Campfire Audio Moon Rover

General Information

Moonrover_Shopify_2048_1.jpg

Specifications​

  • Frequency Response: 5Hz–20 kHz
  • SPL: 94 dB @ 1 kHz: 66.37 mVrms
  • Impedance: 22.5Ω @ 1 kHz
  • THD: Less than 1%

In the Box​

  • Super Smoky Litz 3.5mm cable
  • Pebble Gray dimension folding leather wallet, handmade in Portugal
  • Marshmallow (foam) tips (S/M/L)
  • Silicone tips (S/M/L)
  • Earphone cleaning tool & Campfire Audio lapel pin
  • Campfire premium microfiber cloth

Latest reviews

Jaytiss

500+ Head-Fier
“Shockingly Good.”
Pros: Bass is sufficient for my needs.
Highs are dynamic, and fun.
Good extension and details.
Works as an all-rounder set.
Great Technicalities
Vocals are full-bodied and fun. Clean crisp.
They are engaging IEM with little sibilance.
Easy to drive.
Shell is awesome feeling in ear, nice fit and looks great as well.
Good for mixing, or stage work where lower bass is needed.
Very Balanced tuned iem, with nice upper mids.
Cons: MMCX cables fine, but are more challenging to cable swap.
Not for Bass heads, but is sufficient.
Some spikes at 10k or 8k might bother some.
Price is a lot, but less so compared to say the 1400 Planar 64 Solo audio iem.
Pros:
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Campfire Audio is legendary for pushing boundaries and creating unique IEMs. Their bold designs often attract fans with adventurous tastes, though they’re sometimes teased for their unconventional tunings. I’ve previously reviewed the Bonneville, which I found hard to enjoy due to its limited treble extension. The Trifecta, though impressive, felt a bit too lush for me. I approached the Moon Rover with low expectations—but was pleasantly surprised.

This iem is a sample and I do get to keep it. But no influence has come to me. Let me show you something.
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It’s a line, but it is a representation of about where my preferences lie. I put it out there so people can EQ my preferences from my target. It’s kind of a mix of Dynaquatro Subbass, Anniliator and Diva mids, and highs to be relatively flat. It’s not always right, but it’s pretty close for many things. Sometimes I think I might want to lower the treble line a little bit and lower the subass a little but overall it’s a great representation of what I normally like. I’m not a pushover reviewer and I try to remain objective when I can to help people have a feeling of what I like. I know a few people haven’t given me things to review, knowing where my preferences lie. The point that I’m trying to make is that companies that send me stuff, or stores for review, have the opportunity to see this. Campfire knows this, and they sent me the Moon River, and I think that’s noteworthy.





Driver:
The drivers are a single Planar, as Planar drivers are a bit funny. I personally don't’ love them, but they are fast and impressive. Planars in iems often times have problems and I find them off, weird and strange. This iem fixes a lot of the problems that I have with most iems, and to me and my ears is the best planar implementation I’ve heard to date.

Packaging:
It’s unique almost like a lifeline or a first aid kit that you’d take camping with you. It reminds me of the Great Northwest a bit, camping on Mount Rainier. The case reflects the camping feel. The design is epic and fun, and cohesive. I like it, but it took me some time to notice it and figure it out.

The unboxing experience has experience and theme. I love the creativity and effort. In fact it’s creativity and design language reminds me a bit of the Armoa Audio Fei Wan which is high praise.

This is a great unboxing experience with a fair amount of accessories for a product in this price category.


The Music:
Let me share what music that I listen to:
Tidal List here:

Newest version of my 10 favs that also work for Audiophile stuff

General test tracks, including some favs. Great to test Headphone tracks

These are ALL of my Favorites. 300+ songs (needs to be edited a bit)

I listen to a wide variety of music. I pick the songs because of a variety of reasons, but it may just be as simple as this is what I don’t get tired of when testing multiple IEMs on a day to day basis.

Generally though, I picture myself locked away like Andy Dufresne from Shawshank blasting music and shut off from the world. It’s a blissful image.

The Marriage of Figaro - The opera song from Shawshank Redemption, terrible recording but fun and gets me in the mood to listen to music.

O mio Babino caro - This is a modern less operatic version but a song with great female vocals.

Video Rigoletto - “La donna e mobile” Sung by one of the three Tenors, great song for high-performing male vocals. Pavarotti is the greatest classic singer maybe ever. Fight me!

Iron Man by Back Sabbath - The sound at the beginning is hard to make sound great, great drums, and cymbals, and if done right it feels like an old-school band.

I Will Survive (1981 recording, I like her voice, and the old vocals, the drums, and various natural instruments really make this a favorite for me.

There is a Light that Never Goes Out - Smiths ( A classic, I just love it. It’s mellow, and I can tell a lot of the tuning if this song is done right.)

Jump - (I like how the sound effects are in this!)

Star Child - Someone recommended this song to me, and I like how funky it sounds and has nice vocals and a mix of music and things going on.

Dicke Titten Ramstein - The beginning is amazing and the bass hits hard. Great song. I love rock and metal. The German language fascinates me

Master of Puppets: Very fast song. Helps me determine if the driver can keep up.












Appearance:

The Shell


The shell is clean and beautiful, and it is simple and robust. I love metal shells when done right, and I feel this one is done right. I love the beautiy of how it reflects light and how it feels in ear. Comfort is great and the design is unique and beautiful.
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The Faceplate:
The faceplate looks great and has a moonrock feeling. It takes photos very well, and has a fun look. It looks and feels premium. In a sense it doesn’t have a traditional faceplate but has a good ‘CA’ branding symbol for Campfire Audio.

The CABLE!

The smokey cable is very nice feeling and looking. I feel it fits the them of this iem very well. I don’t believe in cables, and my only gripe is that it terminates in a 3.5 at a right angle. It doesn’t really matter, but I almost expect a 4.4 option in the box at this price point. They are currently offering a nice 4.4 cable and a nice dongle dac if you purchase the Campfire Moon Rover from Campfire directly.

Drivability and source gear

I didn’t find this IEM to be overly difficult to drive. I tried it on multiple sources, and on my singular DAP.

In contrast, some IEMs are harder to drive like the Dynaquatro from Binary. It didn’t seem to be picky or sensitive to impedance testing.

Tips:
There is a fair selection of time in this iem.
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The Case

The case is interesting, at first I thought it looked like a purse, and my masculinity was offended, but then I found it to be leather. It protects your iems and has fun snappy magnets. I really enjoy the feel of the case, and it can fit a few iems in it. I wouldn’t suggesting running the case over with your car or stepping on it, as it might not provide the best protection, but it’s enough to keep your iem clean and away in a cool case.
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Overall Sound

This has modest bass and fantastic upper mids with great clarity and cleanliness. It’s an analytical sound. I like it, a good tune with nice upper mids is difficult to pull on in a planar and generally I don’t like planars. I like them with eq, but rarely do I like them without it. So this balances the technicalities of planars with a tune that is relaxing and easy to listen to. I like it a great deal.

I like this, and feel it is somewhat of Campfire’s go on neutrality. I like what they have done with the upper mids and it sounds clean, clear, refreshing, and the drivers really make up for some of the levels. The tune is very nice and appropriate and I really enjoy the naturalness this iem has.

Bass (20-60 Sub Bass, 60-250 Hz Mid Bass)

The details of the bass are strong, powerful and impactful but a little lacking in the over richness which can impact vocals. I feel like it has great quality but insufficient quantity to feel fun. There is a warmth and a lack of subbass which adds clarity to the driver in this case. Its crispy clean, and but not overly impactful.

Midrange (250 HZ to 800 HZ Low Mids, 600-200 Hz Mids, 2000-5000Hz Upper Mids)


The mids is the best part of this iem. The lower midrange is a little higher which can add a slight bit of warmth, but I don’t mind it at all. Finding an iem with this style of upper mids is very challenging and this has epic upper mids. This is one of the most important regions to an iem for me. The lower mids are a tad warm for me, but it’s not an area that drives me too crazy, and I kind of like them. I did find the lower mids to be a tiny bit of an issue on certain tracks.

Treble (5000- 10000 Treble/Highs, 10000 ++ HZ Upper Treble & Air)

The upper air is good and detailed. It sounds fantastic and not harsh. It has great clarity. I wouldn’t think this IEM would be perfect based on the graph, but I really find the extension and naturalness very impressive. This set is so enjoyable!

Gaming

Gaming is great on this IEM, as it has a nice tonal balance and is pretty relaxed. I think gaming on a 1200 dollar IEM is silly, but you do you. It’s meant to be enjoyed and gaming would be impressive to try on it as it is detailed and fun. The stage isn’t too wide, but just right. Detail retrieval during fights is immaculate, and the imaging vertically and horizontally is fantastic. It has great imaging and provides a good sense of location and space.









Graph:

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Sound - Final Impressions

This is a strong TOTL end-game sound. Is this IEM perfect? No. It has faults and isn’t the naturalist that other IEMs are. But what it is is unique, a little bit of the Andromedia lower warm mids, with the triangle style upper mids. It has energy that some might call a neutral bright. It works as an all arounder with a nice upper mid presence. This has a handcrafted tune that is majestic and easy to listen to with no fatigue. It’s not my favorite iem, but it’s definitely my favorite Campfire iem, and I can’t wait to hear what they do next.

This iem is an enjoyable iem with a pleasing upper mids that I wish more iems would do. It is a mid-focused iem that is what I consider Campfire’s style of neutral and it’s fantastic. It his the ears test, and sounds good on whatever I throw at it. Extremely impressive iem, that I fully love from a design and sonic perspective.

Recommended EQ: I use Peace APO to EQ on the PC. This EQ is done to my preference. I recently set up a preference curve on My Squig. So for at least IEMs, I can use my own graphs now. Please feel free to use the measurements as you want. Jaytiss.squig.link
Overall this is an amazing IEM that could easily be a game for most. The goal for me with an IEM is to have an IEM that doesn’t need EQ. The Moon Rover doesn’t need EQ, but I could see people wanting some EQ with it.

I wouldn’t recommend just adding a bass shelf to it, I’d recommend doing a little more sophisticated eq like this. More bass is fun, but it needs to be done on a tactful manner or will sound poor.


Preamp: -6.2 dB
Filter 1: ON PK Fc 25 Hz Gain 6.5 dB Q 0.500
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 30 Hz Gain -0.5 dB Q 2.000
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 45 Hz Gain 0.6 dB Q 2.000
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 100 Hz Gain -0.7 dB Q 1.900
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 220 Hz Gain -3.3 dB Q 0.800
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 750 Hz Gain 1.7 dB Q 1.100
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 3800 Hz Gain 4.6 dB Q 2.000
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 11000 Hz Gain -6.1 dB Q 2.000
Filter 9: OFF PK Fc 0 Hz Gain 0.0 dB Q 0.000
Filter 10: OFF PK Fc 0 Hz Gain 0.0 dB Q 0.000




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Gifting/who is it for: I think this is a nice HiFi IEM to gift to someone, it’s just a nice package that is beautiful and unique. Everything about this IEM has a nice thematic feeling feels premium to unbox and is one of the better IEM unboxing experiences at around this pricepoint. I see this as an exceptional gift to a friend, but mainly for people who are looking for a beautiful, fun, unique set that is neutral with good build quality.

Pairing: I used a Qudelix 5k for mobile, my dongle Dac iBasso DC07 for my laptop, and my JDS lab Atom 2 with a SMSL 6d-s for my Desktop PC. I also tried the IEM briefly on the Apple dongle as well. This IEM had no issues being driven. Typically I only find overears to have a hard time being driven and maybe some planar IEMs.


Summary-



This is a fantastic neutral chill set. It works as an all-arounder and that has fantastic mids and is the neutral set those that wanted the successor to the Andromedia 2020. Hell this might be better with the triangular style upper mids. These mids for me is the saving grace with an awesome driver, great transient response, low distortion, and a great open and airy sound. Finally a planar that I can say that I love, and is chill in my eyes.

Normally I’m not a planar or MMCX fan, but this iem hits both of those just right for me. It is a great implementation of a planar iem, and an easy to swap mmcx cable. The Moon Rover is a meticulously designed IEM with a refreshing upper-mid focus, great technicalities, and a unique aesthetic. It’s Campfire Audio’s take on a neutral tuning, and it hits all the right notes for me. This is a standout planar IEM and a joy to listen to.


PS: I am also releasing a video on Youtube at the same time.

Last edited:
Jaytiss
Jaytiss
Thanks! 🙏. Much appreciated. This was an exciting one to get in. Touring it to a few friends.
Redcarmoose
Redcarmoose
B
BasicallyAirVibrations
You should try Supermoon. They are even better in my opinion

Comments

TheHipsterCow

Head-Fier
Nice, I'm prepping for a review in a few days. :) I dig them.
Nice looking forward to reading it. Just spent a bit more time with it today and it really is not the IEM for me. It just feels so dry and lifeless, it is an undoubtedly unique presentation as it sounds like a very objective/broken down description of a song rather than actually listening to it. I’m sure there are plenty of people who these are for and a specific use case where they shine, I just haven’t found it yet.
 
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