Official Campfire Audio Multiverse III Effect - predictions, updates, & discussion

[AsciiJC]

Axion quick first impressions:

Really nice bass, has great impact but not overwhelming to be considered a bass head iem. It works well with many tracks, and is enjoyable. Can be a bit too tight at times, but overall, I love how the bass sounds on these. Vocals and midcentric music is fairly recessed, I wish this was more elevated. It has too much distance for my taste sadly.
My biggest issue is the treble. As someone with more trebly music, it does come off fairly sharp. While I can handle treble well, I would like to think more than the average person, it hits my sibilance region. Even with various tips and putting them in deep, it still hurts with some tracks.

Are these bad? No. They are pocketable, compact and do not require a fancy setup as the usb-c cable is great. I love the form factor, and the sound is solid to a degree. It won't work for everyone, if you can't handle a greater emphasis on treble then I would look away. However, they are pretty nice, for sure keeping these.

 

[mattclarke18]

Axion quick first impressions:

Really nice bass, has great impact but not overwhelming to be considered a bass head iem. It works well with many tracks, and is enjoyable. Can be a bit too tight at times, but overall, I love how the bass sounds on these. Vocals and midcentric music is fairly recessed, I wish this was more elevated. It has too much distance for my taste sadly.
My biggest issue is the treble. As someone with more trebly music, it does come off fairly sharp. While I can handle treble well, I would like to think more than the average person, it hits my sibilance region. Even with various tips and putting them in deep, it still hurts with some tracks.

Are these bad? No. They are pocketable, compact and do not require a fancy setup as the usb-c cable is great. I love the form factor, and the sound is solid to a degree. It won't work for everyone, if you can't handle a greater emphasis on treble then I would look away. However, they are pretty nice, for sure keeping these.

I would try in BT with SHure TW2 and not bother with cable. Then EQ them

 

[mikaik]

Axions are hungry beasts. Changed the cable to the ie900 stock one, single ended. With Cayin N3U, volume is up to 50 in H gain. And usually I listen to low volume. Rarely switch to H with IEMs. Respect for the USB cable included in the package.
Bass is great, there's enough quantity and the texture is there. Mids are recessed, maybe a tad too much. Highs are sparkly, with relatively long decay times, which can make some metal music sound crowded and fatiguing. This is probably something that will improve with time. At high volume they sound bright.
This is my first bullet style set, so I'm still adapting.
The timbre is slightly metallic, in this regard I prefer the Meze Alba.
My guess is they need a long(er) time to reach their potential, I'll get back.

 

[LFC_SL]

Axion quick first impressions:

Really nice bass, has great impact but not overwhelming to be considered a bass head iem. It works well with many tracks, and is enjoyable. Can be a bit too tight at times, but overall, I love how the bass sounds on these. Vocals and midcentric music is fairly recessed, I wish this was more elevated. It has too much distance for my taste sadly.
My biggest issue is the treble. As someone with more trebly music, it does come off fairly sharp. While I can handle treble well, I would like to think more than the average person, it hits my sibilance region. Even with various tips and putting them in deep, it still hurts with some tracks.

Are these bad? No. They are pocketable, compact and do not require a fancy setup as the usb-c cable is great. I love the form factor, and the sound is solid to a degree. It won't work for everyone, if you can't handle a greater emphasis on treble then I would look away. However, they are pretty nice, for sure keeping these.

Is this with silicone or foam tips? T.I.A.

 

[AsciiJC]

Is this with silicone or foam tips? T.I.A.

Any tip used, and I wanted to measure to confirm my doubts, well this is with silicon tips/

 

[LifeisinaBlink]

Just did about two hours with the Axion, so very new and very off the cuff, but I am not a fan at all. The pressure build up (for me) is actually painful in my ears with any kind of decent seal after about 40 minutes. It's an absolute power hog; I tried it on my LG V40 and my iPhone XR (using a Hidiz lightning to USB-C adapter) and both needed to be at 85-100% volume to get them at a level I enjoyed. The marshmallow tips were not my friend (the actual nozzle on these is already quite large), so I attempted to throw on my go-to tips, the AZLA SednaEarfit XELASTEC tips. This allowed for nearly a complete seal, but, as noted, this made the pressure rough to take for any amount of time. With both tips, the treble is definitely spicy (I find the DT 990 Pro unbearable for reference) and grainy at the same time. I found myself lowering the volume on these to try to tame the treble. Bass is okay but nothing to write home about, and the vocals simply sounded plain/neutral. I tried Qobuz and Tidal on both devices normally and tried to use UAPP on my LG V40 with a mix of 16/44 to 24/192 bit rates. The Axion did better with modern, high-bit recordings and not so great with anything else. If a track was poorly recorded or just a standard bit rate, I could hear the grain/cracks/muffle of it all. Look, sometimes I am excited to "hear deep" into a track, but this was an unpleasant experience for most tracks.

I like Campfire and I have a few of their products, but this is a misfire for now. I am going to mess around with sources, cables, and tips to see if I can't make them work, but my set, at least, seems hellbent on needing too much power (while also sounding distorted at high volumes), painful pressure build up, caliente treble, weak bass, and what I can only say are "inoffensive" mids. I am going to assume, for now, that maybe the DAC in my cable is malfunctioning or I received a bad set. I'll try to come back and edit my post if a new cable and/or tips makes a big difference, but I seem to be the outlier on this one.

 

[Takeda`1537]

Tried the Axion and I am pleasantly surprised. In my case I just ignored the cable all together, connected a Shure's cable, a good dongle dac and gave it a go. It turns out to be sounding much better than I expected and pretty much worth more than its 200 bucks. Highs are shimmering nicely, bass is ok (may be a bit too much mid bass but something that is easily fixable with a bit of EQ), mids are ok and managed to get it going without having to push the volume at full throttle.

Naturally I would not expect to compare Axion with IEMs of much higher price tiers but for $200 I think that this is a very comfortable, portable, convenient and effective "on-the-go" IEM .. Nicely done @KB & Colleagues!

 

[singingbee]

also enjoying my axion. they sound good with my ipad and s24 ultra. using eletech baroque tips. bass become punchy sounded whole. highs is tame mids in center not too recess.

 

[BX700]

Dang, I had hopes for the axions, but they don't seem special enough to go for new. Maybe look for a used pair later.

 

[Takeda`1537]

Dang, I had hopes for the axions, but they don't seem special enough to go for new. Maybe look for a used pair later.

Well all depends on what you mean by "special enough"... in any case there is one on sale on here from the UK (= not having to worries about custom charges and the option of a simple registered first class delivery) ... https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds/cfa-axion.78587/

Should you like to give it a try, there might be a chance of not having to wait for too long..

 

[nezagrizly]

Can anybody share whether axion shares exactly the same body as comets? I'm waiting for my pair to be delievered and want to get ciem eartips for them. Producer of tips in my area has a 3d scan of comets

 

[Cinder]

(1/25), Now spoken for. I first heard the Cascara at CanJam SoCal and was immediately hooked. Sure, the Trifecta is amazing, but there's something to be said about IEMs that are designed to be less extreme (in sound and in price!).

Impressions:

- Smooth, rich sound signature. Kind of like a Alba that feels more planted.
- Less warm than the Atlas
- Plenty of bass, but doesn't flood your ears like the Trifecta
- Surprisingly good treble extension and texturing
- Top-tier vocal intelligibility for a dynamic driver IEM

If you want any quick comparisons, lmk. My Head-Fi profile should be fairly up-to-date with IEMs I own.

 

[CFA Chris]

Can anybody share whether axion shares exactly the same body as comets? I'm waiting for my pair to be delievered and want to get ciem eartips for them. Producer of tips in my area has a 3d scan of comets

I just spoke with our engineering team and the general feeling is that it will work. They are slightly different but very close in dimensions, with the pliability of the silicone it should work. That being said there is of course a small chance that the results won't be perfect.

 

[shiorisekine]

Does anyone know when the multiverse sale ends? I don't want to miss out on the axion.

 

[KB]

Does anyone know when the multiverse sale ends? I don't want to miss out on the axion.

Shiorisekine,

https://www.campfireaudio.com/collections/multiverse-iii

Happy holidays to all.

Ken