Disclaimer: The headphone I’m reviewing is a demo unit provided for an on-going tour.

Campfire Audio is a name I’m pretty familiar with as I thoroughly enjoyed their TOTL iem offering, the Andromeda. So when it was announced that Ken has been developing a headphone, piqued my interest. This headphones is the Campfire Cascade, which is the one I’m reviewing.

Cascade is a closed back headphone utilizing 42mm Beryllium PVD Diaphragm Dynamic Drivers. In terms of looks, it doesn’t have the typical rounded shaped headphone cups, but rather a rectangular shape. It’s not the largest cups for the ears, but fit my ears just fine, but feels like there is a bit of a limited room even if my ears are considered compact in size. People with bigger ears may find it more constricting.

The headphones comes in this large box similar to the small sized box that comes with their iems.


Within the box, contains a carrying case with the headphones inside, two envelopes. One of the envelopes contains the warranty card, two quick guides, and the filters. The other envelope contained the headphone cable.







The pads are easy to take out to swap out the filters. Nice feature of the Cascade is that the pads are held on by magnets on the pads and the drivers. So, it’s quite easy to pull out the pads, slide the filter in, and placing the pads back on. Pads go back on in precise placement by magnetic attraction without any fiddling. This is quite refreshing from headphones that take a bit work to pull out the pads. Sometimes they use little plastic coupler that you can accidently damage or wear out over time, or worse, they maybe adhered with an adhesive.


When I heard that these headphones come with filters, I expected to be some sort of foam inserts you find with MrSpeakers headphone. The filters used for the Cascades are totally different as they are not foam of any kind, but a cut sheet of plastic film that is placed on top portion of the earspeakers. There are 4 different types of filters sized from 1T to 4T, and with increasing number, the pore size increases from 7 to 15um. Each filter can be identified with a specific notch shape as shown on the quick reference guide provided.

Filters can be applied by pulling out the pads, and placing it on top of the round portion of the driver that is located at the center. There is a notch at the top that the top notch of the filter film can be aligned.

The quick guide(for the filters) provided states, “The lower number value of the acoustic dampener the higher the level of mid and low frequency response will be.” So, I decided on lowest filter, 1T, and I didn’t notice much of a difference in sound. Upon further investigation on the forum threads, somebody recommended to just not use filters altogether, and I thought there was a slight difference without the filter, reducing some warmth and bringing out more mids coherency, and highs in general. The bass response on the other hand, I couldn’t tell if there were reduction or not as the bass of the Cascade is very strong that if there is some reduction, it should be quite noticeable, but I couldn’t tell.

The cable came inside the black envelope. I was quite surprised the entire cable fit inside there. The cable isn’t long, and terminated with a 3.5mm connector. The driver connectors on the cable is same connectors used for HD800 headphones. The cable is covered in fabric material, and doesn’t get coiled up or has memory, which is quite nice. It’s quite light as well, and I think the cable works quite well for portable use.



Upon initial listen, first thing I noticed was hard slamming bass large in quantity. I immediately had to turn down the volume as that was a whole lot of hard hitting bass. I never had this the other way around, usually it’s the treble side I’d adjust the volume for.

Well, I can say, it’s for people that want to feel the music as there a highly significant bass presence to these. These in particular to many other headphones, pushes out significant bass, particularly the mid to lower mids bass. The bass hits very hard with it’s mid bass region, and outputs a particular woofer like resonance effect as well. Listening to genre like pop, hiphop, R&B, you get hit with these type of bass, particularly in large quantity. The hard bass gets reveal, but quite significantly if the track contains it, but if it does not, you won’t get hit with such hard bass. But a bit of warning, bass hit really hard and quite significant than the avg. Be forewarned.

When I got these, there was already a filter placed in the drivers, 1T, or the filter that should(according to the quick guide) should have the lowest level of mids to bass, and I still found the bass to be quite high and significant. Matter a fact, these headphones has the greatest bass quantity I’ve ever heard on an headphone. This maybe because I’m into more balanced response, and therefore I don’t have much opportunity with bass rich headphones..

A forum member mentioned that the lowest bass quantity would be without any filters applied, so I tried them without any filters. Although I didn’t notice much of a difference in terms of bass quantity(still quite high), taking out any filters seems to increase mids clarity slightly and seems to be slight increase in lower treble as well.

I can say that these headphones do sound like Andromeda(in the mids to upper frequencies ignoring the bass), particularly without the filters. It does have have a bit of that warm lower-mids presence to sound. This response is a bit above neutral that mids can come off a bit on the warm side. Mids sounds a bit less clear due to the warm nature of the signature(especially with the filters). What’s really interesting though is that even with such a large volume of bass, the bass doesn’t bleed much to the mids for a closed headphone, but there is still that warm presence in the mids that provide greater weight to the mids, and therefore find the mids to be reduced in clarity slightly compared to a response with lower bass quantity, but overall, it’s got to be the clearest sounding headphone for such large quantity of bass. I think the way the Cascade FR being emphasized more toward the mid to lower mid bass, probably keeps the bass from bleeding to the mids significantly. I didn’t hear any mids to upper mids-recession. I think the upper frequencies are well balanced.

Overall, I find these to be fun sounding headphones that with modern genre, and pop, by adding much ummph in the low end. These headphones do quite well with modern and pop genre of music, and doesn’t sound incisive in the upper frequencies. It’s not a response that you’d hear much sibilance either, which is a trait I like about the upper frequency response. It should play well with wide genre of music.

If you are looking for hard hitting bass with a bit of warmth, you should definitely look into the Cascades. It’s a good option for those love bass(have a particular taste for hard hitting bass), and looking for something that works portably. I’m not much of a bass-head, but can’t deny that these in general do sound good(but, lower bass would of course be closer to my preferred sig).

Like I’ve mentioned, these are suited for portable use being a closed back, comes with thin light cable with 3.5mm termination, and being easy to drive(which would be suited for portable devices),

I find that it does sound similar to Andromeda if ignoring the significantly raised mid to low-mid bass. It seems CA has similar philosophy for it’s target response. Overall warm, but without too much upper-mids treble, and articulate the treble with lower treble(but, not with too much in quantity), and in some cases like the Cascade, push lots of bass. Since I’m not really a bass-head, what I wonder about is, how the Cascade would sound without so much bass. I do find the upper frequencies pretty nicely done that I don’t hear any tonal abruptness, and sounds relatively smooth. So, I think a Cascade without such large quantity of bass would be the type of response that would jive well for me.


I’d like to thank Ken Ball from CA in providing opportunity for us to demo the Cascades.

This review is based on a review tour unit provided by Dita.


This tour unit provided by Dita was a great opportunity for us(especially somebody like me that has not heard any of their iems) to try out their newest offering, Dream.


Due to a theft that occurred during the tour, the kit that I’ve received was pretty bare with a few set of tips. Fortunately, the tips that was included in the kit fit me quite well, and turned out to be the perfect tips to bring out the character of the iem. This particular tip was the white colored, narrow bore(as pictured below). I’ve compared with the Symbio Mandarin W tips(that I use frequently), which has a wider bore diameter, and the white tips provided in the kit provided the better bass response compared to the Symbio. The bore sizing doesn’t seem to matter much with it’s sound.



I had no trouble with the fit. The nozzle is long enough to good insertion and seal(particularly with the above mentioned tips). A good fit due to not being so bulky and with good ergonomics due to the rounded shape that seats well on the Antitragus of the ear. Certain iems can be too bulky that movements can cause shifting the iem in the ear, unseating from a good fit. Due to the ergonomics and the size, there was no issue with iem shifting, messing with the fit.

One thing that can be improved would be the cable. The cable is a bit on the bulky side due to the added insulation over the main core of the cable. This insulation causes stiffness to the cable, retaining memory of the bends, which I didn’t particularly like. In addition, the iem felt a bit weighed down by this cable.



Now, on to the sound. Upon initial listen, I was a bit taken by it’s sound. It was due to having a sound that was different than what I’ve been hearing. I’ve not been so fond of single dynamic drivers that I’ve been hearing in the past that I paid more attention to BA based iems. Dream sounded different than other dynamic driver iems I’ve heard before, particularly the bass. The bass on this iem has to be the most articulate bass I’ve ever heard of an iem. It’s capable of outputting different type of bass sounds that typical iem doesn't present. Perhaps the bass is more transparent to the music type if it’s able to express different types of bass sounds. The bass hits hard in the mid-bass region and you have that sub region woofer like effect on certain tracks. That is not something I hear much of with BA driver bass, particularly the subs.



After spending a bit more time with it, I became more familiar with the signature. The signature seemed a bit on the V-shaped side with the lower treble peak being a bit noticeable. Luckily, I didn’t find this signature to sound be recessed in the mids or bass to overwhelm the mids to lose clarity in general. There’s a bit of treble forwardness and thus a great articulation results from the raised lower treble which can overshadow the mids. This lower treble was a bit greater in level than I prefer personally, which is a bit more than what I consider on the smooth side. The treble doesn’t seem to be as smooth of a transition from upper-mids to the lower treble. Somewhere in the area of 7-8k, there seems to be a bit of a emphasis to cause a particular boldness in the treble articulation that makes you really notice it. If this can be alleviated, I believe the treble can sound a bit more smoother. Also, this raised treble boldness cause a type of sparkle/grain type articulation gets a bit on the textury side. I wouldn’t call this a strong treble peak, but it’s noticeable. Other than that, bass is one of the best I’ve heard, and it’s the biggest strength. It an iem that really impresses me with it’s bass capability. Sound stage is large, and the sub bass really supports the spacialness of it’s large sound.


What I found impressive was the speed of the iem. I thought the response was very quick in par with BA iems that I find pretty quick in response.


All in all, a high performing dynamic driver iem that sets itself apart from many out there, and after demo'ing the Dream, I'm looking forward to what else is on the horizon from Dita.

Fiio F9 Pro is a dual BA, single dynamic, hybrid in-ear monitor with detachable cabling. It comes with two cables utilizing MMCX connectors, a 3.5mm cable with a microphone, and a 2.5mm balanced cable. Also comes with 4 different types of tips, foam, large bore diameter silicone, smaller bore diameter silicones. I find that the small diameter bore silicone tips drops mids and the highs, but does it in a veil sounding way which I wasn't so fond of. I was a bit bummed that all the foam tips were on the small size, and there wasn't one that would seal my ears. I know it's ok for foam to generally be on the larger size because you can compress it to fit your ear. Fortunately, large size, large diameter bore silicone tips fit my ear very well, and I found it to be the best sounding tips.

I've unboxed Fiio products in the past, and they generally don't skimp on the packaging or accessories. The inclusion of balanced cable is a nice touch among all the accessories provide.

The form-factor pretty much nails the ergonomics I look for. It's compact, and shaped to adhere to your ear shape with the cable going over the ears.


Source pairings:

Mojo: The upper mids is emphasized a bit too much. Upper bass is a bit lacking. Bass doesn't sound even, more sub-bass presence and with the treble sounds overly U shaped. Poor match.

Opus #2: Much better match than the Mojo. Signature is more balanced than the Mojo. Also there is more bass presence. Lower treble is still emphasized, but not as much as the Mojo.

AK240: I think AK240 is the best match for the F9 Pro. I think in general AK240 has most mid presence out of the 3 players I've tried(which was needed), and sounds good out of it. Also the 240 outputs the most articulate bass of the 3. Opus #2 in comparison, quality of bass isn't up the level of the AK240(and this is generally true of all the iems I've tried).

On tracks with a bit of sibilant vocals, the sibilance is a bit over-emphasized. In general, the treble presence region has a bit of emphasis.

If the sibilance can be suppressed, I think this iem would sound better than it does. I think the boost in this treble region cause tonality to sound toward metallic for certain tracks that have good amount of that frequency band presence. Reminds me of HD800 tuning except F9 Pro has sufficient bass in comparison. There isn't a lot of bass presence, but it's quite sufficient and sound like it does reach deep to the sub-region for tracks that outputs it. The bass sounds good in articulation without bloat(this is particularly the case out of AK240 out of all the three players), but not significant in quantity(it's the level of bass you find in neutral tunings).

Playing around with EQ on the Opus #2, I discovered drop in 8khz reduces the sibilance a bit. The EQ on the #2 is a graphic equalizer, only 8khz was one of the limited options. So the treble peak is somewhere in that region. If you can EQ down the treble peak, I think the iem would sound neutral with a reference like signature.

Due to it's tuning, the general sound signature is toward clarity. With the presence region emphasis, and mids to bass sounding neutral, it outputs much articulation without warmth emphasis.

Overall a nicely built iem with good number of accessories. It's an iem to consider in the price range. Considering the price, it's a good value for what you are getting.