A collection of some thoughts on the CFA Honeydew
Campfire Honeydew -- Sunny kingdom of bass.
Preamble: I’ve been a Campfire fanboy since the Solaris became my first true love in IEMs in March of 2019. I appreciate their overall aesthetic, approach and the way they go after different types of tuning, some of which are inspiring, others less so, with all of them being at least interesting. I appreciate CFA’s mid-bass heavy DD offerings and am always up for a fun and engaging IEM so when Campfire announced the Honeydew, a single DD that, in their words is “Optimized for Full Range Dynamic Fun” and an “Excellent choice for drummers, bassists, DJs, and electronic beat makers”… well at $250 I simply could not resist.
TLDR: This a single DD Campfire IEM with an advertised bass emphasis. Unless you’ve been living with your head in the sand of the IEM world the past few years you should have a good idea what this entails-- massive bass, fun sound, good technicalities. The Honeydew puts forward an engaging & satisfying sound but with colored mids that can be overshadowed by the bass at times. I would describe it as an IEM with a dark tuning-- highs are very smooth and clear but never in the forefront. There is nothing remotely fatiguing about this IEM up top in the form of peaks or shoutiness. I would conclude by adding that it’s an IEM that is very sure of and true to itself—it is one that I would unhesitatingly rec to anyone looking for a fun bassy sound—especially at its price point—but the simplicity and sincerity of its overall signature is such that I wonder if it would win over a few who don’t normally go for basshead IEMs. At the very least it’s ideally priced for a bassy side piece that one has on hand to “get a fix” every now and again.
Overview
I never bother with tech specs & unboxing in my reviews as this info is available copiously elsewhere.
In a nutshell the Honeydew is an entry level single DD from Campfire that uses a 10mm “liquid crystalline polymer (LCP)” which is distinct from their signature A.D.L.C 10mm driver used in their high end DD IEMs like Atlas, Vega, Dorado 2020 & Solaris and seemingly is also distinct from the 10mm “bio-cellulose” driver in the recently released Mammoth. I’m actually hoping to get my hands on a Mammoth at some point just to do a comparison of the 3 different bass drivers from a weight, grip & timbre perspective.
Here are some succinct pros & cons:
+ These are certainly bass cannons-- but they're a fun clean, detailed, well extended and not-too-invasive sort of bass
+ They sound really oomphy & satisfying at low volumes
+ Mids are thick, bodied, reasonably forward and clear…for the most part
+ Lots of mid-bass though it doesn't degenerate into bloom really...it's a little like being in a confined club-like space with a massive sub.
+ They sound really good with old jazz, classic rock, hip hop
+ Nice wide stage
+ An aesthetically compelling little package
- Definitely coloration in the mids, which can be overshadowed by the massive bass at times
- Not for people who like lots of air, sparkle or forward treble
- Stage is wide but not very deep
- They are kind of cheap feeling for a CFA product due to the plastic but imho their charms more than make up for it, especially at this price tier.
The biggest deal breaker for me in single DD IEMs tends to be the highs, and typically because they tend towards being metallic or peaky—Honeydew has none of these problems. At first, admittedly, the bass totally dominates the sound field, I have found that I get used to it and after a time everything coherently & serently dissolves into a thumping and engaging unity. What’s persistently interesting to me is how I can spend a day or two listening to only the Honeydew and, in spite of having technically superior and more satisfying IEMs around, find myself able to enjoy the Honeydew almost endlessly, on its own terms. It’s not the most sophisticated but gawd damn it hits an emotional sweet spot, kind of like a burger & fries at the diner you and your friends hung out at when you were young— not necessarily the healthiest choice but they will find and occupy a secure and deep niche in your heart.
FR Breakdown
Mids & Highs
The Honeydew has a bass driven signature with relaxed highs and a mid-range with inconsistent openness and clarity. Sometimes, in something like Underworld’s
Juanita/Kiteless it can come off sounding a little veiled and hazy. Similarly, with Morrissey’s
I am Hated For Loving which is one of my test tracks, or Supertramp’s
Take the Long Way Home, or Dire Strait’s
Southbound Again the bass tends to crowd out the vocals and strings a bit too much for my liking. More often than not however vocals & instruments are sufficiently forward and clear for me and I never find myself craving air or space. Couple all that with a wonderful coherence and natural dynamic timbre and the overall picture is still firmly on the side of “win” for me. Honeydew tends to excel at a lot of the classic rock, pop & hip hop I listen to and am often the most sentimental about. Some standout tracks that I have found sound excellent & fully satisfying on Honeydew: Al Green –
Take me to the River, Annie Lennox –
Money Can’t Buy It, PM Dawn -
A Watcher’s Point of View, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers –
Don’t Do Me Like That and
Skinned by Blind Melon.
Speaking specifically to the highs—these are darker leaning IEMs to be sure and probably not for “treble heads”…though I must point out I never find the sound to be blunted sounding, lacking clarity & air, rolled off or really missing anything in terms of extension up top. The highs are not forward and they don't jump out and grab your attention-- but when you focus on them everything is there. I just listened to
Kid for Today by Boards of Canada and it sounded wonderfully clear, open and layered.
To close out this section I will say that I am not aware of any IEM that attempts any type of colored sound that does not sound better with some stuff than others—it’s just a question of what you’re looking for, what you listen to and what you like. While the Honeydew is not an IEM for a “mids head” I can’t fail to point out that I’ve become something of a mids head lately and despite that I can still very much enjoy Honeydew for what it tries to be and how sincerely & well it pulls it off.
Dat Bass
The Honeydew is consistent with CFA’s DD house sound, which is characterized by big bass with a noted tilt towards the mid-bass. This is anathema for some people but those of us who love it can’t get enough of it. Thanks to their tuning proficiency, which includes their use of 3D printed shells specifically designed to have certain geometries & acoustic properties my finding is that they are consistently able to milk a high degree of technical performance out of their “big bass” IEMs. I have found with the Honeydew, and as well with the Dorado 2020 that, once you get beyond the bass, there’s actually a very well layered sound with no loss of details. Because of the bass putting Honeydew on for the first time is like walking into a brightly lit room after being in the dark for a time—it’s overwhelming at first but after a while you get used to it and find, for the most part, everything in its place.
The characteristic feature of Honeydew’s tuning is its tendency to bring the rhythm & bass forward than they would be in a more balanced or neutral tuning. This does have an effect on the mids, as has been discussed in the previous section, but what it means for the listening experience in terms of the bass it those little basslines creeping in the background of so many of your favorite tracks are brought forward making it easier for you to sink your teeth into. At its best Honeydew sees you surfing on waves in a sunny sea of delicious bass. It’s not the most sophisticated presentation but hot damn is it satisfying. Some hightlights:
Weird Science by Oingo Boingo,
Get a Move On by Mr. Scruff,
Hey Ya by Outkast,
Swampby Talking Heads and
Genius of Love by Tom Tom Club.
Campfire as a company has long been associated with “big bass” in their DD headphones and IEMs. This is not without justification. To my ears CFA’s house sound is characterized by a strong mid-bass presence. I have heard plenty of IEMs with great bass. Right now the “holy trinity” of bass drivers in IEMs right now are Sony’s 12mm DD from the IER Z1R, Empire’s updated W9 driver as found in the Bravado MKii & Odin and lastly CFA’s 10mm A.D.L.C (Amorphous Diamond Like Carbon) driver. To my ears each of those 3 drivers is a great all rounder but each of them also specialized in a different aspect of the bass experience. CFA’s bass greatest strengths imho are its
thump, grip and
density. This is a strength of the bass in the Dorado 2020 and also the Solaris, where it stands out despite the latter’s very polite bass response. This is where Honeydew bass falls short relative to higher end offerings—the bass is not quite as clean, thumpy or grippy with the resulting response not being quite as tight, dense, controlled, nuanced or quite as well extended as it is on the Dorado 2020. I’m picking nits here though—the bass on the Honeydew is quite satisfying in its own right.
Comparisons
I’m honestly not sure what to put in this section as Honeydew isn’t really like anything else I own. Some have said it’s a baby Dorado but I would disagree as it lacks the Dorado’s sharpness & shimmer up top…it might be something of a baby Vega 2020 but I haven’t heard the Vega so I can’t say.
The only other single DD IEM I own is the Isabellae and it’s a complete apples & oranges sort of scenario.
Conclusion
On the whole I think the Campfire Audio Honeydew are a great offering for their price point and offer a great intro to one prominent branch of the CFA house sound. They are a super fun and well executed little package at a reasonable cost. I’m not aware of many other options at this price tier for this type of sound and as such my guess is that these will make lots of people very happy. Yes they are colored to a state of indulgence but on their own terms they excel. I listened to the Honeydew a few hours immediately after demoing the Oriolus Traillii and, while obviously of an entirely different echelon of quality, I was still won over by Honeydew’s playful, transparent and non-pretentious charms even immediately after partaking of the grandeur and imho peerless nature of Traillii’s overall sound.
So at the end of the day I don't think Honeydew will break any boundaries or set any new standards they're very endearing and imho succeed quite well at the modest task they've embraced. I was standing in the kitchen making lunch the other day and (appropriately enough given the summer theme) The Beach Boys' "Little Douce Coup" came on and before long I was dancing around my kitchen in a happy little zone just sort of lost in the moment. I've often said that whatever else you can say about an IEM-- its technical capacity, tonal balance or what have you-- is merely a footnote if the IEM in question can pull me into its little world and work its magic on me. Not every IEM does that and it's always a strong point in its favor when it does. All in all, Nicely Done.
(I don't have an actual honeydew on hand so the above was the best I can do.)
