Review: Campfire Audio – Holocene

Campfire Audio is an earphone manufacturer from Portland, USA that is known for its hand-crafted high-quality earphones and in-ear monitors. Recently, they launched 2 new in-ear monitors namely Mammoth and Holocene. After trying Holocene for over 2 weeks we have compiled an in-depth review of the earphones down below.

Built & Package Contents

Like most of their hand-crafted collection, Holocene does pack in an elegant look. The earpieces are robust and quite durable catering to its steel grill and aluminum shell. The Silver plated Copper Litz cable has a smoky glow look and most importantly, is detachable. Holocene also does have glow-in-the-dark elements on the earphones and cable overmolds as well.

Apart from the IEMs, there are a bunch of accessories that come along with them. There are a total of 11 ear tips included divided among 3 types: Final Audio tips (xs/s/m/l/xl), Campfire Audio Marshmallow tips (s/m/l), standard silicon tips (s/m/l). Apart from the eartips you also get an Audio pin and a cleaning tool. To carry your earphones, Campfire Audio does provide an Epoch or All-Seeing Eye Seaqual® Yarn Earphone Case case along with the IEMs. See the contents in images attached at the end of the article.

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Features & Quality

Holocene pretty much ticks all checkboxes when it comes to physical appearance and accessories. Now, we critically analyze the sound performance of these earphones.

Holocene is built on a 3BA driver configuration( BA does not displace air to produce sound. This results in a lack of bass response.) One of the best things about Holocene is the stereo representation of sounds. You’ll be able to clearly notice and feel how various sounds have been placed and automated in the 3D space. Regarding the frequency response of the IEMs, they aim to have a pretty neutral approach on the low end, providing the space they require but not overpowering. The Mids are slightly more colored to enhance the listening experience. There are certain cuts and boosts in the frequency response to ensure that all resonances and unwanted frequencies are dealt with. Coming to the high end, this frequency range on Holocene is quite bright. You can clearly feel that the highs are slightly more saturated. Some other important parameters of Holocene as reported by Campfire Audio are:

SPL: 94dB @ 6.99 mVrms
Earphone Impedance: 5.4 ohm @ 1K
Frequency Response: 5Hz – 20kHz

Holocene has an impedance of 5.4 ohms making them pretty loud and easy enough to be driven by most portable listening systems such as mobile phones.

Image: Frequency response of Holocene

Price

Holocene by Campfire Audio is currently priced at $649 which is a bit expensive in our opinion considering the heavy competition and high-quality earphones you can get at a lower price.

Verdict

As mentioned earlier, Holocene pretty much ticks all checkboxes when it comes to the built and physical appearance. The packaging of the earphones is on point as well. The audio quality does have a few points where things could have been a bit better in our opinion. While the bright high-end section might be appealing for many, however, we didn’t really like it in some cases. The stereo field on these IEMs is immaculate and really well done. The price, on the other hand, is a bit on the high end as well however you do get elegant, sturdy, and well-built in-ear monitors which might make it worth it for many.

Down below are pictures of the in-ear monitors and the package contents: