Campfire Honeydew

disclaimer:  The Campfire Honeydew was sent to me by The Contraptionist for review.   If you haven’t checked out the Contraptionist’s blog, be sure to check it out.  He’s got a ton of good content and a lot of models that complement what can be found here.  Well worth a look.     I have no financial interest in  Campfire Audio, nor have I received any advice or incentive for this review.  I returned the product at completion so had the Honeydew for a span of roughly 3 weeks.  For more information or to purchase a Honeydew, see Campfire’s Site.

Unboxing / Packaging:

Campfire’s packaging on these is quite unique as it has an outer wrap over the box with the label on front showing the brand information and the earpieces and a foil seal on the reverse holding the wrap in place.  When removed the petals unfold to reveal a starburst pattern with the box at center.  The box itself uses Campfire’s star field pattern as we’ve seen in most of their packaging for quite some time now.   The soft case takes up most of the space and the earpieces themselves are shipped in a two pocket bag inside the case to prevent scratches in transit.    The Kit includes earpieces, cable, a soft zipper case, two of the two-pocket bags for earpieces and tips, a large assortment of 3 styles of tips (Silicons, Foams, and Final Audio E series), and a cleaning tool.   The requisite warranty card is also in the bottom of the package.   Overall, its a well thought out kit with plenty of protective packaging and tip options.

 

Build/Fit:

The Satsuma and Honeydew models represent Campfire’s first foray into 3D printing and while the external shape is similar to the familiar metal shell that the classic Campfire line-up uses, the basic shape is the only thing they have in common.  The bulk of the shell is a mustard yellow polymer, but the nozzle is stainless steel with a small lip and integral grill.   Nozzles have a slight forward and upward rake when seated in the ear and insertion depth is fairly deep.   The Honeydew sits comfortably in  the ear and is very light so I had no issue with long listening sessions but it did limit isolation.   Perhaps the biggest advantage to 3D printing shells is the ability to tune the inner chamber to a specific driver.  In the case of the Satsuma it uses a single ported balanced armature while the Honeydew uses a single 10mm dynamic driver.  The outside of the shells look nearly identical, but the inner chambers are a stark contrast as can be seen below in the internals sections.

 

Internals:

The heart of the Honeydew is a newly designed 10mm dynamic driver with an liquid crystal polymer film diaphragm.   As per Campfire’s custom, a custom inner shell referred  to as a Tuned Acoustic Expansion Chamber or TAEC is used to help tune the sound of the Honeydew.    Nominal impedance of the Honeydew is listed as 17Ω with a sensitivity 94dB/mV.   The Honeydew is easy to drive and I had no problem driving it with a phone and dongle or tablet.     I found that bass quality improved with higher potency sources up to a point as the honeydew does seem to tighten up a bit as power fed to it increases.    I did find when using higher potency sources such as the DTR1 that low gain needs to be used to have enough usable volume range.

Cable:

The cable that ships with the Honeydew is a new model as well.  It is a litz cable with a 90º 3.5mm jack, a 4 wire twist up to the black aluminum splitter, a chin slider, and a looser 2 wire twist up to the earhooks and beryllium Copper mmcx connectors.     While outwardly appearing to the same as the previous models, internally the new cable is 4 silver plated copper strands.   Not only is silver plating a new item, the gauge of the wire is slightly smaller than the previous model as well which gives the new cable its nickname “smoky lite” in Campfire’s literature.

 

Sound:

 

Bass:

The low end is clearly the star of the show with a big elevation in sub-bass and a slow decline from that peak all the way to the mids.   Sub-bass is the dominant feature here and should make the Honeydew popular with the basshead crowd.  Thankfully the driver is quick enough that bleed is kept within reason and the slam and rumble of all that bass doesn’t obscure a lot of the lower mids in the process.   That same speed allows the mid-bass to display above average texture for its asking price and in some ways sounds a lot like the Vega reborn in a plastic shell.    Those looking for an in-ear that can compete with EE’s Bravado for bass quantity at a lower price would do well to look here.

 

Mids:

With the big bass stealing the show, its easy to miss things in the lower mids.   They have good warmth and note weight, but lack the ability to cut through the bass enough to stand out.  Vocal presence is acceptably good, but what gets lost are things like Cello and lower brass which simply need more energy to really shine through.   This may not be an entirely fair critique as I think it becomes obvious quite early in listening that the Honeydew was tuned for popular music rather than orchestral or ensemble pieces.   When paired with rock, pop, or hip-hop, the mids have enough clarity and detail to keep things moving and vocals are engaging due to that extra warmth.

 

Treble:

Lower treble climbs a bit forward of the mids and brings a bit more energy back into the picture.  Snare rattle is crisp and well defined and cymbals are reasonably well rendered if a touch short of perfect (to my ear a touch more energy here would be good).      Here again we find a tuning that slightly leans toward smooth over detail and it comes across as laid back.  This makes the Honeydew easy to listen to for longer sessions without fatigue, but does limit the top end and sparkle a bit.    This is a good tuning for the treble sensitive and very much a Campfire tuning as the brand always tends to shy away tuning the treble on the hotter side (with the possible exception of andro).      Those looking for the last detail and a bright signature will want to look at other models in the line.

 

Soundstage / Imaging:

Stage has good dimension with a bit more width than depth and a good sense of height as well.  Seating the orchestra is fairly straight forward although instrument separation suffers a little on the lower voices and there is some crowding as a result in the lower voices.   Layering is good which keeps instruments well defined even when in very close proximity.    Imaging is solid as well with movement easily tracked and positions well defined in space.      As one might expect, there is some compression with particularly complex bass tracks.

 

Thoughts / Conclusion:

If I’m being completely honest, the Honeydew is a bit of niche player that doesn’t line up particularly well with my listening habits.  It is best suited to popular genres instead of large ensemble pieces and its tuning makes it less than perfect for Jazz as well.   Having said that, there is a huge market for in-ears for listening to popular genres (Probably way larger than for my preferences if the truth be told).   Those looking for an in-ear to pair with Hip-hop, EDM, or electronica will love the subwoofer like bass.     The Honeydew will also find favor from the treble shy where it does a good job of smoothing over some of the harshness found in other competitors.      It is nice to see Campfire working with materials that let them maintain the core values of the company while bringing prices down into a range that is more accessible.   I also suspect that moving to 3D printing allows prototyping and iterative testing of new designs to be a much faster process than when working with cast metal parts which may lead to new models coming out more quickly than in times past.     I think that may be the biggest take away from the Honeydew and its cousin the Satsuma.   Certainly the $250 price range is still highly competitive and it won’t be a cakewalk for Campfire to waltz in and take over the market, but their initial effort is strongly competitive and I expect them to get better with successive generations just as they have with their classic lineup.

Some will immediately catch that fact that the kit and accessories scored higher here than the same kit did on the Vega and Dorado reviews.  My response is price impacts the expectations of what should come with an in-ear and at $900 I expect more than a $250.