It's always a treat to see what Oregon-based brand Campfire Audio has been up to. The premium brand is building a healthy reputation for its striking in-ear designs, with models such as the Fathom and Andromeda IEMs bringing together angular, eye-grabbing designs at prices that put them out of the reach of most. Its latest creations – the sleek and shiny Astrolith in-ear headphones –are no different, sporting luxurious looks and high-end tech that only an audiophile would be willing to pay such high sums to obtain.
The Astrolith are conceived as a "tip of the spear" project, pushing the boundaries of what's available in the IEM market with "the most refined and enhanced acoustic shaping experience available". Part of that ambition is realised via the IEMs' specially designed stainless steel shells which create not only a striking external look but also contribute to "an acoustic performance like no other".
Each earpiece hosts a custom 14.2mm planar magnetic driver designed to excel across the entire frequency spectrum plus a custom 6mm planar magnetic tweeter for handling the higher frequencies, promising to dig out even the faintest details and subtleties of your music.
Billed as some of the most advanced IEMs around, the Astrolith boast a flat impedance, leading to the most "balanced, accurate sound possible". This is all aided by levels of harmonic distortion at roughly 0.3 per cent, not to mention the consistent diaphragm movement of the monitors' voice coil which doesn't warp at higher volumes.
The Campfire Audio Astrolith IEMs are available now, priced at £2199 / $2199 / €2399, a good deal more than their high-end Fathom (£1040 / $1049) and super-exclusive Moon Rover (£1199 / $1199 / AU$1999) siblings.
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