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

I will be interested to see if most prefer this sonic tweaks over the original. I guess you could say that I'm green with envy.

 

Just got these in today! Hopefully will have some time soon to give them a good listen and compare against my regular Andros.

 

What kind of tips are you sporting on the originals there?

 

They are the generic and cheap double flange tips that work surprisingly well with the Andros. I think I got this particular set from my Massdrop Plus but I've seen them in a lot of tip selections like Noble universals and Beats IEMs. Despite being generic and cheap, these along with the Acoustune ones are some of the best fitting and sounding silicone tips on the Andros for me. The Acoustune ones are bassier while these have more of a vocal forward sound.

 

Wondering if anyone has experience with the Andro with qp1r/qp2r. Looking for a dap that will play nice with the Andro but also efficient full sized hp's.

 

qp1r pairing was one of the worst pairings I heard. Way worse than the zx2, and I would say worse than the zx300. It hisses very loud, and cirrius logic chips have that sterile/unmusical sound. UI was a nightmare with a slipping wheel and such. Battery life is craptastic compared to the sony. I would say just stick to a zx300 or upgrade to a wm1a, though the differences are minor. Probably get less macrodynamic compression, little blacker background, and a bit more resolution. I felt the zx300 felt flat coming from wm1a, and slightly veiled.

Haven't tried the Qp2r, so it may be an improvement with the AK chip, but it went down from 2 sd card slots(qp1r) to 1 sd card slot. with the addition of the balanced port, you'll probably have to deal with hiss somehow if it hisses as much as a qp1r(I assume it'll hiss more). My experience with IEMatch haven't been favorable as I feel like it takes away from the sound from any source its used with.

I would just stick with sony. tbh instead of having a constant upgrade bug. Better Ui, smaller build, Longer battery life, great sq. Don't know what more one expects from a portable package. If you want to go transportable just get a wa8. I'm sure @jexby can provide some pairing details with the andromeda.

 

@Cellist88 thank you kindly for that! Just what i needed to know The only thing I would want to improve on the zx300 is the screen I can barely read it. If the 1a gave me better sonics that would be a bonus I'm considering the 1a.

 

Any impressions about sound differences about those 2?

 

Any impressions of Pure Silver Litz with Andromeda? I’m looking to pick up a cable with 4.4mm termination so I can finally run balanced with WM1A.

 

Get the $20 cable from Amazon. The difference between the two cables for me, was minor. By far, going balanced will yield the biggest change.

 

For me, the stock Litz SPC cable was already too tizzy. Assuming it's the silver content that's doing it, I can only assume pure silver would make it worse. Pure copper FTW.

 

I'm getting an Andromeda S in the mail in a few days. Anything that people want me to look for specifically or specific genres to test? I'll write a long form impressions when I've listened to them for a few days.

I have an LG G7 that I'd probably use them with, an Oppo HA-2 se, Jot, and MCTH. I'll test it through those and potentially throw in my iematch in the middle if necessary. I've heard an andro before that was from what I can tell was a v2 redesign.

As a side note, my experience with CA IEMs especially the BA ones has been that they are extremely output impedance dependent. It can go from sub par to amazing by just using a lower impedance source or using a iematch in the middle. I'll see to what extent (maybe none) this might have affected what people were hearing and I'll try to twist my friend's arm to get him to lend me his v2 andros again for comparison.

 

Do you find any such sins of commission by Pure Silver Litz with Andromeda @Ice-man?

I am also considering using a Linum balanced cable with a pentaconn adapter. It’s a 1.5ohm cable so it could potentially push Andromeda into that 2.5ohm sweet spot with WM1A.

 

It's been a long time, but the Linum Bax @deafdoorknob lent me seemed to strangle* the Andro a bit, even though its impedance added to a 0 zout source brings it closer to the "sweet spot". Pretty sure there are impressions way back in the thread.

*Apt, since the Bax can also double as a garrotte.

 

Okay so I've listened to the Andromeda S for about 7 hours now. For background, I find myself using the HD6XX and MD Plus as my go to headphones on a daily basis. I also quite like the PM-3. I listen through a Jot with the 4490 balanced DAC. I also use an Oppo HA-2 on the go. These impressions were with both of those. I used the Final Audio Type E tips CA gave me in the box. I don't have an original andro for direct comparison, so this is from memory.

My initial thoughts:

1. When I first heard the original andromeda I was struck by 2 things: instrument separation and natural timbre. Everything was in its place and sounded so natural. It blew my mind as I'm sure it did for everyone else. Instrument separation and natural timbre has been preserved here for the most part.

2. The thing that lept out at me on first listen was a different character to the vocals. They sounded much more prominent. Vocal intimacy was there on the original andros but sometimes I felt like the mids weren't meaty enough. Like if I'm listening to Norah Jones, I want to get blasted with the vocals, and while the original andros were balanced they didn't quite go that extra mile for me. It sounds like they want the mids to be front and center on the S. The effect was most pronounced for me on songs like Norah Jones "Don't Know Why" and Banks "Crowded Places". Also Aretha Franklin "Ain't No Way" and Adele "Rolling in the Deep".

3. As an extension of that, I found melodies generally coming out more front and center. Which is fine with me. It makes Carly Rae Jepsen and Chvrches and Passion Pit more enjoyable to listen to. But it does make the soundstage a bit smaller. The S isn't harsh at all but it's slightly less what I might subjectively describe as "laid back". But when I listen to ambient recordings of large spaces, I still get a pretty large sense of space from these, so I'm guessing that it's just with music that the boost in the mids give the impression of a smaller soundstage.

4. There is definitely still a tasteful midbass bump. I'm pretty sure that was there before in the originals. This was critical though in this case because without it, I think the S would feel imbalanced with boosted mids and no bass bump.

For the most part, I found this overall great. But for example of Pusha T "Hard Piano (ft. Rick Ross)", it kind of backfired. That song already boosts Pusha's voice and boosts the treble. The andro's treble is pretty much the same here in the S, which can run a bit hot at times. So you get a situation where Pusha T's voice is a bit too much, the beat almost sounds muted in the background with treble spikes coming through. Again, the only saving grace is the midbass bump that makes this less painful.

5. The treble is fairly impressive still. My test for this is Third Eye Blind "Anything". The cymbal crashes in this song tend to sound like a splashy mess, but the S keeps up and I can actually make out individual cymbal crashes that sound true to life. There is a fair amount of texture here in keeping with the original andro. Guitar plucks, strings, little movements, it's all there. I noticed this when listening to Paramore "Hard Times", which has a shaker in the background that tends to get lost in my MD Plus if I'm not paying attention. You still get the lip smacks and other really close vocal sounds too.

By the way, I would be happy to meet up with any LA area friends if you have the original andro and want to do a comparison. Shoot me a PM. Please also do let me know if there's anything specifically you guys would like to know more about.

 

Thanks for that @scapeinator1 . So while I'd love to hear the S, I think that the original is probably more suited for my preferences.

 

Yeah that's totally fair. People mentioned the chameleon-like aspect of the original andros, and I think that has value. The andro S certainly makes a bit more of a statement. Though I should mention that the difference between the two is small enough that the "spirit" of the S seems in keeping with the andromeda. That "spirit" being a flagship IEM that has strong textured detail retrieval and natural timbre, with the tonal balance being shifted slightly towards the mids in this case.

 

I was able to pair my Andromeda with a Benchmark HPA4 a couple weeks ago. It was paired with a Gungir Multi-Bit and was actually a really good pairing with the Andromeda. It was set at its default gain and had plenty of range on the volume control to dial in a good listening level. You can set the gain much lower or higher to work with other headphones also. I'd love to have something like this in my lineup. Hopefully there will be some trickle-down in the future or the MassDrop baby version is also a good pairing??

 

Maybe one of the monoprice thx amps will be good it. Only problem is that they keep getting delayed along with the cavalli amps. I would love to have one to pair the andros with the Yggdrasil(if it ever comes back from service).