Campfire Audio - Solaris (Original/2018)

I'm quite pleased with them. I started in iems in the wrong direction, the expensive ones. So far my history is shure se846, Noble k10, campfire Solaris, anole vx, empire ears legend x, and then Oriolus traillii. Then I wanted to get into headphones the same way, settled with the dunu sa6 mkii and fatfreq maestro mini for my iems. Found a good deal on tea pros, got em and it's what I listen to the most now. I do miss some lushness in the mids, but my music is better suited to v shape anyways, probably my ideal would be u shape (EDM, pop, hip hop) and I only got it because I heard it was good for gaming. It's so good at all of that, that I listen to it more than the Stax setup I bought. At retail price, I'd strongly consider it. At sale or good condition second hand, it's an instant buy for me

For someone who is into any hobby, that extra level of performance is not linear in terms of price. So $2k iem or headphones are not 2 times better than $1k iem/HP. This is true for any hobby. Is a Ferrari Daytona SP3 really worth $2.25 million vs a $200k Porsche? (ie 10x better?) Not in terms of just performance from a linear perspective, but if you have the money than maybe. Also made in the US, or Italy (for the Ferrari) etc...that is a factor. I am not a Campfire fanboy, but I do have a few pairs that I bought used. I think they are great, especially at a pre-owned price. I also do own some chifi gear and that is also great sounding. I have not heard these, but they are getting high praise, as they should for that price! I think they might be comparable to the HD-800s, which are also not cheap. But it depends, putting that much performance into a tiny little iem is not as easy vs full-size HP. I know some people comment on other Campfire products not being great. I do agree that they should pair back their sub-performers and stick with the iems that are great, the Andromeda, Solaris etc... and I suppose this pair as well. This approach would be the Ferrari approach, each vehicle is fantastic. Porsche, is there really a lot of love for the Panamera? Fugly.... I don't think people are saying Porsche is a trash company because the Panamera is ugly. Granted, it's more attractive than the old Pontiac Aztek, but that is a low bar ha! All I'm saying, who cares what others think. If you have the money and like what you hear, just buy it and enjoy :)