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

Discussion in 'IEMs and Portable Gear' started by purr1n, May 13, 2016.

  1. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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  2. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    It does. @Marvey and I have been talking about it. I have some additional items ordered as quality of life improvements that are necessary for it to work well with the Andromeda. Give me until the end of the week and I'll do a quick write up.
     
  3. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Just idiot Sony salespeople who are making up their own definitions of what lossless means. Doublespeak. 990bps should be sufficient to capture 44/16 music losslessly though.
     
  4. blackships

    blackships Friend

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  5. Bill-P

    Bill-P Level 42 Mad Wizard

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    I need to upgrade to an Android O phone now then...

    iOS is growing long in the tooth, my iPhone no longer runs like a champ anymore (crashes 2-3 times a day), and Apple doesn't seem interested in fixing its issues.

    And wireless Andro will just mean game over. I wouldn't even cough up the name of any other headphone.
     
  6. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    If if the pairing sounds good enough with Andromeda, I'd dump the ZX2. Don't think power will be of concern since Andromedas need so little. My main concerns will be noise / hiss, and Zout, which can affect FR.

    Convenience is becoming more a factor now. Love the Pixel phone camera and not having to pull out the Nikon Df all the time for decent low light photos. Auto upload to Google Photos is nice too.

    Glad @KenBall / ALO knew in advance what connectors to use on their IEMs.
     
  7. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    You know me. i wouldn't be so enthused if it wasn't pretty damn quiet. It's quieter than the ZX2.
     
  8. LunaC

    LunaC New

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    Just wanted to mention I got a 3.5mm 3 button/mic cable from ALO for the Andromeda. The have the lightning version coming too.
     
  9. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    @zerodeefex any update on the game changers? Enquiring audiophoolz want to know :D
     
  10. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    I bought 12 different ear hooks to find the right ones. Currently waiting on 7 different cases. Not going to half ass you guys. Also waiting on heat shrink so I can permanently affix the ear hooks.
     
  11. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    @Griffon I saw you mention the Sony A35 and Andromedas in the FiiO X5 thread. How's the tonal balance? Any idea what the Zout is? Hiss?
     
  12. Griffon

    Griffon 2nd biggest asshole on SBAF

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    All I compare with is pairing with Onkyo DP-X1. Wider soundstage and better layering. Maybe less soundstage depth. No hiss I can detect. No idea what the Z out is, but since the tonal balance still is overall neutral just tilting slightly towards bassy (like 1%), I'd have a guess the z out is around 2. The A35 adds some Sony organic shit to the tonality. For the money the A35 is good shit. Going with distant memories of A17, A35 got more clarity particularly in the lower region. Most significant improvement may just be more power.
     
  13. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    Thanks for the Andro/A35 impressions and z-out guestimate. If/when @zerodefex releases his wireless LDAC solution, I might pick one up.
    I assume this is even with all the DSP effects disabled?
     
  14. jexby

    jexby Posole Prince

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    @KenBall any chance you can let SBAF know (here) whenever the CA (litz?) Lightning cable for apple products is released?
    TIA
     
  15. Griffon

    Griffon 2nd biggest asshole on SBAF

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    I disable all DSP.
     
  16. TomHP

    TomHP Facebook Friend

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    I think you're the one making up definitions. Lossless is pretty straightforward to understand. If the original audio is at 44.1/16, the bit rate is 44100 x 16 x 2 = 1411kbps. 990kpbs is therefore not lossless and they cannot claim it to be. The use of the word 'effectively' makes perfect sense then. Of course 'effectively' it is lossless and no-one will be able to hear the difference between 1411kbps and 990kbps but it's not lossless in the data sense.
     
  17. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    LDAC would of course compress the audio before transmission, hopefully using something that gets close to (or better than) FLAC compression for 44/16. So 990kb/s would be plenty.
     
  18. TomHP

    TomHP Facebook Friend

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    FLAC is lossless, LDAC is not. If LDAC was lossless, it wouldn't be able to scale as it does.

    [​IMG]
     
  19. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    LDAC could be lossless if it uses lossless compression to get down to 990kbps from 1411kbps (à la FLAC). We're all talking about using the highest quality mode, so scaling is irrelevant in this discussion.

    But none of us (I think) know exactly what LDAC is doing. In the immortal words of a Jedi master, "this is all masturbatory."
     
  20. deafdoorknob

    deafdoorknob Almost "Made"

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