Cascade by Campfire Audio

Thanks Michael, also appreciate all the critical listing over the years buddy.

kb

 

Can't wait to hear them! You build great stuff the right way @KenBall... down to the connectors. I completely agree with your choice

 

These look great, looking forward to listening!

 

Part of me wants to just throw money at this because of the excellent reputation of the company. I've heard the andromedas and would've bought them on the spot if I had need of an iem. But I always read up on the reviews here... time goes too damn slowly for my wallet these days.

 

Sasaki sans review.

http://vaiopocket.seesaa.net/article/455862470.html

fire up your google translation.

Cheers

Ken

 

I didn't know I needed a portable over ear until reading that

 

I am so very excited for these. I've been looking for a pair of portable closed headphones for when I'm on the subway but so far I haven't found anything that I like the tuning of. After a blind buy of the Andromedas, they've become my favorite IEM and I have high hopes for the Cascade as well. Looks like I'll have to go to Can Jam after all this year...

 

Hey Guys,

I returned to the local headphone shop this morning to give the Susvara another listen, but while I was there I also listened to the Cascade and the Sundara. I thought I would share some brief impression on them as they are both new, and very interesting cans. I didn’t get to spend long with either headphone as I was in a bit of a rush, but here are some brief impressions below. Better than nothing, I suppose. Any questions, just ask!

Cascade: If you like the Vega, I reckon this would be up your street. Very prominent bass out of the box, but supposedly this is tuneable with little inserts in the ear pads? I didn’t explore this as I didn’t have the time Very interesting sound, as I said, lots of bass. The treble seemed a bit recessed but I think this is because I was listening to the Susvara before, which isn’t exactly fair. Mids were nice. Not a warm headphone. As far as portable closed headphones go, you could do a helluva lot worse IMO. The build quality and materials are amazing. Very solid construction. Sumptuous sheepskin ear pads. Inside the box is this like…sheepskin rug? Its really nice all round. A lot of thought has obviously gone into this product and it shows. I’m not in the market for a portable headphone, but if I was, I would give this a lot of attention. At the asking price, it would really depend on what you are looking for. For a sit at home and listen headphone, I would look elsewhere as I think you can get better sound for less. For a use out and about headphone, its expensive, but great.

 

Burn in is really critical, please play them for at minimum 72 hours to burn the Cascade in. I mean they will sound great right out of the box but really open up after 72 - 200 hours.

Cheers,

Ken

 

Cool. They were pretty much fresh out of the Box as far as I know, so I will go back in a couple weeks and have another listen

 

Headphonebar?

 

Yup!

 

I'll be there around 3pm tomorrow to check them out. Hope they'll have had a bit more burn in by then. I have more use for these than the Sundara, but to be honest, I'm more just curious and want to audition them both of them as well. We'll see if they unseat either of my high end cans.

 

Okay I spent a while with them today. I don't know how long the demo unit had been burnt in so keep that in mind. I should mention that while I don't know how long these were burned in, the dealer who had them on demo really knows his stuff and always does a great job representing his products fairly and appropriately, ensuring to have them paired with the right sources and using high quality tracks to test.

I've posted this in a few places as well just for reference:


I was hoping for this to be like a high end M50x I could use for my professional uses while on work trips or out in the field recording. But while the Cascade is technically very capable, they are unfortunately not for me. Here's my analysis, but keep in mind I'm a bit of a comfort freak, so take this with a grain of salt.

Build Quality and Design: A

What can I say, it looks gorgeous, and it feels solid. The only thing I'm on the fence about is the front facing cable connectors.

Comfort: B-

The pads are pretty nice and do fit fully around your ear as well as being very plush and soft. The Cascade also isolates very well because of how nice and deep the pads are. But since this is designed to be a portable option, the pads are a touch on the small side. If you have earlobes, they may rub against the sides/bottom after a while. Again, with portability in mind I wouldn't expect anything bigger, so that's totally fine in my opinion. But the pads are also the best part of the ergonomics. I have a slightly larger than average sized head (not to boast), and I had to extend the yokes to the max just so I could get a decent fit. So if you have a larger head, make sure you try them first, they may not fit at all. At the max yoke extension, the pad fit also gets a bit finicky due to the angle change. There is ample movement and motion though so that's good. Now to the bad part.

Since this is a single headpiece design, and there is no suspension or separate headband, the top part of Cascade takes most of the pressure and digs into your head. There is some extra padding up there, and the materials used are all excellent, however because this headphone is a bit heavier than other portables, the pressure becomes a real problem. Think MSR7, just heavier, and with more pressure on the top of your head, even though the pad cushioning is much better on these. Suffice it to say, I don't think it makes any sense to have a single headpiece design for a headphone of this weight or heavier (I'm looking at you Focal!). Now that's not to say that it's heavy, it's certainly a reasonable weight overall, and the weight distribution is decent due to it having a very wide arc to the headband and yokes. If you can stand the headpiece pressure on the top of your head, you'd probably be able to wear them for quite a while without getting weary. But that's an absolute dealbreaker for me unfortunately.

Sound: B+

This will be a bit of a controversial sound I think. I'll start with what I like about it. The soundstage is excellent for a portable, as are both microdynamics and detail/resolution, especially in the treble. I actually found myself really enjoying classical music because of how nice the treble frequencies were for strings, as well as the micro detail I could hear in softer sections. The midrange is present but maybe not quite as forward as I'd like. Still it's also got great detail and doesn't sound dry or boring at all. What I don't like is the bass response. Someone mentioned that this sounds a bit like the Vega and I think that's an accurate description. There is simply too much bass with these headphones for me to be able to enjoy all the other excellent aspects of it. And this is the interesting thing. I'm sure that the bass quality is quite good, there's no audible distortion and it reaches quite low. It's just too big and boomy. This actually reminds me a lot of the Meze 99 Classics a bit in terms of tonality, just with better resolution and detail, especially in the upper frequencies. Now there are various different modifications, tuning pads and other tweaks you can do to change the sound and so there may be quite a bit of potential here.


Overall: B+

Something I keep having to think about with these is that it is designed as a portable headphone and not a stay at home and listen at your desktop headphone. If you're on public transit or have other people around you making lots of noise (crowded spaces, malls etc.), you may find the emphasized bass to be to your liking. But then at the same time I have to wonder who these people are who are going to spend $800 on a portable over-ear, when they could spend just a bit more for what is in my opinion a much better sounding IEM in the Andromeda. I don't think I could justify the price tag on first listen. With that said, I can see getting this over the SINE if the on-ear style doesn't suit you (it really doesn't suit me). Moreover, when played with the right kind of music, the Cascade does hit all the technical proficiency I would expect at this price. I'd be curious how it would do with a good EQ to tone down that bass a bit, or maybe Sonarworks can put together a compensation profile to make them a bit more transparent. I'd still like to get a longer listen at some point, and there might be some cushioning mods I could try out to alleviate my comfort issues so I may still pick it up. Ultimately I think there's potential with these - more so than with many of the other 'portables' I've tried, but its default tuning and ergonomics simply aren't for me at the moment.



**Sources were WA7D, V30, IHA-6 single ended

 

First set of impressions have me feeling like I might be grabbing the andromedas again, though I'm more interested in grabbing something different after two years with them. I hope all the units at canjam are fully burnt in so we get the final intended sound. When ken mentioned "vega" I was immediately thinking...too much bass.

I don't have to mention the positives of the andromeda but things that I didn't like are:

Seals weren't the same on both ears despite different tips(unversal problem)

The sound was too fluffy with a slight haze. While it is special in that it happens to be slightly bright, while sounding warm, i never felt the sound was pristinely clean like the 64 audio models. I'm also beginning to understand this BA timbre thing which I'm progressively not liking. I loved the ZX2 because it added heft to the sound but it leads to the next problem.

Too sensitive leading to hiss and oi problems. Even with the dac1541 or the wm1a....I've never heard them silent. GO V2+ with Iematch on high...still hisses. Now Iematch on ultra....black background but with a totally wonky sound. Which leads to......

Tailoring specific gear that has low hiss, 1.5-3ohms. I unforunately only liked them out of specific sony gear.....being the zx2 and sony wm1a .

Because gear has to be specifically tailored it leads to limited choices....and though they scale well, they seem unable to scale past a certain point. I don't think they truly took advantage of the sony wm1a...which I feel is around mid desktop performance. For example, the tia fourte, u18, and efficient cans like the focal clear seemed to scale much higher even from the single ended output.


I hoping that the Cascade can:

Fix fit issues(well I guess its a headphone so no problem, but has to be comfortable)

Have the same balanced signature, soundstage, and cohesive sound of the andromeda, but with more heft(and no BA timbre), but not overbloated bass.

More friendly in matching with many different sources.

Be able to scale with desktop gear.


I hoping that these cans will be my next purchase! Looking forward to hearing these at canjam.

 

If the Cascade has the soundstage, detail retrieval, and general FR of the Andromeda but with the Vega timbre, I’d sell my Andros for them. Reading the impressions above, it sounds like these may be more like the Vegas period. Not sure if I’d part with my Andros for that. I’d love to get a loaner of this one going.

 

Unfortunately i didn't like the Vegas, at all, my brother loves them though. I am bass sensitive and he loves it, so this may be his thing, since he also likes portability.
I am not found of the design either but I am really curious about it at the same time.

Is there somewhere where he can try them in London?

 

To me, the andros are simply the better tuning. You might get a bit more soundstage and space with the Cascade, and all the texturing/layering stuff going on there is great. But the bass response just kills it for me.

 

I am curious as to how much the tuning pads can rein in the bass.

 

Welp, I should probably get these since I love my Vegas (at least with comply foam tips, not enough bass and too trebly with spinfits or spiral dots, and even symbio). Maybe I could sell my Aeon closed which I'm not too fond of to help fund the purchase.

My only concern is that I'll get them and then they come out with a diamond driver HP like the vega. This one is black and beryllium like the Lyra.