JS27
100+ Head-Fier
Very Fancy Thoughts : Dodo 2020 Edition
I ordered two sub $1K IEM's recently; the Meze Advar I don't believe is shipping until sometime in May.....but the Campfire Audio Dodo 2020 has arrived from Bloom Audio in quick and good stead! Now, you may say "Hey, the Dorado 2020 has been reviewed pretty extensively....do we need another set of thoughts?" Fair, but not how the internets work. Allow me to toss more pixels down the vast and ever-yawning digital opinion pit. Knowing the high-test audience here, let me address two quick points:
Q: "Sub" $1K? Does money go that low?
A: Yes, though if it makes you feel better this started out slightly above $1K
Q: So....would this be an IEM for one's servants?
A: While that may be a better treat than asking them to place the "In this house, we believe..." sign in front of your mansion....I assure you these are enjoyable for you too!
"Floating V" shape. High V? Deflated W? This is a sonic profile where the bass and treble regions are extended over the mids....but I would not call the mids full-blown recessed at all. I believe it was the one and only Rockwell75 who placed the Dorado in a sonic family with the XE6.....and I would agree with that.
Bass - While I've read review after review calling these "BASS CANNONS"....in a world where I've seen people say that the XE6 "is the minimum amount of bass they can live with" I would not say the Dorado is totally overpowering bass. Is it a bass-prominent tuning? Yes sir. Likely Love/Hate point #1 is the bass is neither the tight-on-command, deep-as-well, vertical dubstep drop of an IEM like the Z1R neatly behaving in it's FR pigeon-hole nor the behaved-yet-deeply textured presentations of the higher-end BA-based sets I've heard. For me the Dorado bass is slow-burn-to-boom, organic thunder.....rumbling and thumping merrily across all the spectrum. I think it's a very striking organic presentation.....but I also think the mainstream taste would judge it a bit diffuse/uncontrolled.
YOU GOT YOUR BASS IN MY MIDS!!! - So right away, I can tell this would be Love/Hate point #2. The good children of today love their sonic plate neat and tidy. Bass potatoes on the left, a little mids roast dead center, and just a dollop of treble to the right....not too much as they are very treble-sensitive (I blame the prevalence of social media and soy in products). Everything in it's place, separate bites. This is the goodly bounty of Our Lady of Balanced Armature. I totally respect that. Dorado is the Uncle with two Jack and Cokes and a taste for Shepards pie. The bass presentation, and at times hits of treble, are going to be waves that lap over the mids. It's to a less mind-bending effect than the XE6...but then most everything in existence is to a less mind-bending effect than the XE6. I don't find this presentation to be at the detriment of the mids, I'll use the phrase "organic" again as it mimics the type of swirling interplay you'd get with live music. This can be a tricky tuning to pull off, and while I think the overall effect here is superb I completely get this type of approach is the domain of no-middle-ground players like Campfire or Grado (or Fir? ).
Dark caverns of Dorado magic. Call it audio woo but count me a sucker for the "housing material resonance" fever dream. ZMF....Grado.....and these ceramic shells yes please oh yes. A 325-cup tight echo with a ZMF woodie decay....sex for your earholes. The presentation is smack dab mid-sized for todays crop of IEM's. Imaging and layering likewise seem neither a strength or a weakness. Speed will fool you....they can move quite quick though the boomy, thick presentation would have you thinking these are more mid-speed trotters. Too much too fast can compromise a bit of the presentation......not a glaring weakness but there. The Dorado "stage" hits like standing in front of cavern......music swirls, shifts, and fade's in a very dyamic way. Not "holographic" in say an Andromeda or EXT vein.....but like a concert hall, you all chilling at the back bar with an overpriced whisky wondering if you did one or two hits of acid and would the shape-shifting lizard person next to you know the answer to that. But you're not worried, you are in the Dark Cavern of Dorado.
Timber/tone very, very solid. Stringed instruments a highlight, acoustic or electric. The up-top BA add's a nice-pinch of electric sugar sparkle on cymbals, but does not play in the league of BA or electrostatic big-guns. It is a compelling total tuning for the around $1K range.....if you value technicality foremost I get this not being your jam.....if you lust for texture/tone/timber you will find your poison here.
The Dorado is so far proving to be a wonderful partner in crime with the Saber for my metal-heavy music mix. Where the Saber is tight as a drum, ultra-fast, and eats up the most complex layering.....the Archspire of IEM's....Dorado is the dark, doom, fuzz machine...organic and rich in tone...the Black Sabbath of IEM's. Unlike the Saber, the Dorado plays very well with Jazz, Blues, R&B, EDM, etc. in the vein of something like the Zen Pro. I am excited to get the Advar in.....this group of four IEM's I believe will be a very, very entertaining group below the sparkling heights of things like the EXT or the XE6 in my line-up.
Well done Campfire. This is not for everyone, but if anything above appeals to you....or you are doom/death/heavy psych mainliner.....if in your budget this is most definitely worth time in your earholes.
I ordered two sub $1K IEM's recently; the Meze Advar I don't believe is shipping until sometime in May.....but the Campfire Audio Dodo 2020 has arrived from Bloom Audio in quick and good stead! Now, you may say "Hey, the Dorado 2020 has been reviewed pretty extensively....do we need another set of thoughts?" Fair, but not how the internets work. Allow me to toss more pixels down the vast and ever-yawning digital opinion pit. Knowing the high-test audience here, let me address two quick points:
Q: "Sub" $1K? Does money go that low?
A: Yes, though if it makes you feel better this started out slightly above $1K
Q: So....would this be an IEM for one's servants?
A: While that may be a better treat than asking them to place the "In this house, we believe..." sign in front of your mansion....I assure you these are enjoyable for you too!
"Floating V" shape. High V? Deflated W? This is a sonic profile where the bass and treble regions are extended over the mids....but I would not call the mids full-blown recessed at all. I believe it was the one and only Rockwell75 who placed the Dorado in a sonic family with the XE6.....and I would agree with that.
Bass - While I've read review after review calling these "BASS CANNONS"....in a world where I've seen people say that the XE6 "is the minimum amount of bass they can live with" I would not say the Dorado is totally overpowering bass. Is it a bass-prominent tuning? Yes sir. Likely Love/Hate point #1 is the bass is neither the tight-on-command, deep-as-well, vertical dubstep drop of an IEM like the Z1R neatly behaving in it's FR pigeon-hole nor the behaved-yet-deeply textured presentations of the higher-end BA-based sets I've heard. For me the Dorado bass is slow-burn-to-boom, organic thunder.....rumbling and thumping merrily across all the spectrum. I think it's a very striking organic presentation.....but I also think the mainstream taste would judge it a bit diffuse/uncontrolled.
YOU GOT YOUR BASS IN MY MIDS!!! - So right away, I can tell this would be Love/Hate point #2. The good children of today love their sonic plate neat and tidy. Bass potatoes on the left, a little mids roast dead center, and just a dollop of treble to the right....not too much as they are very treble-sensitive (I blame the prevalence of social media and soy in products). Everything in it's place, separate bites. This is the goodly bounty of Our Lady of Balanced Armature. I totally respect that. Dorado is the Uncle with two Jack and Cokes and a taste for Shepards pie. The bass presentation, and at times hits of treble, are going to be waves that lap over the mids. It's to a less mind-bending effect than the XE6...but then most everything in existence is to a less mind-bending effect than the XE6. I don't find this presentation to be at the detriment of the mids, I'll use the phrase "organic" again as it mimics the type of swirling interplay you'd get with live music. This can be a tricky tuning to pull off, and while I think the overall effect here is superb I completely get this type of approach is the domain of no-middle-ground players like Campfire or Grado (or Fir? ).
Dark caverns of Dorado magic. Call it audio woo but count me a sucker for the "housing material resonance" fever dream. ZMF....Grado.....and these ceramic shells yes please oh yes. A 325-cup tight echo with a ZMF woodie decay....sex for your earholes. The presentation is smack dab mid-sized for todays crop of IEM's. Imaging and layering likewise seem neither a strength or a weakness. Speed will fool you....they can move quite quick though the boomy, thick presentation would have you thinking these are more mid-speed trotters. Too much too fast can compromise a bit of the presentation......not a glaring weakness but there. The Dorado "stage" hits like standing in front of cavern......music swirls, shifts, and fade's in a very dyamic way. Not "holographic" in say an Andromeda or EXT vein.....but like a concert hall, you all chilling at the back bar with an overpriced whisky wondering if you did one or two hits of acid and would the shape-shifting lizard person next to you know the answer to that. But you're not worried, you are in the Dark Cavern of Dorado.
Timber/tone very, very solid. Stringed instruments a highlight, acoustic or electric. The up-top BA add's a nice-pinch of electric sugar sparkle on cymbals, but does not play in the league of BA or electrostatic big-guns. It is a compelling total tuning for the around $1K range.....if you value technicality foremost I get this not being your jam.....if you lust for texture/tone/timber you will find your poison here.
The Dorado is so far proving to be a wonderful partner in crime with the Saber for my metal-heavy music mix. Where the Saber is tight as a drum, ultra-fast, and eats up the most complex layering.....the Archspire of IEM's....Dorado is the dark, doom, fuzz machine...organic and rich in tone...the Black Sabbath of IEM's. Unlike the Saber, the Dorado plays very well with Jazz, Blues, R&B, EDM, etc. in the vein of something like the Zen Pro. I am excited to get the Advar in.....this group of four IEM's I believe will be a very, very entertaining group below the sparkling heights of things like the EXT or the XE6 in my line-up.
Well done Campfire. This is not for everyone, but if anything above appeals to you....or you are doom/death/heavy psych mainliner.....if in your budget this is most definitely worth time in your earholes.