Audio speaker in the form of a skull.

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Campfire Audio Cascade headphone review - the debut in full size

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It's hard to think of a phenomenon in the world of portable audio more interesting than a well-known company that produces a new product for itself. This time, Campfire Audio was one of them, and the new ones are their first full-size headphones Cascade.

On the one hand, there is nothing surprising in the "big" headphones from this American company, their IEM model line, if not perfect, tends to this state (they do not have enough of a couple of budget solutions to achieve this title). So the announcement of Cascade was, perhaps, expected. On the other hand, the intrigue still remained: what would be the design, what price would be assigned, what would happen with the sound? But let's start in order. Headphones are full-size, with a closed design, but the overall design is rather "portable", although not the most compact. Price list chose the average (about 800 dollars at the time of review), this is not a budget model, but also does not aspire to the tops. Well, in fact, about the sound - we'll talk below.

Specifications

  • Emitter: 42 mm with a beryllium sprayed diaphragm
  • Frequency range: 5 Hz - 33 kHz (-26 dB)
  • Sensitivity: 100 dB / mW
  • Impedance: 38Ω @ 1 kHz
  • Cable: removable, silver-plated litts with ring connectors
  • Plug: 3.5 mm TRS
  • Weight: ~ 383 grams
  • Internal size of the ear cups (approximate): 38 mm × 63.5 mm

Packing and delivery kit

Of course, the typical box of Campfire Audio, enlarged in size several times, looks unusual, but with its task is quite manageable. For connoisseurs of primordiality, the packaging is sealed in plastic, so you can make sure that no sales consultant headphones have tried before you. In the box there is a large leather case on the snake with a loop on the arm, which evokes nostalgic memories of the main attribute after the cap of the "equal patsanchik" of the 90s. Inside, of course, you will find the "Cascades" themselves, wire to them, a set of acoustic filters and various guarantee instructions. Also do not forget to put in the kit and a corporate logo with the company logo.

In general, what is called "presentation", Campfire Audio is traditionally on top.

Design and comfortable wearing

Here is the appearance, perhaps, Campfire was a success. The model looks quite stylish, preserving continuity with the company's IEM, but at the same time Cascade looks rather discreet for street wearing. The cups are made of black aluminum, they have an almost square shape with characteristic for the company chamfers. The mounting brackets are one-sided, but they provide rotation around two axes to ensure optimum fit. If desired, the cups rotate flat for easy wearing of headphones around the neck, it is also possible to fold them into the headband, in general - everything, as you would expect from a portable model.

One of the most amazing features of the design of headphones is the small thickness of the cups, removing the thick ear cups, it's easy to be convinced. I think that the small distance from the driver to the back of the cup is one of the reasons that cause the sound of this model.

In the headband is a high-quality steel, providing a comfortable fit: it does not tire, but at the same time contributes to good sound insulation. The headband itself is made very soft and almost does not put pressure on the head. Judging by the reviews on the Web, some do not like the way the user who put on Cascade looks full-face, but, in my opinion, this is already strong nit-picking. The headband has a normal margin for adjusting the size, although the owners of extremely large heads may still not be enough.

The ear pads in these headphones are angled, they are made of sheep skin, and magnets are used for fixing. The ability to quickly remove the ear cushions is necessary here, since it is under them that the acoustic filters are inserted for tuning the sound. That's why Campfire Audio applied the fastest and most convenient attachment scheme, remove the ambers or return them to their place in just a few seconds. By the way, if I correctly understood the idea, these tuning filters close a special hole leading to the back of the driver, thus regulating the number of low frequencies.


The wire is, of course, made replaceable, it is connected to each cup separately, using unusual round connectors with projections that ensure proper connection. In theory, the same connectors are used in the Sennheiser HD800, but here I can make a mistake, eight hundred years, unfortunately, I have not had it for a long time. These connectors, it is recognized, are very convenient, they are easily connected, and they can be disconnected without any problems. The complete cable is qualitative enough both for the material and for the design, this silver-plated copper litz in the cloth insulation, adding to it the strength. Because of isolation, there is a slight microphone effect, but it is really small. Fans of the balance can immediately look toward the "sister" company ALO Audio, on their site there are already models for Cascade.

In general, summarizing this section, I will say that the design successfully combines ergonomics, convenience and practicality. The headphones have good sound insulation, they sit well on the head and, apparently, are capable to please the owner for a long time. With prolonged listening, a slight effect of overheating of the ears is possible, but this is characteristic of any closed model simply by virtue of physics, so a short break once in a couple of hours is still worth doing.

Sound

The following equipment was used for listening.

Before listening to the headphones were warmed for 96 hours, and this is the rare case when warming up the headphones is necessary.

In general, the supply of "Cascades" varies widely enough with acoustic filters, mainly affecting the number of low frequencies. After the first listening, I thought about installing one of the filters, since the amount of LF "out of the box" seemed redundant to me, but during warm-up (I think the headphones and my ears warmed up), the sound was adjusted, and I decided to stop on the stock option .

Since Campfire Audio is well versed in sound, for portable headphones they chose the option with a V-shaped frequency response. For headphones that are supposed to be heard on the street, this is a logical step, since it is the low-frequency noise that best penetrates into the closed cups and it is the lower part of the range that suffers the most. So a reasonably upbeat bass in this case is very helpful. In turn, accented HF (or rather, the lower part of them at the junction with HF) compensate for the lower part of the range, balancing the supply of headphones. If you are going to listen to these headphones indoors - accent can be easily removed with the help of tuning.

The bass in this model is very weighty, it has a pleasant elasticity and elasticity. It is not super-fast, but in general the speed of claims does not cause. LF here have a nice solidity and depth, initially by the sound of Cascade reminded Vega, but as warming up, the tonalka moved slightly towards Andromeda (but did not reach them). The bass is very well controlled and does not actually crawl to other frequencies (well, except for very rich melodies with synthetic low-frequency tunes, there simply by virtue of physics, the sound does not leave any other options). The headphones have pleasant percussion, perfectly suited for most styles, except for a very brutal strand, but for the latter, tuning filters were put in the kit.

The midrange is a bit secondary, but without any excessive surpluses, there is not a strong failure here. MFs are balanced - they are not super-contrast, but they are not smeared for "softness", they have a good resolution, but they are not supercritical to the quality of recording, they are not sharp, but they convey emotions well. Thanks to the correct tuning of the frequency response, Cascade is well built imaginary scene, of course, to top-end open models they do not reach, but the width of the scene in them is more than average, which is very good for closed headphones. Like Vega, the vocal is taken out a little forward, which, in combination with a good separation of plans, gives the effect of decent depth separation.

But here's what you want to praise separately in these headphones, it's HF. For a fan of this range like me Cascade is very, very good. There is no flowability, there is no simplification, there are no parasitic re-reflections and "synthetics", characteristic of many closed models. I would suggest that it's a matter of competent tuning (not to give thin cups for it), but the company is not the first year in the personal audio market. If you are sensitive to the high-frequency range, it is better to listen to these headphones first.

No matter how I wanted to write a comparison section in this review, I can not do this, since I have no comparable closed models with Cascade. Of course, we can note, for example, that they are remotely similar to the full-size Meze, only better in almost all parameters. Or write that with Oppo PM-3 (similar form factor) they have nothing in common. You can even mention that on Head-Fi, for example, some call them Fostex TH-900, but I have not heard the latter. So this time, alas, the case will do without comparisons.

Compatibility

Campfire very correctly picked up the sensitivity, their debut model is tough enough not to make noise with modern high-powered players, but it's sensitive enough not to require a half-watt of power, just to sound. I would recommend to them a neutral source of the upper-middle segment, however, their potential is almost without stretch and enough for the tops.

Stylistically, the model is very versatile, although for various heavy genres I would advise, perhaps, to use a slightly suppressing low-pass filter, but this is already a matter of personal preferences. To the quality of recording, the model is medium critical, somewhere by 6 points out of 10, mastering problems and information you will clearly hear, but they do not protrude to the forefront.

Of course, without a few tracks for an example, this review would have been noticeably worse

Nightwish - Ghost Love Score. An excellent example of music, perfectly lying in the canvas of filing "cascades." Powerful bass takes on the creation of a weighty substrate, especially spectacular on the introduction, and pure MF and HF combined with a good imaginary scene complete the pitch.

Billy Ocean - Loverboy. Perhaps, if you add something from pop music to the collection, then you must take the stars of the Billy Ocean level, which was one of the main stars of the British R'n'B 80's. A beautiful track, effectively underlined by the manner of presenting the heroes of this review, will simply automatically transfer you to the disco atmosphere of those times (and what is the rhythm section performed by Cascade ...)

Che Ecru - Lonely. Well, one more track, chosen by the method of fitting the solution under the answer. The composition with spectacular LF and surround stereo effects in combination with the first full-size Campfire Audio mesmerizes, bewitches and simply envelops its sound.

conclusions

I'm not sure if this model will be used by someone as a portable one in the street, but the fact that we got a good model for those who want to listen to music in the office or at home in the same room as the household is unquestionable. Campfire Audio, they said, has been tuning the sound and design of this model for several years, and, it is worth acknowledging, the result turned out to be "on the level". Separately, the same developers want to thank in absentia for not doing a "flagship" price tag, in this they went against the tendencies of the last time.

Buy Campfire Audio Cascade

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