New Campfire Audio IEMs

I have lived with the Andros for many weeks and now have lived with the Vegas for a week and a half. For my music preferences (70's - 2010's rock) the Vegas totally shine. Not saying they are "better" by any stretch. But for my 'genre' they have provided a ridiculous amount of listening pleasure. Thank you Ken. And for those of you who enjoy this genre, I highly (HIGHLY) recommend a try.

 

Should have my vega in tonight. Once I get a feel for it I should be ready for some initial impressions against the Andro & UERM over the weekend.

If any of the NYC crew are interested in a listen, PM me and we can meet up sometime next week.

 

@KenBall
Since we're talking about these new DD and hybrid iems in relation to your BA iems:

When you have a moment, could you please talk a little about what generally (not asking for trade secrets) goes into tuning a DD iem?

It's different than tuning a BA iem and since you've done both, I'd like to hear your take on the differences, thanks!

 

I'll wait to hear your impressions. Personally I'm more interested in the Dorado but maybe I can take the Andromedas off of you eventually

 

Also, in terms of reasonable pricing, Ken could have easily made a 6-driver BA and charged $1,300 for it. Or he could have talked up the driver tech and liquid metal housing even more and charge $2,600 for the Vega. The IEM marketplace is loaded with companies upping their driver counts and their prices, while the products within a given line all sound mostly the same, with some slight variations.

Right now there's the Zeus, the Katana, whatever the latest 64 Ears one is, and so on. The prices and driver counts keep going up. The marketing hyperbole keeps getting more outlandish. IMO Campfire is going in a different direction, one many of us appreciate, trying to get the best sound out of the least drivers, using high quality materials, and keeping their prices down when possible. And for the most part their IEMs have distinct sounds as you go from one to the next. It's not just about the most expensive being the best and everything else is varying degrees of less great as you move down the line.

It is of course fine to be skeptical, but shit, maybe you should actually hear the damn things before you completely discount the experiences of people who actually have the IEMs you're so curious about.

 

To play devil's advocate here, if we are to pre-judge the new Campfire DD products based on reception regarding Campfire's previous DD IEM (i.e mixed leaning negative), there certainly isn't much of a track record to justify the hype train that has sprung up...

 

Considering the reported significant changes with burn in, can we get measurements with them fresh out of the box and then after some burn in? I know that measurements in the past have not shown any changes but the audible changes are hard to ignore. If the bass levels on the Vega get toned down significantly, I'd like to see if that shows up in measurements.

 

Hey Guys,

Typically I like to wait a while publish the freq. Only because the freq can be misleading and I would rather let some user impressions surface before people come to conclusions just based off looking at a freq. Personally I feel some people can rely too much on the freq rather than listening. Yes I understand a lot of people do not have them and will want this information so this is mainly why I publish it. Also there are a lot of people who measure IEM and post them, but their equipment is not accurate so it looks very bad. FYI all my colleagues (other IEM makers) think I am crazy for publishing my own freq . I do want to be honest and transparent in my intent here and elsewhere. We really are very proud and happy with the Vega and Andromedas freq, it is where I want it to be, properly balanced and pairing with very high L R matching.

Regarding some recent posts, I do not want be a disturbance to this forum or have a negative influence. I am happy to peace out please just indicate.

Marvey, please accept my apologies on the delay in getting your Vega out. When I go away things tend to go sideways, It will go out this week.

Cheers,

Ken

 

Dont mind him Ken, the people in this forum have no problem having open and productive conversations with MoTs, and by everything you've contributed so far that seems to be exactly what you plan on doing.

Also cant wait to hear your products at the big meet next weekend, and to meet you again, Havent seen you since the last Canjam in Chicago...so long ago

 

EVERYONE WHO WANTS KEN TO STAY PLEASE LIKE THIS POST

(I can't like my own post, but please stay)

Also, If we can get EtyDave to post here, that would be great.

 

Ken, you're not the first manufacturer to post here, and your presence won't prevent us from being open and honest with our opinions.

 

I take it that the Andromeda and Vega measurements were taken with a near zero OI source?

 

Just saw the Vega graph, looks fairly accurate to my ears. If only they added 5 more dbs of sub bass... Or 10 .

In a seriousness, I'm still enjoying the Vegas. I find them particularly exciting with female vocals, Adele, Elle king, Fleetwood Mac, Sia, Fiona Apple, and Norah Jones all sound exquisite to my ears.

Now, ironically, as "bassy" as these are, I don't really long to hear rap. I actually skip most of my rap songs. Not saying the Vegas are bad for rap, but I'm a pretty hard core basshead, and I really prefer my rap on my Tralucent Ref 1 Too, asg 2/2.5, or Sony ex800st.

I've listened to some classical with them, which I think sounds amazing as well. I'm not a huge classical person, but I do have some tracks that I absolutely love. They sounded very good on these, in particular O Fortuna and a couple of Bach pieces.

Also, mine are still pounding the bass hard, but that's because I eq the shit out of them. They respond extremely well to eq.

 

@Warrior, @Merrick and everyone else who has a Vega, I wanted to ask:

How are you finding the treble for violins and cymbals?

Some of you may have already spoken to this, but I'd love an update on your impressions, thanks.

 

Here's the Vega & Andromeda FR placed together. Apologies about the image crudeness, the scales and sizes were different on both graphs and I had to do image adjustments so they could be compared.

Blue: Vega
Green: Andromeda