I picked up the Campfire Andromeda Emerald Sea for half price from a local B&M. Burned in for 50 hours.
The treble is about where I like, detailed, effortless, not splashy, touch of nice sparkle, sibilance is non-existant, there is a tiny bump somewhere in the upper mids which just gives vocals clarity on the leading edge but without any piercing, toeing that line perfectly. These are missing some airiness in the topmost registers which affects the sound stage negatively, I wouldn't mind a touch more sparkle but what is there is nice, I would not call these warm or rolled off in the strictest sense, I think treble beyond this point goes into bright territory personally, but I tend to perceive a dead flat or neutral FR as bright also.
Mids sound smooth to a fault, there is less contrast and bite than what I'd ideally like, but in return you get an extremely easy to listen to and honeyed vocal sound, not really recessed, just smoothed over, which ultimately can make it sound V shaped with some sources (Sony ZX507), but they sound quite balanced with some sources that are more vocal forward (Hiby RS2). Just keep in mind that the actual mid tonality is quite good, there is no overbearing pinna gain like some older CA iem's, there is no big spikes or recessions that I can hear, they are just smooth, lacking some bite and contrast, and a tick below the rest of the mix. But keep reading as I made a mod to bring the mids more into focus without losing wht their about.
I also found I prefer the sound in low gain mode on both sources through the balanced 4.4mm, as putting it in high gain increases bass output and skews frequency balance, in low gain balanced they are punchy and go deep, I find myself missing dynamic driver bass pretty quickly when listening to these, but that's really just me being spoilt, because as far as BA bass goes I think these do it better than most, just don't have that dynamic driver timbre and texture, but decay wise I'm not missing much as these have done it better than most BA's, there is just a fraction of decay giving the bass better body and impact which I like, I'm not a fan of massive bass decay ala Sony iem's and many others.
Imaging is really nice, pin point, stage width seems to only extend to just past my ears, with a very solid image between, whether center image or extremities, it's tack sharp with the layering and separation, it does stage height well, it's not just wide and thin, it extends a bit above my head, there is an above average 3d stage with these, but I would have liked an even bigger out of head experience honestly, maybe a touch more sparkle could have helped here, I think it's possible to achieve bigger stage with some mods to the ear tips.
I don't hear these as having bass bleed, but in terms of bass quantity, sometimes it is a touch too much, othertimes it really adds to the song. I have improved the sound by using a pure silver cable, with final e tips, in low gain balanced. I also did a small mod which slightly increased detail/definition of the sound top to bottom. What I did was insert a small hard plastic tube into the sound bore of the final e tips pictured below, which removes the sound dampening effect of the silicon bore from the sound path giving the mids and treble the harder edge they could use, it also helps tighten up the bass. Now I have a feeling that if I found a plastic tube with a slightly larger diameter to insert into the sound bore this could increase the sound stage size and reduce mid bass, as I think the final e tips are slightly too narrow and restricting for this iem, as the sound bore of the andromeda are larger than the bore of the final e tips which are creating a restriction and altering FR (increasing midbass and mid treble I reckon).
As for the stock foam and silcon tips, I found them to compromise the sound, the foam took definition away from an already smooth sound, and the stock silicon were somehow even worse than the foam to my surprise.
My daily headphones are HD800S, I use iem's sparingly, so that's my primary reference point.
Overall nice, happy with the purchase, I'm not sure if these warrant their retail price, I guess in terms of imaging they compete with the best, but I have a very value centric approach to sound, I think these should be priced at 1k, I also think many iem's over 1k are overpriced in general though, my RTX 4090 is certainly overpriced, heh.
