Well that is debatable, but not a matter for this thread
I certainly get what you're saying, and I can't speak for the others but for myself, if you have seen my other posts in the past despite my large efforts to try not to put down most Brand’s I have not been impressed with most offerings. I will say this here, outright, that the andromeda and the ditas (especially the brass edition that I'm using) are to me the best IEMs that suit my tastes that are currently in production. Tralucent I've been thoroughly impressed too, not necessarily to my tastes, but very impressed nonetheless. Besides those three Brand’s with which I'm thoroughly sold to, I am honestly having a hard time naming brands that I so wholeheartedly support. I have actually heard almost every single high end IEM out there as well as their lineups, but if you check out my profile, there aren't that many that I choose to comment on, for a very simple reason. I do not like to publicly discredit companies' hard work, even if they do not meet my subjective preferences, and that we tend to get accused of being trolls when we do voice our unhappiness around these places
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I wouldn't want to list the names of the IEMs (or Brand’s) I've heard, and not liked, because the list is far too long and for the above reason, plus I would not want to derail this thread. However, if you would like to know my thoughts and a little more of my experience
Mimouille, I could not be happier to take this discussion onto the PM, so do feel free to shoot me one if you're interested
Edit: Also, to add on, while I thought the Jupiter and the Lyra were good, and I liked the Lyra, I agree with you about them not yet being on the level that would leave my jaws open on listening. Even in my Jupiter review, which was mostly positive, I did mention areas in the tuning which I felt could have been done differently.
Now despite that, I continued to have hopes for campfire because I agreed with many things about the fundamental physical and mechanical design of the campfire earphones, as well as the acoustical considerations which go down to things like the choice of material among other things, which were shared with me in confidence, as opposed to what most custom IEM companies do. Ken really knew what he was doing, and I agreed with it fully. Thus, I made an effort to continue to watch campfire closely, believing that they could really do something great.
What really swung me over to campfire was when I met up its Ken at Canjam Singapore. As Ken previously mentioned, where I got to hear some of his prototypes, the andromeda being among them. I have never had a company impress me with all the products in the line up, but each of these prototypes I've heard, just blew me away. I wasn't alone here, a Friend of mine was with me, and trust me, we're both pretty picky with our IEMs, and rather annoyed (like you) at the hype that surrounds each and every IEM that comes out. That aside, we have somewhat different requirements in our IEMs. This means that by the time an IEM impressed both of us, it's got to do a lot of things right. And yes, he was extremely impressed with each and everyone of the prototypes we tried. Don't ask me to reveal any more information about the other prototypes I tried, that's not my place to say and I won't comment until they are, if ever, released.
So there it is, that's the reason I'm willing to get behind the campfire brand so strongly and recommend it so strongly to people. Just thought to share some of my experiences with this truly wonderful company.