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Used for: 1–3 months
Three stars is a comment on value rather than the product, and I want to be clear about that before anyone tells me I have no ears. They sound superb. Genuinely, properly superb, in the way that makes you go back through albums you thought you knew. But I have a set costing a third of this that gets me eighty per cent of the way there, and the last twenty per cent has cost more than my first car did. The practical grumbles are small and real. The cable has no chin slider. The case does not close flat if you coil the cable the obvious way. And the fit needed foam tips that were not in the box, which at this price is a strange omission. Brilliant object. Hard to recommend without a caveat.
Used for: More than a year
Foam tips lose their seal once your ears warm up
Long term note rather than a first impression. These have been my main pair through two winters of commuting and a fair amount of travel, and the driver has not changed at all, which for a planar IEM I half expected to soften. What has worn is everything around it. The Time Stream cable is stiff in cold weather and has taken a set where it loops over my ear, so it now hangs slightly wrong on the left. The leather case has gone soft and lost its shape in a coat pocket. Both are cosmetic. The serious gripe is the fit with foam tips in summer. Once your ear canal warms up the seal shifts and the bass goes with it, and I end up reseating them 2 or 3 times an hour on a warm platform.
Used for: 6–12 months
Coherent in a way my three-driver hybrids never managed
Used for: 3–6 months
Puts a vocal dead centre with nothing else in the way
Proprietary connector limits cable swaps
My daughter borrowed these for an 8-hour flight to Chicago and gave them back with the words that she now understands. That is the review, really. At this money the comparison is with a decent desktop setup, and what these do that a speaker cannot is put a vocal exactly in the middle of your head with nothing else touching it. Five months in the shells still look unmarked, which given they live in a bag is more than I expected. The cable connector is proprietary though, so a third-party upgrade is not straightforward.
Used for: More than a year
Nothing has worn out
Tips are a consumable, budget for them
Daily use since they arrived and the only thing I have replaced is a set of ear tips
Used for: More than a year
Cable holds every coil you put in it
Still the best thing I own and still the most awkward to live with. 18 months in, the cable memory is real: it holds the shape of however you last coiled it, and on a cold platform it fights you. The sound has never once given me a reason to complain.
Used for: Less than a month
Seven pairs of tips in the box, so the fit is yours to find
You will spend an evening trying tips
I have not put anything else in my ears since these arrived. The tip selection in the box is generous, seven pairs, and the difference between the silicone and the foam is night and day. Take the time!
Used for: 3–6 months
One driver, one voice, no seams between the bands
Merciless with a badly mastered recording
Came from a well-regarded hybrid set that always sounded like three drivers doing a good impression of one. This does not have that problem, and once you hear the difference it is hard to unhear. They are not forgiving. A badly mastered album sounds badly mastered, and half my old playlists have quietly fallen out of rotation. Whether that is a pro or a con depends entirely on your library!
Used for: 6–12 months
Passive isolation beats my old cancelling pair
The case zip has started to catch
Bought as a retirement present to myself and they have been in my ears most evenings since. The seal is the thing: with the right tip the isolation is better than my old cancelling over-ears on a train, without any of the pressure feeling. Eight months in the cable has kept its shape and the shells have not marked. My one gripe is that the case zip has started to catch after maybe 200 openings.
Used for: 1–3 months
A single planar driver with no crossover to smear things
The shells are 3D printed and look it, in a good way: no seams, no screws, and they disappear into my ear in a way no moulded plastic IEM has managed. Fit is the whole game with a planar this size and Campfire have clearly measured a lot of ears. What you get for the money is a single driver doing everything, which means no crossover smear and a coherence that my hybrid set never had. Bass goes deep without a hump, and cymbals have edge without spitting. The deductions are all accessories. The cable is beautiful and microphonic if you wear it down rather than over the ear, and the leather case is lovely and too big for a coat pocket. Neither is a reason not to buy, but at this money you notice.