The Campfire Roundup, Deuxième Partie:
Ken’s been a busy bee this (last?) year. Revamping not just the celebrated Andromeda and Solaris, but the not so celebrated Vega and Dorado as well. Truly ambitious.
Let’s start with the Vega. The original Vega attained a level of meme-reputation mostly because it was one of the funniest sounding IEMs in existence. It was absurdly bassy with a bizarrely sharp treble peak that sounded like someone making a parody of extreme-V IEMs. Well, it wasn’t intended as a parody, but that’s not the point. The OG Vega was still worthy of bringing up in conversation for the same reason something like the Shozy Pola or the RHA CL1 was, albeit for different reasons.
It’s perhaps disappointing to report, then, that the Vega 2020 isn’t even worthy of this. It’s just a bad IEM, through and through. The comical middle finger treble spike was removed, the nonexistent midrange was swapped with a pitifully bad attempt at mids, and the bass, well, is still the bass. It’s been a hot minute since I last heard the original Vega, but I do recall that DD actually being more competent in terms of bass texture and slam compared to this one. Scratch that, the Vega 2020’s bass is actually surprisingly weak given how much of it there is. You’d think that, of all things, this would be what the Vega 2020 excelled at, but I guess not. And bizarrely enough, for all the bass it has, the Vega 2020 is absolutely horrible at subbass. There is a severe lack of extension reminiscent of overly boosted BAs. Scratch that again, that’s exactly what the Vega 2020’s bass sounds like on a whole. An extremely bloated and slow BA woofer. You might recall I had a similar accusation towards the OG Solaris’ bass, and the obvious question now is what the correlation is between the two. Of course, I’m no expert on Campfire’s lineup or tech, so I won’t speculate.
I mean, it’s the Vega, do I really need to talk about the midrange here? The original had none, and the 2020 has a vague attempt at it, but it’s honestly so pathetic I’m not even sure it’s worth mentioning. It sounds oddly boosted in the center mids in all the wrong ways, somewhat similar to the OG Solaris but minus the grate. Or maybe the grate is still there, and I just can’t hear it past the overwhelming bass. I don’t know. It’s still a weird and wrong sounding midrange regardless.
As much as the original Vega’s treble spike was a pain to listen to, there was actually something kind of endearing about it. It was almost like a half-baked attempt at balancing the ridiculous amounts of bass; just a single treble spike that made everything sizzle. To a degree, the Vega 2020 has this; treble on the Vega 2020 is rough, grating and honestly irritating to listen to while simultaneously sounding hazy. But it’s just not as extreme as the OG Vega is. There’s a disappointing lack of meme factor here, and one would have hoped that, of all things, this would be the one that the Vega 2020 got right. I guess not.
Throughout this writeup, I've approached the Vega 2020 not as a serious IEM but on the basis of how good of a practical joke it is. That’s kind of because it instantly flops if you try to genuinely evaluate it as the thousand dollar IEM it is. But here’s the kicker: not only is it bad at being a good IEM, it’s bad at being a so-bad-it’s-good IEM too. And in which case, you just get a plain bad IEM, which is what the Vega 2020 is. Now imagine the Vega 2020, but even worse. That’s the Dorado 2020.
From the getgo, the Dorado presents itself as just gobs and gobs of bass bloat, somehow more than the Vega. The Dorado 2020 may have some of the worst bass bloat I’ve ever heard on any IEM. It’s so ridiculously overwhelming even in direct comparison to the Vega (itself incredibly bloated) that I’m actually kind of impressed. In a bad way, but impressed nonetheless. Similar to the Vega, it’s got that distinct lack of subbass rumble that really has me questioning what on earth is up with Campfire’s recent DDs. They lack so much impact and weight compared to virtually every other DD I’ve heard. Why even bother making a hybrid or a single DD at that point?
Somewhat similar to the Vega 2020, the Dorado starts out with the premise of center-midrange focus. Where it primarily differs is the insane bass bloat bleeding into the mids, which leads towards an odd tubbiness in the lower mids that sounds just as blunt and slow as the bass. Eugh.
Oh yeah, and that BA tweeter that the Dorado has over the Vega. It really wants to make itself known. Sibilant, tinny, one-note treble. Fantastic really.
There’s really no point talking about intangibles for either of these IEMs. Both of them fail from the getgo with just plain awful tunings. They don’t accomplish anything special in dynamics or bass slam (the opposite in this case) or timbre or detail retrieval. They are squarely mediocre (if not less than mediocre thanks to the poor bass performance) IEMs with truly awful tunings regardless of technical performance.
Perhaps the most difficult part of reviewing IEMs like these is determining how to place them in the bottom rungs. Sure, they’re bad, but how bad is the difficult question. I would say that the Vega 2020 is about as bad as the Ara or the Wraith, but does that make the Dorado as bad as the Cupid and the Rai Solo? I don’t think the answer is yes. The Vega and Dorado are bad all around, but they’re definitely not as abysmal as the aforementioned 1/10s. So good on them for just barely avoiding that rung on the food chain. Not so good on the rest of us, who have to put up with the existence of these failures of IEMs.
All listening was done out of the WM1A’s 4.4mm jack.
And here I was hoping that there would be another Andromeda 2020 style makeover. Disappointing.
Scores:
Dorado 2020: 2/10
Vega 2020: 2/10
Ken’s been a busy bee this (last?) year. Revamping not just the celebrated Andromeda and Solaris, but the not so celebrated Vega and Dorado as well. Truly ambitious.
Let’s start with the Vega. The original Vega attained a level of meme-reputation mostly because it was one of the funniest sounding IEMs in existence. It was absurdly bassy with a bizarrely sharp treble peak that sounded like someone making a parody of extreme-V IEMs. Well, it wasn’t intended as a parody, but that’s not the point. The OG Vega was still worthy of bringing up in conversation for the same reason something like the Shozy Pola or the RHA CL1 was, albeit for different reasons.
It’s perhaps disappointing to report, then, that the Vega 2020 isn’t even worthy of this. It’s just a bad IEM, through and through. The comical middle finger treble spike was removed, the nonexistent midrange was swapped with a pitifully bad attempt at mids, and the bass, well, is still the bass. It’s been a hot minute since I last heard the original Vega, but I do recall that DD actually being more competent in terms of bass texture and slam compared to this one. Scratch that, the Vega 2020’s bass is actually surprisingly weak given how much of it there is. You’d think that, of all things, this would be what the Vega 2020 excelled at, but I guess not. And bizarrely enough, for all the bass it has, the Vega 2020 is absolutely horrible at subbass. There is a severe lack of extension reminiscent of overly boosted BAs. Scratch that again, that’s exactly what the Vega 2020’s bass sounds like on a whole. An extremely bloated and slow BA woofer. You might recall I had a similar accusation towards the OG Solaris’ bass, and the obvious question now is what the correlation is between the two. Of course, I’m no expert on Campfire’s lineup or tech, so I won’t speculate.
I mean, it’s the Vega, do I really need to talk about the midrange here? The original had none, and the 2020 has a vague attempt at it, but it’s honestly so pathetic I’m not even sure it’s worth mentioning. It sounds oddly boosted in the center mids in all the wrong ways, somewhat similar to the OG Solaris but minus the grate. Or maybe the grate is still there, and I just can’t hear it past the overwhelming bass. I don’t know. It’s still a weird and wrong sounding midrange regardless.
As much as the original Vega’s treble spike was a pain to listen to, there was actually something kind of endearing about it. It was almost like a half-baked attempt at balancing the ridiculous amounts of bass; just a single treble spike that made everything sizzle. To a degree, the Vega 2020 has this; treble on the Vega 2020 is rough, grating and honestly irritating to listen to while simultaneously sounding hazy. But it’s just not as extreme as the OG Vega is. There’s a disappointing lack of meme factor here, and one would have hoped that, of all things, this would be the one that the Vega 2020 got right. I guess not.
Throughout this writeup, I've approached the Vega 2020 not as a serious IEM but on the basis of how good of a practical joke it is. That’s kind of because it instantly flops if you try to genuinely evaluate it as the thousand dollar IEM it is. But here’s the kicker: not only is it bad at being a good IEM, it’s bad at being a so-bad-it’s-good IEM too. And in which case, you just get a plain bad IEM, which is what the Vega 2020 is. Now imagine the Vega 2020, but even worse. That’s the Dorado 2020.
From the getgo, the Dorado presents itself as just gobs and gobs of bass bloat, somehow more than the Vega. The Dorado 2020 may have some of the worst bass bloat I’ve ever heard on any IEM. It’s so ridiculously overwhelming even in direct comparison to the Vega (itself incredibly bloated) that I’m actually kind of impressed. In a bad way, but impressed nonetheless. Similar to the Vega, it’s got that distinct lack of subbass rumble that really has me questioning what on earth is up with Campfire’s recent DDs. They lack so much impact and weight compared to virtually every other DD I’ve heard. Why even bother making a hybrid or a single DD at that point?
Somewhat similar to the Vega 2020, the Dorado starts out with the premise of center-midrange focus. Where it primarily differs is the insane bass bloat bleeding into the mids, which leads towards an odd tubbiness in the lower mids that sounds just as blunt and slow as the bass. Eugh.
Oh yeah, and that BA tweeter that the Dorado has over the Vega. It really wants to make itself known. Sibilant, tinny, one-note treble. Fantastic really.
There’s really no point talking about intangibles for either of these IEMs. Both of them fail from the getgo with just plain awful tunings. They don’t accomplish anything special in dynamics or bass slam (the opposite in this case) or timbre or detail retrieval. They are squarely mediocre (if not less than mediocre thanks to the poor bass performance) IEMs with truly awful tunings regardless of technical performance.
Perhaps the most difficult part of reviewing IEMs like these is determining how to place them in the bottom rungs. Sure, they’re bad, but how bad is the difficult question. I would say that the Vega 2020 is about as bad as the Ara or the Wraith, but does that make the Dorado as bad as the Cupid and the Rai Solo? I don’t think the answer is yes. The Vega and Dorado are bad all around, but they’re definitely not as abysmal as the aforementioned 1/10s. So good on them for just barely avoiding that rung on the food chain. Not so good on the rest of us, who have to put up with the existence of these failures of IEMs.
All listening was done out of the WM1A’s 4.4mm jack.
And here I was hoping that there would be another Andromeda 2020 style makeover. Disappointing.
Scores:
Dorado 2020: 2/10
Vega 2020: 2/10
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and I spat ‘em all out when I read “ not only is it bad at being a good IEM, it’s bad at being a so-bad-it’s-good IEM too.” Bravo.
