving and perhaps unforgiving, I’ve found plenty of poorly recorded/mastered material has become either more bearable or (quite) enjoyable, recordings I know pretty well, and recordings I’ve had issues with in the past with the likes of the UERM, HD800s, ER4S, FIBASS, K3003 or EX1000.

And on that note, one thing I’ve found with the Andros is that I can crank up the volume (often out of sheer enjoyment) and not get listening fatigue—fatigue being an issue all too recurrent, eventually, with quite a few phones I’ve had (mostly when listening at louder volumes and not necessarily always with treble-happy phones) — and this with a phone, the Andromeda, that is not warm. One aspect that’s impressed me on these phones is that I can listen at lower volumes and get great enjoyment and performance where other phones often seem to lack things like low-end amplitude, midrange heft, air, layering or depth.

 

FWIW, I'm not suggesting fatigue is my personal problem, otherwise I won't suck for UERMs. I do know trusted ears like Mikoss have already found Jupiter fatiguing enough, and Andromedas are certainly showing more fatigue than Jupiter. This is a big reason I say Andromeda is like HD800 more. My best guess is that the fatigue is not volume-related, for that I could detect it from 65 up to 90 volume setting on AK100ii.

Your other point about Andromeda making some poor recordings enjoyable - I'm having trouble pulling my words together. Say UERM is 150% unforgiving - anything wrong will be exposed, zero doubt. However, Andromeda is doing a half job - enough to let you know "this record is probably fucked up here and there", but you won't say that after listening with Andromeda, you'll be almost sure you have picked 80%+ problems of this recording.

 

Not sure I understand your above response, but let me try and explain/clarify what I meant before. With the Andromeda thin, bright-sounding and/or loud recordings tend to sound better through it than with the UERM, for instance, because I get, say, more low-end amplitude and depth (making leaner recordings more correct sounding), less smeared and glaring treble on brighter recordings, and better layering on loud recordings, with a bit more space between the notes. Yes, the Andromeda will show deficiencies on said recordings, but will make them more bearable/correct or even enjoyable. This has already happened many times with tracks I’d often skip due to their recording quality.

 

I've noticed similar things - things completely unlistenable on UERM may turn OK on Andromeda - but never to the point of enjoyable. Turning everything into enjoyable amazeballs will be K10, which I hated.

 

@Griffon Your last sentence confused the f**k out of me... Regarding the K10. Don't you want your music to sound "amazeballs "? Lol

 

No I don't. K10 is overly thick and smoothened over.

 

We have a different idea of that term then. I take it as in it sounds amazing, as in a sound I like. Now that you explain it, it makes sense.

 

Do you use Viper4Android on your HTC 10? I'm really tempted to sell my S7 Edge to get a HTC 10 to use with the Andromeda.

 

Shitposting in terms of revealing powers (Marv please delete if necessary):

- RHA MA750
Recording problems -----> [a couple shots of scotchs] ------> What? Relax!

- Jupiter & Noble 6
Recording problems -----> [let's pretend these don't exist in so big quantities that people find half of their libraries are shit] ------> Smile! We have some minor troubles but situations are under control.

- UERM & Andromeda
Recording problems -----> [shit shit shit shit shit] -----> Guys, we have problems, and prepare for a hard landing.

- K10
Recording problems -----> [takes out a small syringe] -----> Here... this will make you happy.

 

So in a nutshell it's ZX2/Andromeda for the SBAF-approved ultimate IEM setup all the way?

 

Marv you have an idea of Black Diamond O.I.?

I'm concurring that AK100ii is slightly too tipped up. Also layering is too intimate and shallow.

 

I meant enjoyable as in 'Great, now I can actually not skip this track and just enjoy the music and even play it loud if I want to'; not enjoyable as in 'WOW, now this shitty recording has miraculously become (more) reference'.

Ultimately, what I regard as good music is music that demands to be heard, but the truth is I've often found myself skipping tracks because of their (very) poor sonic qualities; this mostly tends to happen when the tracks in question form part of a playlist where you get all sorts of recording/(re)master types, including the odd bootleg. Now, if I'm playing the whole album, at least I can EQ it so I can enjoy the whole thing.

 

I'm planning to jump ship from T8ie to this or 64 audio U10 because my 2nd unit just cropped out and would require some time to get replacement, I'm using Onkyo for balanced source, I prefer slightly warm sound but not too soupy warm. I don't like TG334, just for reference. Any opinions from you guys?

 

Yep, I see what sparrow is talking about. At last I am not skipping all the day like when I was using UERM.