I received a demo/preview loaner unit from headphones.com today and here's my initial impressions on half day of listening and using them along side some other IEMs.
Packaging/Build/etc:
The new packaging is a real treat to open up and look at. CFA stepped up their already top-tier packaging and accessories bundle for this new line of IEMs. I was surprised to see that this came with 3 sets of mesh shell cases.
The garnet-colored shell is more of a dark red/purple tint than what I thought of in the photos, but they look stunning to me. The new cable is much more easier to handle and I am happy that they went with the preform hooks as opposed to memory wire. The new leather case is very nice and usable.
Fit-wise, the longer Solaris-style bore makes this shell much more comfortable for me than the Andromeda/Orion and previous generation Campfires. I barely feel these on my ears and the sharp edges don’t touch the back of my ears anymore.
Listening Impressions:
In terms of listening, I find these not the best things for vocals, and specifically female vocals have a weird haze to it. Cymbals also exhibit this behavior. It has a low fidelity sound to it – a veil. I think some of the more negative impressions on head-fi have some merit, in terms of how I am hearing it. The bass and low end sounds great for my preferences and that is an improvement over the Orion. Male vocals don’t exhibit the same issues as females, though there still is a weird tinny-haze to them occasionally.
Treble is much more extended than Orion, from memory, and has a little bit of sparkle like Andromeda, though not as distinct and detailed. To me, it sounds like a really odd sounding mix of Orion and Andromeda with some weird mids that makes it not currently recommended for listening to vocals. It may perform better in instrumental music, which I havent dived too far into yet.
I’ve been A-Bing back and forth with Andromeda, Solaris and IO. Listening to Fleetwood Mac, Norah Jones, Chvrches, Chris Stapleton, U137, Radiohead, Massive Attack, and Cocteau Twins. Of those, U137 and Massive Attack sound pretty good, and they are more instrument/beat driven than vocals.
I think if I was blindly listening to these without a reference point, I’d still find it a little off, but could get used to it. But when put into perspective with another IEM, such as the Orion or Etymotics ER3SR, which have, subjectively, more coherent mids, these sound a little off.
Just for full disclosure, I used SpinFit CP100 and CP145 tips along with the Astell & Kern SR15 A&Norma DAP as my primary source throughout the day. I did try it initially with my PC hooked up to the RME ADI-2 DAC as the source.
Measurement
Just to quickly wrap things up, I did perform a measurement on this unit to compare back to the one posted earlier in this thread by @malvinviriya . I used the same coupler he has and he did share with me the files to import and overlay. For the most part, the measurements are the same. There's some variance in the higher treble regions, but that is most likely due to tip differences and insertion depth, as those parameters can change that area's measured responses. I used foam and spiral dot tips for these measurements.
Packaging/Build/etc:
The new packaging is a real treat to open up and look at. CFA stepped up their already top-tier packaging and accessories bundle for this new line of IEMs. I was surprised to see that this came with 3 sets of mesh shell cases.
The garnet-colored shell is more of a dark red/purple tint than what I thought of in the photos, but they look stunning to me. The new cable is much more easier to handle and I am happy that they went with the preform hooks as opposed to memory wire. The new leather case is very nice and usable.
Fit-wise, the longer Solaris-style bore makes this shell much more comfortable for me than the Andromeda/Orion and previous generation Campfires. I barely feel these on my ears and the sharp edges don’t touch the back of my ears anymore.
Listening Impressions:
In terms of listening, I find these not the best things for vocals, and specifically female vocals have a weird haze to it. Cymbals also exhibit this behavior. It has a low fidelity sound to it – a veil. I think some of the more negative impressions on head-fi have some merit, in terms of how I am hearing it. The bass and low end sounds great for my preferences and that is an improvement over the Orion. Male vocals don’t exhibit the same issues as females, though there still is a weird tinny-haze to them occasionally.
Treble is much more extended than Orion, from memory, and has a little bit of sparkle like Andromeda, though not as distinct and detailed. To me, it sounds like a really odd sounding mix of Orion and Andromeda with some weird mids that makes it not currently recommended for listening to vocals. It may perform better in instrumental music, which I havent dived too far into yet.
I’ve been A-Bing back and forth with Andromeda, Solaris and IO. Listening to Fleetwood Mac, Norah Jones, Chvrches, Chris Stapleton, U137, Radiohead, Massive Attack, and Cocteau Twins. Of those, U137 and Massive Attack sound pretty good, and they are more instrument/beat driven than vocals.
I think if I was blindly listening to these without a reference point, I’d still find it a little off, but could get used to it. But when put into perspective with another IEM, such as the Orion or Etymotics ER3SR, which have, subjectively, more coherent mids, these sound a little off.
Just for full disclosure, I used SpinFit CP100 and CP145 tips along with the Astell & Kern SR15 A&Norma DAP as my primary source throughout the day. I did try it initially with my PC hooked up to the RME ADI-2 DAC as the source.
Measurement
Just to quickly wrap things up, I did perform a measurement on this unit to compare back to the one posted earlier in this thread by @malvinviriya . I used the same coupler he has and he did share with me the files to import and overlay. For the most part, the measurements are the same. There's some variance in the higher treble regions, but that is most likely due to tip differences and insertion depth, as those parameters can change that area's measured responses. I used foam and spiral dot tips for these measurements.