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

Yeah good question, and thats the crazy thing... I dont hear much diff Z1 vs ZX300 when using balanced outs, Z1 slightly better. Given the weight saving and huge $$ save the ZX300 is pretty dam sweet. Also I bought a 256 gig micro SD card and it worked fine, Im pretty happy. Note: out of the box the ZX300 sounded really flat and not anywhere near the Z!, after 3 days burn in though it was a lot closer.

Also been buying digital FLAC albums off of bandcamp.com and loving that. Some of the stuff is 24bit, also making me smile a lot.

kb

 

A jaunt to Singapore can get you a ZX300 for 595USD.

Kidding aside there's the ZX300A that's purportedly 100% the same except for coming with 16GB internal instead of 64GB, meant for the CN market.

 

Got the Andromeda yesterday. I've listened to them for about 10 hours enough to understand their character.
My IEM experience is pretty short. I have some under 100$ sony and sennheiser and the Heir 8.0. I've listened several times to the Noble line especially the K10 and some JH stuff like the layla which I didn't like.
I feel really grateful for Campfire to post the blue CK version link here. I like the blue a lot more than the other options


My ZX100 was dead so I had to let it charge. I used them in with the foam buds on my phone, fit was a little weird but managed to get a good seal.
From the S6 the sound was...better than I expected. A bit soft on everything, bass a tad bloated but the mid range stands out as the best quality of these and I think a well amped HD650 is the closed can I can think of for how the Andromeda presented voiced. All in all if I would rate the Heir as a 6.5 if the Andromeda was a perfect 10. Not sure anyone want to hear the differences between them since who the hell would take the Heir at almost the same price. I'm surprised these have BA drivers since they don't sound anything like the others I've heard including the K10.

On to the Sony ZX100. I've been using this for a few months and I know it well. I do have slight hiss when nothing is playing but it's not noticeable when listening to music so I don't really care if it's there. I also switch to silicon buds and I get a great seal and quite decent isolation where external sounds are very muffled but still very comfortable.
I'm not a believer of burn in unless I hear it and yes these have changed just a bit. At first the treble was a bit sharp where I set the SQ on 16K to -2. Bass was a well controlled but a bit light as in it had good punch but lacked weight.
After a couple of hours of using on and off I found the treble to be a little dark so I removed the EQ, much better now. The low end got some good punch as well but now quite what I was expecting. Yes I do think they got better after the first couple of hours but I'm sure I won't hear any other differences like the wait until you get the 200 hour mark.

Here is the breakdown of what I hear and I'm comparing them to my desktop system.
Sub-bass: Well it's a bit missing. I'm not sure if it's the ZX100 but even my 8.0 have more(not better) sub-bass, it's there but barely audible, I will try a silver cable to see if it can be improved.
Mid and upper bass. Again I find it's in the same ballpark as the HD650. Not that it's a bad thing, I don't know how they managed to capture the note decay so well with the BA drivers. All the other BAs I've hear have a very on/off sound where if a note stops I don't hear any of the left over vibrations it just stops like you unplug the headphones. The Andro has a a dynamic driver presentation which makes the low end very engaging.
I still feel it's a little light but it works well with the rest of the frequencies, I don't hear any bleeding into the midrange and it's well defined as it starts and stops without any funny business.

Mids: I guess this is what it's all about. I do love the mids. Voices are presented with excellent texture and sound similar to the HD650 and my Eikon when driven at 120ohm from the Stratus. I have only one complaint and that is a slight...I don't want to say bloat but I do feel the upped midrange is just a tad emphasised but It's not such a big problem as I do prefer it over most of headphones I listened to such as Audeze,HEK,Ether etc.

Treble: Not sure how I feel about these. They are non fatiguing which I cannot say about any other IEM I have tried, well extended but lack fine details. When I hear cymbals I expect them to be a little clearer again compared to my desktop system where I feel they are 80% as good but not there yet. I feel like they have something like a -2 dB drop compared to the midrange. I'm not even for a second saying they are problematic, far from it, like the low end they complement the rest of the spectrum quite well and are very easy to listen to where I don't see a problem using these for a full day.

Soundstage is above average. I can hear each instrument well positions relative to the others but still much between my ears.

I would describe them as the IEM with the least fucked up sound I've heard and there isn't anything that distracts me or calls attention to it's self like others. These have now replaced the Eikon as a closed headphone when I need it since it has the same strengths as it but with better treble. I'm not a fan of the upper frequencies sound on the Eikon

A bit disappointed overall, but I continued to listen as they are enjoyable and took them outside. OMG how things have changed. These don't make much sense for me to use at home but on the go I was in for quite a shock. Yes they still have the same issues but to have that HD650 midrange outside it quite something and it easily managed to drag me into the music and forget about the technicalities just like my desktop rig does. Further more these do sound like a junior version of my reference so how can I complain? I'm happy companies are using the HD650 type of sound for their headphones as opposed to the HD800. The Noble Katana is one such example, light on bass, midrange cooler that I like and the high end get's all the attention.
I don't know if this is why the Andromeda get's the love but I have to say I now the the finest on the move sound I could have hoped for. Well done Campfire

P.S. Anyone heard the ZX100 and WM1A on these? I haven't seen Sony market their internal amp and dac so I don't know what the differences between them are. From what I know whey both use the s-master hx so I decided to go with the ZX100 since I got them used for 250.

 

IME, for the Andros in terms of technicalities (disregarding tone), ZX100 SE < ZX2 SE << WM1A SE. Balanced/TRRS might be a different story.

 

Ordered the WM1A and a balanced cable from Alo. Let's see if I need to eat my words.

 

just listened to the pairing and I have to say...its quite amazing. Make sure to choose which firmware you prefer. 1.5 and 2.0 is different enough that depending on your preferences you might lean one way or the other. If you are looking for more soundstage, go with 2.0.

 

M17,

Prob one of my all time fav quotes, thanks for the detailed read on the equipment. BAs are all kind of lame IMO, so its difficult to get things to sound "right", or as you put it "least fucked up" to totally agree with you.

kb

 

M17,

I'd also suggest giving them some time. I'm now finding the bass much more satisfying than I did originally (coming from Vegas).

I'll also be curious to see how you feel about the treble over time. I often feel like I have not heard better in full size, IEMs or anywhere. There's a reason the word "special" is used so much for these IEMs

 

Accessory Jack had it in black for right around $600...

 

Got the WM1A, this makes the ZX100 look like a toy. Out of the box it already sounded much much better than the ZX100. This makes my previous comments more about what the ZX100 can do and not the andros. I let it charge and play for a couple of hours to appease the gods of burn-in even if I'm a bit of an atheist.
Today I did a thorough comparisons of the Stratus and WA5 with HD800,HD650 and HD600 on the Pavane so I was warmed up to compare them to my big system.

So all of my complaints gave gone. These are like the HD650 for scaling. What amazes me is how well the combo can do layering. This is a trait I only found in the very best of systems. Each instrument has it's own well defined area and I can perceive them at different depts, no haziness, the soundstage is much improved as treble sound better positioned and further away like opened headphones.

The low end got just enough puch and weight even for tracks like Spitfire. High end is just right with the rest of frequencies.

Honestly it sounds close the the Metrum Stratus combo and that's saying something. I would rather listen to the Andro Sony combo than Metrum WA5.
If I could change one thing it would be to add a bit more warmth to the midrange. No complaints on technicalities.
At this price point I don't think I can build or listen to a system that sounds better. It takes 1K for a good source and amp never mind the headphones. If sony ever implement the usb dac function on the WM1A I think it's the best under 2K desktop system.
For me this is a triple win since I wanted a bedroom and work setup and this fits the bill nicely without having a tube amp on my desk that requires explanation.

 

Did you use tha balanced output? Nice job, thanks

 

Not yet. I ordered the cabled from ALO and because of the holidays it will take a while to arrive. One I do get it I will share my thoughts.

 

You should not try the WM1Z.

 

I wanted to buy the 1Z but impressions of the weight made me realise it wouldn't be a portable unit. The 1A is at the limit of what I would consider a daily device.

 

So after reading all about these IEMs on here, I went and purchased a pair.
To me they are a huge step up from the Shure SE846's that I currently have. I feel like the mids are way more clear and that overall like a tiny haze has been lifted compared to the 846.

Comfort wise, I would say they are a step down from the SE 846 but they are still pretty good except for sometimes the top part of the housing brushes against my ear a little bit.

Also they sound super balanced to me throughout the entire frequency range and I honestly can say there is nothing that bothers me when listening to the lows, mids, and highs. To me they sound better than my HD 800 and the Andros are only plugged into my iPhone X through the lightning adapter. If I had to nitpick I would say that the bass isn't as good as the Sony MDR-EX1000s but to me it is not a difference that I really care too much about. They also don't have the mini subwoofer effect on the bass that the 846 does with that lowpass filter but I don't think that is something that I will miss.

I think they are an amazing pair of IEMs, I honestly enjoy listening to them more than everything I currently own. The only issue I have is that when plugged into the iPhone X, the volume slider on the iPhone sucks and it is hard to attain the perfect volume so I may have to look into a DAP (Sony ZX2 or ZX300 based on all the responses here).

I do have an issue with it build wise as I bought the special edition Pacific Blue Cerakote version. There is a tiny part of it that is missing the Cerakote coating and although I feel like it shouldn't be a big deal, I was wondering if this exposed part of bare metal will cause the Cerakote coating around it to be easily cracked. Not sure what to really do as it seems like a tiny issue but I do worry about what could happen.

Here's a picture of the said issue (And yes I am 100% sure it is not a piece of dust ):

 

In my experience the bass improved over time. Give it 100 hrs or so. Still won't hit 846 or Vega levels but certainly improved

 

What you can do, if you want better control of the volume stepper, is go to your Settings app, scroll down to Music, then select Volume Limit. I lowered my volume limit to about 3/4, and it gave me more granularity for adjusting lower volume levels.

 

iFi also now offers the cheaper SE Earbuddy, for 15 which is a stripped down less versitle version of the IEMmatch