Drop + Campfire Darkstar

https://drop.com/buy/drop-campfire-audio-darkstar-iems

Campfire revamped their limited release Black Star IEM as a collab with Drop, keeping the same driver configuration (1 10mm dual magnet DD for bass, 1 Sonion BA for mids, 2 Knowles BAs for highs), but replacing the DD driver from the Black Star with a new biocellulose version. The Black Star was around $1k and the Darkstar sells for $799, but is currently on sale for $699 at the time of writing.

I got a silly good deal on the CFA Cascara recently, which has the same dual magnet DD as the Black Star and I really liked the bass on it, so when Drop priced the Darkstar down to $599 for Black Friday curiosity got the better of me. I got it yesterday and stayed up way too late listening to it.

TLDR:
A tastefully tuned neutral-dark IEM that is smooth, forgiving, with sweet mids, secretly killer bass, and is a great all rounder that sounds good without just about anything.

Design:
The Darkstar uses the same shell as the Solaris Stellar Horizon, but instead of the two tone color way and awesome etching on the faceplate of the Solaris, we get a sleek all black shell and faceplate with the CFA and Drop logos embedded onto them. There are vents on the top and bottom of each shell. Isolation is average. Fit is decent, not as secure as the Astrolith for my ears, and every so often I have to give them a little nudge further into my ear but overall I can wear these for hours without discomfort or annoyance.

Packaging/Accessories:
I don't dwell on these but for if you're used to the excellent CFA packaging and accessory package, it's clear that one of the ways that Drop was able to lower the price versus the Black Star was to go a more spartan route on the presentation. The box is nondescript, with a CFA label applied to the outside. The accessories are the standard silicone and foam tips, IEM cleaning tool, CFA pin, a 3.5 smoky litz MMCX cable, and a small size CFA soft mesh bag with smaller two pocket mesh bag to hold the individual IEMs. For the sale price, I am fine with this. For the regular price they should have included a 4.4mm cable too.

Sound:
Off the bat, I enjoyed the sound of the Darkstar with silicone tips (foams made things sound muddy to me). As I said in the TLDR, this is a neutral, dark leaning IEM that is smooth, forgiving, and with sweetness to the mids. In fact, I'd say despite the brand new DD driver debuted here, the mids are really the star of the show for the kinds of music I listen to most (classic rock, jazz, R&B, pop with a focus on the 60s-00s mainly). Guitars have wonderful crunch and bite, male and female vocals are expressive and emotive, and the Darkstar handled everything I threw at it with ease. It's forgiving, especially compared to the scalpel-like Astroltih, and made even my most harshly produced albums listenable. I wouldn't call it polite but it's also not designed to be a party IEM.

Highs are present but not the focus. There's no sparkle nor top end air. There is a nice sense of space between elements in a track though. There is nothing offensive about the highs but they are easily the least remarkable element of the IEM.

Bass is where things get interesting. On the whole, with silicone tips, the bass is well controlled, taut and well in its place. It has less of a bass hump than the Astrolith or the Cascara, and it integrates with the mids very well and provides an excellent foundation for the mids to lean on. If that were it, I'd still recommend the Blackstar as a good IEM. But that's not all! This new DD driver is really fantastic. First, if a song calls for it, the driver is going to wake up like a sleeping giant and rattle your eardrums. On a dense, compressed, intentionally over processed track like Prince's "Black Sweat", the bass feels like a car subwoofer blasting so thickly the whole neighborhood can hear it. On synth pop that utilizes those deep, rumbling bass tones, you hear it reverberate throughout the low end. The sense of separation is such that this generally doesn't interfere with the mids, although this does depend on the way the track in question is mixed.

On top of all that, once I focused on the bass on tracks that weren't calling for bass cannon performance I found some really fantastic low end reproduction. Bass drums in particular have an excellent tactility to them, and a sense of air moving in the frame of the drum. Bass guitars have excellent expression and control. For my money this is a better bass presentation than the Astrolith, it just sounds more accurate to how I hear bass in live performances than planars can. Do note that the tuning here is pretty much a 180 from the bass dominant inclinations of the Trifecta, Bonneville, Cascara, etc. The bass has a slight elevation but in general this is about accuracy and expressiveness, not pure slam. Foam tips will increase the bass levels but I do find this interferes with the mids and I didn't prefer it. The way the bass responds to the track that's playing does remind me of the Astrolith, it's more of a chameleon than many of the CFA offerings that lead with the bass all the time.

Resolution and detail retrieval are what I expected for the price point, especially with BA drivers. Not giant killers by any stretch but well within expectations.

As I reviewed this, I realized this was not only the first hybrid driver IEM I've ever owned, but the first I think I've ever heard! I've been in single DD/planar land for so long that the whole hybrid scene passed me by. My main worry was coherence and timbre/speed mismatches between the DD driver and the BAs. On the whole, these are not major issues, but they aren't entirely solved either. Yes, if I intently listen for the differences in the drivers, I can hear it. It's not hidden or something I need to tease out with specific test tracks. However, the easygoing tuning and less excited presentation means I'm not often listening for these issues. The BA timbre has definitely improved since the last time I owned a BA (the OG Andro), and the biggest place this really comes up for me is note weight. Pianos especially comes across as too lightweight. I took piano lessons for years and I have listened to a lot of pianos played live, and the Blackstar doesn't capture the weight and nuances of the piano to my satisfaction. It doesn't sound bad, it's just an area where I think BAs are particularly ill suited. The speed isn't as much of a problem as I thought, the new driver is very fast and CFA has always been really good about pushing the performance envelope on their DD drivers as far as speed goes.

Pairings:
I like Darkstar best from the cleanest, clearest sources I can get. My AUNE M1P is such a source and my preferred pairing. The DC Elite sounds good but is more dense and it doesn't complement the Darkstar's sound as well. Ragnarok pushes the Darkstar to the limits of its performance capabilities but has hiss even on the lowest gain. My recommendation here would be really clean DAPs or dongles. Given the BAs I'd also assume that high ohm sources will f**k with the FR.

Comparisons:
Astrolith - This is twice the price of the Darkstar and sounds like it. The technicalities are beyond Darkstar's ability to match, and the sheer level of information Astrolith can pull and reproduce with its prodigious low and high end extension is class leading. Astrolith is more u-shaped than Darkstar, has more realistic timbre and note weight, but is not nearly as forgiving or easy going. It's an IEM that demands your attention at all times. Darkstar is less high energy, great for kicking back and just enjoying. Darkstar also has a better sense of space between elements in a track. The Astrolith isn't muddy but can exhibit the wall of sound effect that planars have from time to time. I also think the bass on the Darkstar is more realistic to my experience of bass in live settings. They make great complementary IEMs and that's how I'll be using them.

Cascara - Cascara is also a lively and energetic IEM, but one that is all about the bass. It's a single dual magnet DD, not biocellulose like the Darkstar, and it's for blasting out the jams. It's nowhere near the level of balance or performance of the Darkstar, with audible consistent bass bleed into the mids and rolled off highs that still sometimes manage to have a bit of peakiness to them. They are highly colored, fun at all costs kind of an IEM and don't have the refinement, control, or all rounder qualities of the Darkstar. However being a single DD they do have zero coherence or timbre issues and are still quite speedy for a DD. I bought mine at a deep discount and am happy with them for the price I paid but would not recommend them at their full price unless someone were looking for that specific type of sound.

Sennheiser IE600 - The IE600 is about on par with the Darkstar technically, but with a v-shaped tuning. Being a single DD, it also has zero coherence or timbre issues. It's not as easygoing as the Darkstar with its prominent highs, and the bass lags behind the Darkstar in many areas. Between the two I'd recommend the Darkstar for most people unless they are 100% allergic to BAs or are absolute fiends for v-shaped tunings.

Conclusion:
Darkstar is a really, really, really good IEM. The tuning is not the typical CFA house sound and that makes it a nice dark horse (see what I did there) in their lineup. The fact that it's only sold on Drop plus lack of coverage means it's likely to be unjustly overlooked. It doesn't have the WOW factor of the Bonneville or the absolute performance levels of the Astrolith and that's kind of why I love it. It's not trying to impress, it's just trying to make music sound really good and as a result it's the IEM I'd choose for long listening sessions or for after work with a glass of Macallan. It's a do no wrong kind of IEM, to use a Marv-ism it's all sins of omission, not commission. Given that CFA has just started pre-orders on the Clara, a $2k hybrid with the same DD driver and a w-shaped tuning, I feel like Darkstar is a fantastic bargain for the sound (yes, it's not 1:1 because Clara has more advanced BAs and the TAEC tuning chamber and such, but I'm guessing the performance delta isn't massive and the major difference is in the tuning).

Since Marv said we'll be getting a loaner I highly recommend signing up for that. Darkstar is worth a listen.

 

WOW! That was quick! You were burning the midnight oil. Have you heard the Black Star?

The Darkstar really intrigues me with the new driver. Bass delineation could be better on the Bonneville and Black Star. The mids are the focus on the Black Star for me, but it does have that secret low-end sauce. The Bonneville is the more fun one, but I could still do with a couple extra db's below ~ 60hz.

All your descriptions make quite a bit of sense, thank you.

 

@Merrick Great review. On your comment of "There's no sparkle nor top end air", is it at least similar to the andros or solaris? I could see it being a deal breaker for me because that's where all the special detail/staging comes from. For example, sony ier-m9's and Prophile 8's had "no sparkle nor top end" and it just killed them for me.

 

You wouldn't even attempt to use this for a desktop setup @Merrick?

 

I haven't heard the Black Star unfortunately. Would be very interesting to compare the two.

My only point of reference for Andromeda is the OG, which as far as I understand was the one with the most sparkling/airy highs, and the Darkstar highs sound nothing like it. Cymbal hits sound a little muted to me. I suspect this wouldn't be the best match for your preferences.

 

I would if your source is quiet/clean enough. Something like a Magni Heretic might actually work really well with it. The Ragnarok sounded good with it, I just didn't like the hiss.

 

I'll send you mine (just main housings and you can figure out your wiring/tip config). Should be a cheap USPS shipment. PM me if you are interested. (I also have Bonneville / Andro Gold / Axion if you want to have a brain melt-down)

 

I am interested! Might make sense to wait for January though to avoid all the shipping craziness of the holidays.

Off topic but what did you think of the Axion? Impressions seem very mixed but I think the driver type has potential.

 

Axion - neat, but that is about it. Sonically not there yet. Odd timbre. I'll be sending those along with for you to play with. They are not for me. They are 'power hungry' - so I can't really see a near future with a competent multi-driver version. It doesn't really do high/mid/low in any way truly special, so I can't even imagine a hybrid. It's like a trade off of a BA - still not what our brain perceives as natural.

 

Being a Campfire 1DD + 3BA with a specified impedance from Drop of 9.212 Ohms (which quite apart from the variability that'll occur with frequency is a ridiculous level of precision to claim; is Drop trolling us?), I'd expect an impedance-frequency curve something like the Solaris (tan curve). Presuming this, what you'd notice with higher amp output Zs would be reduced bass & lower mids relative to upper mids & treble (other colours, amp output Z increasing as ROYGBIV relative to the black horizontal line).



But the Darkstar's dynamic driver is new and maybe there's a different crossover arrangement, so this is speculation until @purr1n does a measurement on the pair that'll be sent for loaner. Or @Merrick , you can send your pair to me.

 

I think I commented in a couple profile posts about Dark Star, but I'll chime in here in a more findable and comprehensive manner that I had the pleasure of putting ears on a pre-production version of these (caveat: pre-production, yes, however the only differences between pre-prod and final articles were cosmetic, I was told) and wholeheartedly agree with @Merrick's impressions of the bass. The new dual magnet, bio film driver is utterly fantastic in it's taut resolution while still being able to extend with authority down to the upper 20Hz range. I auditioned with some hip hop that had fundamentals down in the 16Hz range and it was only in the sub-20Hz region that the driver began to fall off a bit.

I didn't have a whole ton of time with the Dark Star pre-prod, but I agree that for the price, they're a great value proposition for a certain less-so-much HiFi™, but wholly satisfying sound. They remind me a bit of the Noble K10U I had a while back; kinda smoothing things over just a little, but wonderfully "musical" (i know we hate that term, however apt it may be). Dark star is definitely within the genre of the overused cliche of "all your recordings will sound great" and not the "brutally honest; you'll know when you're listening to a shitty mix". But getting back to the K10U comparison, the bass of the K10U was just not well defined at all; disjointed, really, compared to the rest of the frequency response... Anyhow Dark Star, to me, kinda lays down a similar vibe, but goodness the bass is quite easily the best I've heard in an IEM in terms of overall cleanliness, tactility, punch, definition, and extension - just all the yummy bass stuff with no hint of overcooked/overbaked/overboobed/underboobed lower octave tomfoolery.

Also, when I reviewed the pre-prod version pricing was not yet determined. I had guessed it would be somewhere in the $899-1099 range, so I was pleasantly surprised when released at $699. Feels good, man.

 

Doing more listening, I think the DC Elite is a better pairing with the Darkstar than I first gave it credit for. The dense presentation of the Elite puts more meat on the bone for the mids and highs of the Darkstar, helping to balance that light note weight. And it really gets the bass going. I know several people here have an Elite so I’d recommend it.

 

@M3NTAL was kind enough to loan me a literal handful of Campfire IEMs from his collection, and among them the Blackstar so I can do comparisons.

Off the bat, I'll say the two are very close. Probably close enough that it would be tough to tell the two apart in a blind test. But I hate blind tests so f**k that.

The differences are slight, but I do believe I hear more bite and sparkle on the Blackstar than on the Darkstar. It sounds to me like the highs have been reined in a bit on the DS. The other big difference is in the bass. The DS bass is better controlled and bleeds less into the mids, diminishing the boxy sound effect. I also can hear more texture in the DS. The BS bass isn't bad by any means, but it sounds to me like the new driver is just that much better.

They are so close overall that I would not recommend anyone bother getting both, and I don't think it's even worth selling a BS to get a DS, you're not getting enough performance improvement to justify the hassle.

 

I just got the Modulate custom ear tips from Campfire for the Darkstar. They’re actually for the Solaris Stellar Horizon but they use the same body. Out of the box they’re a big miss—they cover the vents on the top and bottom of the shells and create a distant, boxy, muffled sound.

I decided to go DIY on it and cut out material from the tips that were covering the vents. Now the Darkstar sounds transformed. It no longer sounds laid back, but very immediate. Bass is thunderous, mids are crystalline. There is even more presence in the highs (could also be a function of the silver litz cable I got today as well). This now sounds like a super Blackstar.

The Modulate tips are $150 so not cheap and you have to go to the trouble of cutting material that’s covering the vents, but if you’re willing to put in the extra cash and the bit of elbow grease, these do add a lot to the sound.

 

I ASSumed the Solaris tips would work since the Solaris has the same venting scheme (I thought)

Same situation with the Black Star I'd reckon. How much cutting are we talking? Drill bit maybe?

 

I’ll take pics later. It’s not a huge amount of material. On one end the ear tip covers about half of the vent, on the other end the whole vent. I eyeballed it and cut around the vents. Still plenty of material there to hold the tip in place.

 

@M3NTAL

 

Just got these today. I wasn't digging any of my usual tips or the stock tips...couldn't find a good fit. I ended up finding a pack of Final Audio E tips laying around from a few years back. So far I now have a solid seal that keeps these relatively comfy and firmly in place.

At first these sounded a bit dull and flat to me. Not sure if burn in, finally having a good seal, or what, but they are sounding better. Pretty natural, nothing stands out as annoying.

Bass can be a monster and surprising on certain tracks but not boomy or bloated. Good amount of detail down low.

Mids sound nice and accurate and are also more present and forward in the mix compared to, say Verite Closed.

Treble is pretty dull so far and doesn't seem to extend very high up. Definitely not an airy IEM, as noted by y'all so far. However, garbage albums don't grate on the ears.

Detail retrieval is OK. Nothing spectacular here but definitely more revealing than other IEMs around the $200 to $20 range I own. Kato, 7HZ Zero 2.

The stock cable is OK, but definitely on the cheap side. The ear hooks are annoyingly stiff and can be scratchy if they touch the skin. I have a basic Time Stream coming to help with this.

I have only listened on IBasso DX340 so far today so I haven't experimented with other sources. I'll probably try the DC Elite and or Mojo 2 tomorrow if I have time and report back.

From what I've read and what I'm hearing now, a neutral to neutral bright source would be my preference with these.

 

Sweet! Sounds like we’re hearing them very similarly. I’m expecting my DX340 tomorrow and look forward to pairing them up.

 

After typing this out I had a really good 3 hour 'stay up way too late' session with them. Probably a mix of brain, Dark Star and DX340 burn in. Super dynamic...crazy good micro and macro dynamics. Female vocals were also dialed in and had that realism I get from my big boy gear.

The Final Audio E tips are a bit smaller bore than stock, so I ordered some Spin Fits ++ and Pro to bring back any higher frequencies I may be choking out with those tips. I'm open to other suggestions if you have any!

Off topic: But, I think you are going to dig the DX340. I have no issues or complaints with it so far (last DAP I owned was the DX50 as an FYI). I just tried out JAR 650 on high gain and was very, very pleasantly surprised. Can't wait to get your impressions as you are a much more capable writer. Seriously, be careful not to drop it as you may lose a toe.

Mojo 2 and DC Elite is feeling somewhat superfluous at this point. The usability of a DAP, and keeping stuff off my phone, is something I didn't realize I missed until now.

This is a great time to get into portable audio. So many good IEMs, portable headphones and dongles and DAPs I would have killed for when I was in college. Ha!