@TylersEclectic dropped off the Solaris for me yesterday (thanks again for making the trip) and a bit later in the day I got a chance to give them a listen. They’ve been well burned-in as they’ve gone through the hands of a couple of people here, so that was an aspect I didn’t have to consider before listening.
Beyond a gross good/bad sort of first impression, it usually takes a bit longer for me to identify specific pros or cons with any transducer, but with the Solaris I had several immediate, in fact pretty much instant observations. Not wanting to be overly excitable, I decided to see how those would play out over the next half a day before commenting … but not much changed in that time.
So … here goes …
Instant Opinions™
Tips, Fit & Seal
With the Andromeda, and other IEMs on the same chassis/large-nozzle, I was never able to get them to both seal properly and be comfortable. I’ve tried dozens of tips in myriad sizes, and it was always the same … improper seal and reasonably comfortable, or a proper seal but they became uncomfortable-to-painful in maybe 30 minutes.
I was expecting a similar experience with the Solaris (even though it has a different nozzle, it looks similar in size) …
Instead, I was surprised to find that my first choice of tip, a SpinFit CP-155 (small), sealed perfectly on the first try. And while I was aware of having something in my ears more than I am with, say, my tia Fourte and the CP-500, I got through a couple of albums without it actually becoming painful. More tips to try, but this is a good start given what I was expecting.
Driver Flex
This was the first thing I noticed in actual use. Inserting the Solaris results in the dynamic drivers flexing audibly and consistently (i.e. it always happens - no matter what insertion technique I use and on both ears).
It’s only on insertion (for me) that this happens. I don’t get it when removing the IEMs nor when moving my head or fiddling with the cables.
This is one of my pet-peeve issues with dynamic and hybrid-driver IEMs and I personally find it extremely off-putting (mostly due to paranoia about it damaging the IEMs over time). And maybe it’s a bigger problem for me having small lugholes (less air volume to compress, so pressure gets higher, faster), but it bugs me nonetheless. Perhaps more so where exploring some very cheap hybrid IEMs covers a number of units that don’t exhibit this.
Left/Right Vocal Imbalance
On first starting a track playing (Tanita Tikaram, “Twist in my Sobriety”), I was immediately presented with off-center vocals. Instead of Ms. Tikaram’s voice being locked in the center, she was standing off to the right. I tried several more tracks where this would be obvious and it was a consistent thing.
I checked the cable (trying both the included on, and one of ALO Audio’s reference cables that I bought for use with a 4.4mm Sony player a while back). I swapped connections to see if the shift followed that … nope … still shifted to the right. I checked the balance setting on my source. That was correct. I tired other IEMs and headphones … vocals locked in the center. I tried a few other tips, insertions and so on, just to try and rule out having a pressure differential affecting the results but … same thing … vocals are shifted to the right, and enough that I cannot ignore it.
I don’t notice this shift in other areas, just in vocals, and would guess while it is not limited to vocals, they’re just the easiest way to be aware of it due to them frequently being centered. They’re also in the part of the frequency spectrum to which the ear/brain is most sensitive, so any shift here is going to be rather more audible than, say, one in the high-treble or bass. And the extremely wide stage the Solaris throws may also make this more audible than a similar differential in a less-wide presentation.
If I had bought these, this would be an immediate warranty/return issue for me.
At the same time, absent evidence to the contrary, I’m pretty confident it’s just an unlucky issue with this particular pair of Solaris and not an inherent issue with the product. No drivers match perfectly; just usually it’s not this audible.
Cayin N8 in “Tube Mode” & Solaris
Don’t do it …
This was how I started off listening as it has been such a glorious sound with everything else I’ve tried it with, from IEMs to full-size cans, from $20 to $4,000. It’s been so good, in fact, that I figured the, frankly bizarre, results I was getting with the Solaris were down to the sound of the IEMs themselves.
In reality it is, for whatever reason, just bad synergy/matching.
But it still does not gel well with the Solaris in this mode in my opinion. The immediate results were of a confused and peaky tonality, generally soft bass that lacked any kind of impact, rounded off attack, a muddy mid-range and an extremely diffuse overall sound and stage. All the polar opposite of what I’ve heard from the N8 in this mode, or any of Campfire’s other IEMs in the past.
Switching to the solid-state output on the N8 turned this around completely!
Light at the End of the Tunnel
This has all been a bit gloom-and-doom so far … but happily there is light at the end of the tunnel here … and it is NOT a train coming in the opposite direction …
Playing the Solaris via the solid-state output on the N8, from an A&K SP1000M, and the IEM output of an RME ADI-2 DAC, is a much better experience.
Note that notes from here on a) either are with music that excludes vocals, as the shift there is too much for me to ignore or b) has vocals, and I adjusted the balance there back to center with a professional studio EQ tool that allows for separate per-channel EQ settings.
Sound
The bass is tight, clean and fast with excellent texture and fantastic articulation. I’d like a bit more presence here, but that’s a personal preference and actual level is pretty much neutral. But the bass quality is on par with my favorite IEMs in this regard (tia Fourte, AAW W900).
Mids, and vocals, seem a little bit forward in the mix. My normal IEMs are a little U-shaped, so this maybe an exaggerated impression. Detail and coherence are both excellent.
Treble is smooth and extended, with a vivid sense of space, plenty of air, but stops short of the level of sparkle that, say, the Andromeda exhibits. Upper-frequency detail is superb, and the treble did not get fatiguing at all even with more challenging material.
Stage is … expansive … very expansive … the only IEMs I’ve heard that project an image this wide are those equipped with ADEL or APEX (both are “vented”) or that are otherwise not-fully-sealed. This, combined with the spacious, airy, sound result in an almost holographic, if somewhat close-to-the-stage rendering.
Attack and transient performance is precise and fast, and plucked strings maintain their bite, as do harsh brass notes, without stepping into stridency or exaggeration. Whatever was going on here in tube-mode is not an issue in solid-state drive!
Tone is basically neutral, with a little extra mid-presence. The excellent bass reproduction does make me want more of that, but again that’s a preference not an issue.
On big, complex, classical pieces, these have been quite beguiling and revealing so far. Similarly with instrumental jazz, they do something quite special, individual instruments all stand apart, but the presentation remains coherent, and the detail and subtle changes in dynamics are rendered clearly and cleanly.
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I can see (or hear) why these have people interested/excited … I’m intrigued enough that, were I in the market for another universal IEM I’d get these swapped for a pair that didn’t exhibit the vocal shift I am getting here and delve in deeper. I might do that anyway as, to be fair, saying more really requires being able to properly run through my audition playlists without having a (probably imperfect) one-channel EQ applied to get the vocals back on center.
lol I probably would have bought them already. I kept trying and I just can’t deal with the ear pain. I think the longest I made it was an hour and change. But damn is that sound addicting… I battled the pain for a long time…but now I think it is time to pass these on to someone else 
