Campfire Audio Astrolith S+ Tier IEM Review

Oh for sure. IEMs are more for laying in bed or around the house for me.

Astrolith doesn't need this chain and it definitely wasn't assembled with them in mind. Mainly for ZMFs and senns.

That being said, Astrolith is the most resolving thing I own, headphones or not.

 

I should probably search, but have you spent any time with the Moon Rovers?

 

Only have experience with the 250R version of the DT880 but that one's probably my fave Beyer headphone, pretty not bad overall other than the really weird superwide but zero depth staging that bisects my head. I know HRTF shenanigans are going to make it so that things might not necessarily translate between people but if the Astrolith is (kind of) similar to how the DT880 comes off as super warm with a boosted air region then... yeah that's a flavour thing, but can be very fun.

Treble on the Beyers has more of a metallic tzing than how I hear e.g. the vintage Yamahas/MCTH (double stack if you have them both) have a more delicate, finer "glassy" treble, but price aside this actually has me slightly more curious about the Astroliths haha.

 

Tried bunch of Campfire models over past two CanJams and can say that Fanthoms are my favorites, would pick them over Astrolith. (this coming from somebody who never had issue with BA Timbre)

 

PSSSST! Where are the rest of the loaner reviews, folks?

 

I have them right now and so won't be posting a formal review, but I've come up with a simple mod that makes the Astroitih prettty much dead neutral so all the technical prowess of the drivers can shine. I'll be posting that in a separate thread soon. so far 2 people who have tried it have been very happy with it. i went from "gah! bass!" to loving them.

 

Thanks to @julie and Ken at Campfire Audio for making this loaner happen.

To set the context for my impressions, you should know that I almost never use IEMs. I really hate sticking things in my ears for extended periods of time. If I need to listen on the go, I use Samsung Galaxy Buds Live because of their ergonomic shape. So take my impressions with a grain of salt. Other users will give you better comparisons with other products.

I connected the Astrolith to my IPhone with the little Apple 3.5mm dongle. I streamed hi-res files from Qobuz for all my listening. This is the best setup I could manage for these impressions. Years ago, I had the Sony NW-ZX2 and Shure SE846. It was a nice setup, although I always thought that the Shure earbuds were a little flat and boring.

Even from my iPhone, the Astrolith is easily the best IEM I’ve ever heard. They have excellent clarity and extension on both ends of the frequency spectrum, as I would expect from a planar design. Damn, that bass hits hard. The bass has a percussive, propulsive quality, but I wouldn’t describe the overall sound signature as bassy, if that makes sense. Overall, this makes for a very dynamic earbud, maybe slightly tipped up in the extremes but very tasteful and fun.

I found the stock foam tips way too bassy. The stock silicone tips did not provide a deep enough seal. The Clarion tips were just right. The design goes a little deeper in the ear, whereas the stock silicone tip is shallower.

I listened to some RHCP, Van Halen, and Opeth while trying these out. The Astrolith allowed Flea’s bass to shine as the rhythmic backbone in “Eddie” by RHCP. Meanwhile, the Astrolith showcased the guitar fireworks of the real Eddie (you see what I did there?) on “Judgement Day” by Van Halen. I was really impressed with the Astrolith's wide soundstage on "§1" by Opeth; the drums had a pretty good wraparound effect.

I’m glad that I was able to try this out. If I was in the market for an IEM, this would definitely be at the top of my list.

 

hello,
i have the loaner pair in house (with all kinds of Schitt accompanying them.)
very torn up about these.
film at 11:00.
cheers!

 

hello,

tl/dr: if you have the dosh, go for it! i'm a bit ambivalent.

i have alluded to the notion that, for me at least, i am most happy when the emotional experience of music is freed from the constraints imposed on it by the machines that reproduce it.

i have been moved to tears listening to something even if the machines were sub-optimal.

there have also been occasions where high end reproduction has left me cold, as i have felt that what i was hearing was, in some way, artificial, "sounds like a stereo," mayhaps, TOO muchly, much.

i have never had the ability to discern particular frequencies. i have no way to identify a 6K bump, or a recession in the vocal range. i can grasp when a transducer is missing something (e.g. the bass roll off on the HEDD's that i heard on loan,) but i cannot tell you where it is, and where it isn't.

for all of this, i can fall in love with a machine that is beyond my pay grade and moves me emotionally. (the JAR HD800s did this for me.)

for all of the reference to comparison to live music, i would postulate that much of a performance is mitigated by the house, the sound person, the performer, and the music being presented. (also, more than likely, through JBL's for sound re-enforcement.)

the Astrolith is a brilliant transducer. detailed, easy to drive, exquisitely made, packed with lovely accessories, and worth the price of admission.

somewhere along the line, a comparison was made of transducers that make you want to lean forward to get it all, or to lean back and bask in what is coming at you.

for me, Astrolith is the former, which is not really my cup of meat.

with unlimited funds, i would have these in my quiver. but i would more than likely enjoy them as a summit rather than as an easy chair by a fireplace.

YMMV

cheers!

 

Campfire Astrolith Loaner Impressions

I’m long overdue in posting these impressions (the poetic shitpost above notwithstanding). I’d like to thank Ken and Campfire Audio as well as sbaf for making the loaner possible. And I'd like to thank Julie for organizing it and for keeping us on track. I very much appreciate being able to hear these IEMs. They're really fun, smile-inducing IEMs.

I couldn’t make my mind up about them, though. I’ve always thought I might be a closet basshead but I’ve never gotten along with those basshead IEMs I’ve heard previously. The Vega 2020 was all bass and nothing else, sounding comically off. The Dorado 2020 was v-shaped to the point where everything sounded wonky, especially the missing midrange. The Astrolith aren’t as bad as those other two Campfire IEMs, for me, but they’re still not quite my cup of tea.

With that said, I did have some glorious, fun moments with them and may have found myself checking the classifieds to see how much used ones go for… I won’t be getting a pair, though, I don’t think, as they’re too expensive for a pair of specialist, fun IEMs just for electronic music and the occasional rock song.


Chain
I don’t have a DAP and used my MacBook Air M1 with an iFi Gryphon instead.


Tip rolling
I had a hard time figuring out which tips to use. Usually, with IEMs, the sound snaps into place for me with the right tips. With the Astrolith, this didn’t quite happen.

I hear two presentations with the Astrolith – a warm, fun, bassy presentation which, I guess, is how these IEMs are supposed to sound, and a more neutral but still v-shaped one, which isn’t quite right as it comes across as a bit too thin. For the warmer, bassier sound, the midrange suckout doesn’t seem as wrong since the fun of the bass and the treble rebound distract me from it. For the more neutral, shallower v-shaped presentation, the lack of mids is more unsettling and unpleasant, leading to a hollow sound, as though there’s music missing.

Thicker silicone tips tend to provide more basshead fun; thinner silicone the less sharply v-shaped, more neutral alternative. Foam tips are less predictable.


Basshead tips:
Azla Sedna Light Short; generic silicone Penon tips; Spiral Dots ++; Azla Sedna Crystal; Symbio hybrid foam and silicone

More neutral, v-shaped tips:
Azla Sedna Xelastec; Spinfit CP145; Spinfit CP155; CFA Marshmallow; Comply

The best compromise tuning I found came with either the Final E or the Tanchjim T-APB tips: for both, the sound is nice and warm and with good strong bass that’s not as bloomy as the other basshead presentations, but also with good air and treble extension. The Tanchjim place vocals more forward.

One of the problems with some of the tips producing a bassier presentation is a loss of precision and clarity in the lower notes. The Astrolith can all too easily slip into an poorly defined mess of bass boominess, even to the point of becoming muddy. Interestingly, these IEMs can have a great deal of clarity. (I wonder if the driver has little distortion?) But when something like the wrong tips throws that clarity off, I really notice it.


Impressions from my favorite setups – the Final E and Azla Sedna Light Short tips

The bad:

• The midrange suckout is too great
• The Astrolith only work with certain genres like hip hop, electronic, and some rock
  • I’d avoid these for music with natural, acoustic instruments.
• All too often there’s a distinct lack of depth to the staging.
  • All sounds come at you from a single plane right in front of your eyeballs; there’s not enough front-to-back differentiation.
• The sound is nice and smooth but could benefit from a bit more grit and texture

The good:

• Good strong, prominent, deep, punchy bass, which is rich and thick
• It sounds lush. It’s not sluggish, not too bloomy or loose. It’s not super tight or fast, either, like a 1266. I couldn’t quite call it goldilocks bass either, though, as it’s just too pronounced
• Great black background, which I guess could be a function of the low distortion?
  • maybe good "clarity" is another way to describe this
• Fast without being overly incisive
  • it’s still a bit rounded in the transient attacks, which makes for a nice, fatigue-free combination
• Good slam
• Macrodynamics are good without being outstanding
• Highly resolving, but not in an overt way - and not because of the bright treble (at least not to my old ears)
• Big soundstage - wide but not deep
• Bold, fun sound

Comparison with the Campfire Audio Solaris (the original gold one)
I’m using the Gryphon here still, which is less than ideal for the Solaris as its output impedance is too low, making the Solaris a bit darker and bassier than it should be.

The Solaris is less resolving

• It seems murkier, less pristine or clean, as though there’s more haze or veil
  • This is surprising as, ordinarily, I’d never describe the Solaris in these terms
• is as snappy, perhaps, but with cleaner, less rounded transients
• has more depth
• presents vocals better; they’re less inside your head
• has a lighter tonality
• has a lighter bass presentation
• is similarly percussive and impactful

The Astrolith is warmer, perhaps "darker"

• It's more lush, wetter or more liquid, more rounded.
• It has a wider staging and much more bass
• It has a a fuller, thicker sound
• It’s more vivid
• It sounds bigger (even it if isn’t) and bolder.

Conclusion
I suspect the Astrolith throws me for a loop because it is so rich and lush, so warm/dark and bassy, so clear and lacking in veil or haze, and so resolving, and yet it is a basshead IEM with a pronounced v-shape that makes for problems with recessed mids. You get all that resolution and clarity but with musical information seemingly being missing in the midrange. In some ways the Astrolith sounds so right. Glorious even. In others, it sounds flat out wrong.