Campfire announced a new Polaris design along with accessories today, April 25th 2019. While the Polaris retains it’s hybrid design, looks like it has brand new tuning and instead of the black back it is all blue which is what I have been asking for the whole time! Specs and packaging are as follows:
Currently have a pair of the Campfire Audio Polaris along with a Orion and a Noble Audio Trident that I am doing some A/B testing with.
Out of the box at first glance, I wish the whole casing was the same vibrant blue. The blue is rather striking and I wish wasn’t hidden when you have them in your ears. I also wish the cable was the clear silver litz cable instead of the black but that’s just a personal preference.
I’ve been listening to the 3 for a couple of hours and so far my order for them is
Orion
Polaris
Trident (It’s not even near the same level. Pretty disappointed with them to say the least.)
I’ll have listening impressions up later today! For now enjoy this picture of them on top of the Kef LS50 Wireless.
I’m looking forward to this! I will try and put together a impressions/review of the Comet here soon ( I think I have had enough time with it at this point, with varied tips, and listening environments). I’m more sold now after spending more time with the Comet, and I think I will slowly (yeah right) work up the chain of Campfire Audios IEM line. I’m really digging the look of the Lyra II (I’m a sucker for purple, Donatello was my favorite TMNT growing up).
Would you mind comparing to your experience with the Comet? I would be very interested in that since I currently have the Comet.
I can definitely do a comparison. It won’t be the most detailed though. I only spent a couple of hours with the comets before the pair we had was gone. We also received the Audeze LCD-3s and the SPL stack in the same week so my attention was focused elsewhere… haha.
I have not heard the Lyra II though. I know it got Massdropped for a bit there and there was speculation that it was being discontinued. As far as I can see, its still available for sale though.
Yeah I missed that drop, because honestly at the time, not into IEMs. I’m trying to figure out what the next IEM to upgrade to, I will keep an eye out for Andromedas, but I want a more beat up type IEM, that I don’t mind running around with at the gym, and on the go. Preferably without worrying about them.
Haha unless you are made of money I probably wouldn’t recommend the Andromedas as a gym headphone. I’m actually still on the search for a gym headphone that has decent durability with good sound. They are hard to come by. Its a pretty niche market though.
I do like IEMs because I commute a ton and they are super easy to carry around. But the crappy thing about Vancouver (and Seattle) is the 8 months of rain which means IEM use for me is generally limited to the summer for any outside use. I definitely used to be a headphone guy at home and beater in-ear on the road but i’ve been going in the opposite direction lately.
Well not made of money, but debt free (minus house and car). But the best gym headphones I’ve had have been, a set of skull candy method sports. I’ll also use beats-x. I’ve taken the Comets attached to MEE BTX1 neck band. I also really enjoyed Bose sports iems (most comfortable) but the blue tooth options are crazy big.
I actually have been enjoying the portability of the Comets, but I would prefer full overear headphones. I’m hoping the Cascade will be my solution. Hopefully I’ll get the Cascades in before my next trip to California next week. I’m on my phone right now so sorry for the wall of text and if it doesn’t make sense lol
I’ve now spent about 10 hours with the Polaris and I’m going to give some quick, initial impressions on them.
TL:DR. Fun, impactful IEM with impactful low-end. Forward upper mids with a warm but clean timbre. Has a warm sound signature that can bounce between warm and natural sounding with certain tracks. I would put this in the more comparable to Vega camp than the Andromeda although the low-end isn’t as boomy as the Vega. I much prefer the Polaris over the Comet at the time of this writing. I used both Spinfits and Comply for equal amounts of time and ended up choosing the Comply tips.
Typical Campfire Audio build. Very durable feeling. The blue anodized coating is absolutely gorgeous on the main shell and I wish it was the whole headphone. The screws stand out like sore thumb on the black ceratoke finish and I wish there was an effort made to conceal them a little more. The nozzle is a little longer than on the Andromeda which I found made for an easier, deeper fit. The beryllium MMXC connector found throughout Campfire’s lineup is also present with the Polaris.
The Polaris is a musical IEM with a fun sound signature. Its warm that can have a natural sound with certain songs. Its not quite v-shaped but it is close.
Bass: Excellent, impactful and full. Mid-bass is very present. I very much liked the punchiness present on the Polaris. With that being said, it mostly shines the 50 - 100 Hz region. Above 100Hz, the bass drops off steadily down to 800Hz-1kHz which means it doesn’t allow for any bleeding into the lower mids.
Mids: Mid-forward with instruments taking the backseat to male and female vocals. Wouldn’t recommend the Polaris if you are looking to do some acoustic listening. However the vocals do sound quite nice with the Polaris. Deeper voices don’t quite get their opportunity to shine but the higher frequencies are clear and detailed.
Treble: Surprisingly good. When I read up on the Polaris I wasn’t expecting myself to really notice a whole lot in the higher frequencies but everything sounds quite nice up there. Doesn’t have the sparkle of the Andromedas due to the treble being a little rolled off in the 5kHz-10kHz range. The climb to 5kHz is gradual though and is very pleasant with the upper mids and lower treble. Percussion sounds fantastic. The treble is very much in tune with what I enjoy and is not fatiguing in the least.
Overall my early impressions of the Polaris are quite good. They are a fun, musical IEM. If you are looking for a little more detail on guitar strings and in the mid-range, these probably aren’t for you. They are most certainly not analytical and they wouldn’t be great for in-depth critical listening. I am actually enjoying them more than the Vega though.
That’s just my quick two cents. At the end of the week I will be able to give a bit of a more thorough review.
P.S. We also just got something in today that I have been waiting for for quite some time. It has to take a backseat this week since we have a backlog of stuff to write, video and photograph but I can’t wait to open them up! Here’s a hint
Hmmm…the Polaris is nice looking, but I agree with your aesthetic dings against it. I think when I’m out and about it is less about being analytical and all about enjoying music in different environments and experiences!
Definitely. If I’m buying for myself I tend to lean towards a fun sound signature everytime ( although I will probably add the AEON Flow Closed to my collection at some point). At $599, i feel like the Polaris is a good stop-gap before the Andromeda. Of course I haven’t heard the Lyra II. If the Polaris was in the $750-$850 range I’d say go straight to the Andros but at $599 its pretty good. I am going back and forth between them and the Orions though and yesterday I was leaning to the Orion and today I’m leaning towards the Polaris.
Let’s see how the rest of the week plays out! I do like the Polaris better than the AF1120 from Audiofly though.
The Campfire Audio Polaris has been updated by Campfire Audio. You can read the new specs and accessories in the OP
I found the Polaris to be a ridiculously fun IEM to listen to and one of my favourites from Campfire from a pure enjoyment standpoint. I’m excited to see how they have been re-tuned and to see that they are now fully blue!
I forgot to mention, the Polaris is also now $499 versus it’s old $599 price tag.
No pictures yet but right out of the box the new tuning on the Polaris 2 is noticeable. This is now a very dark headphone. While the original Polaris did not have tuning that would be considered traditional, I feel like this tuning will be very controversial like the AudioQuest NightOwl & NightHawk. It’s certainly not as muddy as those two headphones but the Polaris 2 is definitely going to be for a niche market.
I never listened to the old Polaris, but it sounded like a V-shaped IEM. I wonder why they would decide to make it dark? Others have also said it’s darker.
i was actually surprised as well. I was hoping that they left the tuning and just made the casing all blue like I wanted haha. But then I heard that they were re-tuning so I was hoping they left it similar and maybe cleaned up the mid-range a bit as the V1 Polaris was one of my favourites as a fun IEM. This one isn’t so much V-shaped as it is checkmarked-shaped. The bass is noticeably more boomy than the first iteration, mids are pretty close to the same as the first while the treble doesn’t reach as high anymore. I used them for a couple of hours and while I still enjoyed them I feel like they took an IEM that had a niche tuning and made it even more niche. Now that it is sub-$500 though it feels like an easier option to recommend for those looking for something different.
So after spending the weekend with them I think my comparisono to the NightOwl / NightHawk was a little much as they aren’t quite that dark. It was mostly just initial out of the box impressions and probably didn’t help that I went straight from the IO to the Polaris. It is bassier than the original Polaris though and that remained constant for the weekend. After listening for a while, the bass isn’t as overwhelming as straight out of the box since I got over my initial shock but it is still very much so a headphone for bass heads.
I also took the Polaris V2 on my trip with me. I know opinions on these are mixed (although not as much as the IO) but they are still my go-to fun IEM right now. Once you get used to the bass quantity on them (like the Cascade although not to that extent).
I love this photo @taronlissimore this location looks so beautiful! I can’t wait for summer to get back up to Alaska.
Being a guy that usually doesn’t listen to IEMs I am finding these to be quite enjoyable. It took me swapping out several of the ear tips to finally settle on a pair that was pretty comfortable and stayed securely in my ear. Once I did I started to get more used to the way they felt.
They are definitely on the more bass heavy side however I find this fun sounding especially for R and B, Electronic, POP, etc. I have really enjoyed them when I am at the gym, on the move, doing cardio at home or even at night before bed when listening to my calm app for meditation purpose, or sleep stories. I can also see using these maybe outdoors more when the weather improves.
They are so portable, look beautiful in all blue and for Bluetooth use have been working nicely with my BTR3 which even allows some EQ with their app. I also have been using them with my Dragonfly Red plugged into my iPhone and iPad.
The case they come in is very nicely done with A blue leather material outside and soft padded inside. This is the first pair of IEMs I have ever owned that are this high quality. A huge step up from the beats, Bose, and Sennheiser’s I owned in the past. I haven’t really used them for critical listening as I find them to be more of a go to for on the go portable use. Usually for more critical stuff I am putting on my full size cans.
Thank you for the introduction to these little blue gems!!
lol
