Campfire Audio Solaris - raising the bar?

Discussion in 'IEMs and Portable Gear' started by mscott58, Oct 10, 2018.

  1. seamon

    seamon Acquaintance

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    ~snip~ joke made in poor taste. Please ignore this
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2018
  2. Baten

    Baten Friend

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    Oh wow how did I miss this, so much drama and saltiness. All because of one (prominent) reviewer not liking it very much?
     
  3. Nordpol Anton

    Nordpol Anton New

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    yeah, @La Cenric, you naughty boy, how could you?
     
  4. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    They are opposite. Tonally, the PP8 relative to Solaris is a tad more mid-bassy and a lot more forward in the upper mids. In a more absolute sense, Solaris IMO is a bit laid back in the upper mids. Solaris has better extension in the bass (listen to the bass drops on Daft Punk's Doin' It Right - the third one is ~37Hz) and has more air, and destroys the PP8 in terms of headstage. PP8 has the edge in bass articulation, Solaris has the physicality. If one prefers the tonal balance of the PP8, they may not like the Solaris. While I appreciate the fuller (relative to BAs) timbre of the PP8 BA drivers, I cannot stand the PP8's tuning because it was made for people with a different HRTF from mine. Female and even male vocals on the PP8 were an assault on my ears.

    @Cellist88 :

    On some HF observations with Solaris being too bright or not enough air, this is why:
    1. As you mentioned, the Andromeda might have a bit too much air (and a bit too much overall treble). Neither Andromeda or Solaris reproduce the last half of the top octave like on speakers with proper tweeters or super-tweeters. The thing with the Solaris is that the highs are less grating This can be mistaken for less air. Like the difference between a smooth super-tweeter or crappy super-tweeter / super-tweeter with crappy crossover.
    2. You are using a Sony portable player. So am I. So are fifty other people here on SBAF. The higher end Sony players have organic lows and tube-like non-harsh highs. In comparison, the highs from the iPhone are brittle sounding.
    3. Another reason is the overall tonal balance between low and highs. SBAF as a community tends to like more neutral bass. The Solaris is not a bassy IEM, therefore the highs might be more evident to someone on HF who is more used to bassy IEMs.
    4. To add, the Andromeda is bassier than the Solaris when run from amps with near zero (no more than 1 ohm) source impedance.
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2018
  5. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    I so rarely visit HF. I guess I have to now to see what the fuss is about.
     
  6. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    JFC, don't bring up HF again. Waste of time. Crinacle will not like the Solaris even after burn-in as none of the issues Crinacle mentioned would be mitigated by burn-in.
     
  7. seamon

    seamon Acquaintance

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    I think I am a little sensitive in the 4kHz - 7/8kHz region so an emphasis in that region leads me to hear sibilance(64 Audio A12t) or treble fatigue(Andromeda), idk Solaris Treble actually sounds perfect to me and yet again my Treble head friend swears the quantity is too little for him.

    Some highlights
    The Reddit Post
    Where it started on HF (PS-Please don't take me seriously on headfi, I am joking 80% of the time there)
    To finish off
     
  8. mscott58

    mscott58 Friend

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    Holy mother of whatever, there are 138 pages on the Solaris thread on HF! 138 pages!!! We're up to 8. Noise to Signal ratio over there is crazy. This is such a refresher of why I don't do HF anymore. Totally agree with Marv - what a complete and utter waste of time. Ugh.
     
  9. Mimouille

    Mimouille Facebook Friend

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    I still follow hf but am always surprised how touchy people are...one guy doesn't think the latest hype is perfect (which we all know it isn't...) and you get 20 pages of butt hurt rambling and conjecture on why he might have made such blasphemous comment : his mood, taste, fit, tips, burn in, cable, cable burn in, sexual orientation, political orientation, etc.
     
  10. smithj

    smithj Acquaintance

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    Its not like Crinacle didn't explain his thought process badly either. The man even provided measurements so you can see exactly the earphone he was listening to.

    There's a really strange trend on Head-Fi where people build an opinion then retrospectively find reviews to validate their opinions. I've seen this again and again, like when people melted down when people start shitting on the Sony MDR-Z1R. There was a guy who went out of his way to post a link to some Jazz bassist review of the Solaris, as if being a Jazz bassist makes you more capable of posting a valid opinion than Crinacle. Are you really that salty about a less than glowing review about an earphone you like?
     
  11. jowls

    jowls Never shitposts (please) - Friend

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    2331025F-6085-45AC-947E-6F1F43BF6215.gif
     
  12. gepardcv

    gepardcv Almost "Made"

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    People want validation that they spent their money well, especially on luxury items. Doesn’t seem that strange. It affects SBAF members, too. Remember what happens when someone posts measurements or opinions of Schiit products which go against the group consensus?
     
  13. Erikdayo

    Erikdayo Friend

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    True, but I find scuffed measurements a bit different than someone subjectively not liking something I like.
     
  14. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    If you are referring to me for getting upset on Schiit measurements that go against the "group consensus", I do this for any manufacturers' measurements that go against the group consensus. Measurements that go against group consensus = likely broke. Measurement gear doesn't form opinions. If something is off, then it's user error or external factors.

    I countered others' spiels not only with the Yggdrasil, but also for the Sony Z1R and HD800, heck, even defended Dr. Dre Beats, and a lot of other gear over the years that I don't remember. Also, it's a problem when people start inventing their own definitions of things like ENOB as 0.1db deviation while using linearity tests not conducted with a notch filter to narrow in on the signal actually being tested. Never mind that DAC linearity tests, while much used by Stereophile in the 90s and 00s, is considered to be of questionable value in 2018. It's also a problem when people present half-truths or illustrate an incomplete picture because they want to tell a story. We are not talking about bias. We are talking about stuff that seems to be ill-intent.
     
    Last edited: Dec 9, 2018
  15. gepardcv

    gepardcv Almost "Made"

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    Totally fair to point out that measurement disagreements are not the same thing as impression disagreements.

    I was mainly referring to this post above:

    > and you get 20 pages of butt hurt rambling and conjecture on why he might have made such blasphemous comment

    and the implication that this only happens on HF. In the case of the ASR measurements, we had many many pages here of "salty" content-free posts, which were difficult to plough through in search of reasonable and technical counter-arguments.
     
  16. iemcamp

    iemcamp New

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    I think you are talking about me posting the link. I can only say that you are completely wrong about my intentions. If you had read the thread more closely you would have noticed that I didn't like Solaris that much and chose to buy other iem instead besides staying with Andro as I liked it more than Solaris. I only wanted to relive the tension that arose in the thread and threw other opinion in as a counterbalance to Crinacle's opinion with which I agree in some points and not in others.
     
  17. Crinacle

    Crinacle Friend

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    Tried the Solaris again. Different unit, different store, fresh out of the box as well. Actually preferred the new unit a lot more; the "hollowed" feel in the mids is, while present, now more subdued and felt more like a mild nitpick than a persistent weirdness. The rest of my impressions remain largely the same in that I really liked the presentation of the bass and its imaging competencies.

    Of course as mentioned countless times by @purr1n and the others, my personal HRTF is closer to that of the PP8 which requires a linear sustain from 2k to 5k. So yes, unfortunately the Solaris isn't as natural sounding to my ears. However I do recognise that it is a competent hybrid, just that for my own money I'd hold the Andromeda to a higher regard.

    On that note, I've actually placed an order for the Sony IER-Z1R which is essentially the direct competitor to the Solaris right now (price wise at least). I'd be happy to send it over for a quick tour after I had my fill with it.
     
  18. smithj

    smithj Acquaintance

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    Actually not referring to you at all if you go by that username on Head-Fi, talking about another poster who is using that review to defend the Solaris' honour in other threads. Didn't want to point fingers or anything but figured I should answer myself here.
     
  19. Baten

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    I just picked up the Solaris myself. Yes, the bass extends really far, the imaging is great. However the stage is not that wide. The mid-range holowness is definitely noticeable. To HD650 fans this will be significant for sure.

    I will try burning them in since I have them for less than 24h. Might try EQ'ing them. But so far I'm thinking I should have gone for the Andromeda, maybe. But the hybrid-BA tech was just too tempting to me plus the Z1R is quite a chunk more expensive still.

    I'll have to see it I'm change my mind or not. Purrin's thoughts sure seemed to change over time in this thread.
     
  20. musicfan1

    musicfan1 New

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    I actually like that review and I do think that a working musician has a lot to offer to a review of an earphone, assuming his/her ear is probably better than most of ours.
    Crinacle, for whatever faults he found originally still scored them fairly highly on his comparison chart (or was going to - don't see it there now), which I sometimes tend not to agree with, but my ears aren't his and vice versa.

    As for the comparison with the Andromeda's, I have both and much prefer the Solaris.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2018

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