Campfire Audio Solaris Earphones

There is no point to review product's specs, as there are many review out there produced by professionals. To sum up - marvellous well-balanced clear sound, with a punchy bass and very clear highs. The size and design are right up my street, as Stellia beats all my headphones in a garish department. The only problem I found is the first few nights I missed my usual drop off time as I was trying to listen everything I like/could remember and mornings were quite sleepy.

Campfire Solaris: Firstly the total package includes the iems, the Super Litz Cable, a cute double mitten/pocket to protect the iems from damage, a brush/pick to clean the nozzles and a variety of good silicone and foam tips with varying bore sizes (narrow to wide) and finally a collectors pin with Campfire logo. The faux dark brown leather case is a good size and is padded with synthetic sheep wool for added protection. The iems are very large. The nozzles are longer than most. Nevertheless with either the foam or silicone tips they fit well in the ear though protrude outside the ear lobes. The Super Litz cable is 4 core silver plated copper with right angle 3.5mm jack. It has memory wire inserted in the outer sheath to fit over the ears. Personally fitting over the ears comfortably is a bit frustrating. My impression is this cable emphasises the bass at the cost of losing a little attack and resolution. I’d read that these iems require around a hundred hours of play to fully balance out. The travel case is a good size well padded to avoid damaging or chipping the gold plating however it is advised to put the iems in the cute mitten (double pouch pockets) for added protection. SOUND After approximately 100 hours of play time I was very unhappy with the sound using the stock cable. The music was slightly bass heavy, poor resolution and separation of instruments and lacked any sparkle in the treble. The sound was overall a bit muddy. In desperation I changed the Litz cable for a 16 core Yinyoo balanced cable with 4.4mm jack. The transformation was astonishing and I had never before experienced quite such a change. Once the iems had fully opened up I settled on the very supple wide opened foam tips as preference. The following is my musical experience using the 16 core Yinyoo cable: LOWS Perfectly balanced, not overpowering and extends into the lower mids in a well balanced musical way. For tracks where there is a hefty punch in the lows these iems deliver. For example the long bass rift on Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells’ is so well resolved and punchy. Trains ‘Mississippi’ sounds extraordinary. For bass lovers the stock cable deepened the bass but the overall sound was a little muddy. MIDS The mids, are extremely well resolved and balanced. There is a very good transition from bass to mids making the items very musical. With the Yinyoo cable the instrument separation and detail is excellent. Male and female vocals are well balanced without any sibilance. Drums are very punchy. Truly top notch mids. HIGHS With the Yinyoo cable the treble sparkled. The highs opened up and brought the music to life with an airy transparent well resolved clarity. With the Litz cable the highs were very disappointing and suppressed perhaps more than 100 hours are needed for this cable but i wasn’t seeing any improvement. Overall after finding the right cable these iems are very enjoyable, musical with excellent instrument separation, clarity, punch and sparkle without any fatigue. Soundstage is good both in width and depth. The Solaris iems are also exceptional for classical music. I listened to my favourite piece Wagner’s Liebestod with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and the instrumental detail and balance was the best I have heard.

Fantastic sound and well made, but not discrete by any means (colour and size)