The Campfire Audio Andromeda continues to be one of the most popular earphones we sell
at Mindisc and a personal favourite of mine too.
Over the years Campfire has launched quite a few variants and revisions of the Andromeda.
Each revision brings small tweaks to the sound, but the basic formula has always been a consistent
winner: balanced, fast and natural sound with a hint of warmth.
For some people, it’s darn near perfect - and for others the Andromeda could do with
a deeper bass response and more richness to the vocals.
And I happen to fall in the latter camp myself.
So enter the Ara - a titanium shelled beauty that ups the driver count from the Andromeda’s
five, to a total of seven drivers.
There’s been tweaks to the acoustic design, and the Ara promises improvements to bass
response in particular.
But is the Ara a natural upgrade over the Andromeda, or is it something entirely different?
Well, here’s what we think.
Firstly, the physical design of the Ara is largely unchanged from the Andromeda, with
the same faceted geometry that at this point has become iconic.
The first big change is the new Titanium shell, which has a glossy lustre in person that isn’t
obvious in pictures.
The stainless steel nozzle is also longer on the Ara than on the Andromedas.
And while we’re sure that this was done to tune the sound, it also means that the
Ara is more comfortable than a standard Andromeda since there is less chance parts of the metal
body will rub against the inner ear.
But the real wizardry is going on inside the Ara.
The Ara uses a 7 driver design with no crossover.
Now removing the crossover network could avoid possible phase issues introduced by the electronics,
but the new 7 driver design is rated at an even lower impedance than the Andromeda.
This makes the Ara slightly hard to evaluate compared to the Andromeda, but we will get
to that in a moment.
Firstly though, the headline news is: yes, the increase to 7 drivers, including 4 bass
drivers, means a more convincing bass response compared to the Andromeda.
Bass is still tremendously punchy and fast, and the amount of bass is still modest compared
to true basshead IEMs, but now there is a density and tactility in the bass that isn’t
present on the Andromeda.
Vocals are also more prominent, but Ara also takes a different approach to vocals than
say the limited edition Andromeda S. While the stainless steel Andro S emphasises lower
midrange vocals, resulting in a smooth and mellower version of the Andromeda sound, the
Ara pushes the energy in the upper midrange vocals, resulting in a brighter, more high
energy sound.
And in some ways the Ara sounds more like a typical Japanese earphone from say Audio
Technica or JVC.
And as a result the Ara will probably sound overly bright to some people.
But there is some real devil in the details.
The Ara, like the Andromeda, will sound different depending on the output impedance of the source
you plug it into.
It is possible to achieve a warmer or brighter sound on these IEMs with careful source selection.
Now on the Andromeda, the sweet spot for output impedance is generally regarded to be around
1-2 ohms.
Lower than 1 ohm and the Andromeda will begin to sound overly thick and bassy, and over
2 ohms and it starts to sound overly bright and grainy.
Personally I like my Andro S with the Astell & Kern SP1000M, whose balanced and unbalanced
output impedance falls exactly within that 1-2 ohm range.
For the Ara, I actually find that while the sound is not harsh, the extra upper midrange
energy means that the earphone can sound edgy and splashy on some tracks in a way that the
original Andromeda and the Andro S never do.
Now your mileage may vary, but for me the sweet spot with the Ara is a source with an
output impedance lower than 1 ohm, which includes sources like the Chord Mojo, Audioquest Cobalt
and some Cowon and iBasso players, as well as desktop sources like the RME ADI-2 DAC.
But on top of that, the Ara, like the Andromeda, is extremely sensitive and will also pick
up a great deal of electronic hiss and fuzz from almost any source, including some of
the sources previously mentioned.
That’s why my personal recommendation for a portable pairing with the Ara is the Cowon
Plenue R2: unlike any other player I have tried, the Cowon Plenue R2 does not produce
audible background noise with the Ara on either the balanced or unbalanced output.
The single ended output on the R2 also has an very low output impedance of 0.6 ohms and
it sounds great with the Ara, toning down some of that high frequency splashiness.
If you like things a bit spicier you can try the 1.3 ohm balanced output, which sounds
clean, but a little sharp sounding to my ears.
On a low output impedance source like the Cowon, to me the Ara really does sound like
a natural upgrade to the Andromeda: a balanced tone with lightning energy and bass punch.
But it’s balanced on a knife edge, and with almost any other player I would probably find
the Andromeda is more pleasing and easy to listen to compared to the overexcitable Ara.
So the Ara is a fickle beast, even moreso than the Andromeda.
You have to be prepared to be picky about your source pairing.
But when things line up just right for the Ara, I think you can achieve the holy grail:
an Andromeda, but better-a.
Let us know what you think.
You can drop into our store to have a listen, or order online at Mindisc.com.au.
This is Lachlan for MinidiscTV, and we’ll see you next time!