Time:          1977

Place:         Some kids room, somewhere in America

Reason:     Reason?      Mom….GET OUT OF MY ROOM!!

 

That kid is so stoked!

 

 

This guy is so stoked!

 

 

Why?

The kid?

unfurling the biggest selling pin-up poster girl in history…

and you can see her nipple….for an 11 year old boy that’s like big time stuff.

 

 

The Guy?

I think the guy in the 2nd picture and the kid in the 1st are actually… the.. same.. dude!

 

 

 

 

 

DESIGN

 

 

Same lines that Campfire Audio has become famous for but in “L” size. Absolutely beautiful down to the last detail. Everything is awesome.

Seriously…it is.

 

BUILD QUALITY

 

“The real cycle you’re working on is a cycle called yourself. The machine that appears to be “out there” and the person that appears to be “in here” are not two separate things. They grow toward Quality or fall away from Quality together.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

 

• Well respected guy as it relates to voicing and building IEM in the audio industry.
• Dreams of doing some over ears headphones.
• Takes lots of time to get the reality and the dream lined up.
• Pic posted above would indicate said dream.. has met reality

Summarizing:

Respected, smart, dreamer…nails it.

 

I want some of that.

 

You want me to paint a picture?

 

 

**Bob Ross voice**

There’s a happy little aluminum cup over there, yeah..

moving up,…what do we have….oh,

it’s a nice yolk connected by a strong pivot section, for you folks watching at home any old brush will do….lets just enjoy, that’s what it’s all about …yeah?

The padding seems really nice and hey…those plush pads , like clouds…happy clouds being warmed by Mr Sun…….those clouds come right off! Lets just use black, it’s a dark color but it is one of my favorite colors because I can make almost aaaaaany other color with a little help from Mr. Black.

Alright then, lets dip our brushes now…just a bit,

 

 

Excellent pics and from all angles are at the site where you will buy it:

https://campfireaudio.com/shop/cascade/

 

I have to this point,

 

Dropped

Farrah, Robert Pirsig and Bob Ross into this.

 

1977 is...in…the ….house!!!

 

 

 

Moving right the fuck along…..

 

 

 

 

SOUNDSTAGE

 

Closed headphones always have and always will fall short of open backs when it comes to a sense of space around the listener.

That said, Pink Floyd’s On the Run which is fantastic for panning and spacial audio cues sounds great. Using mostly IEM lately and not my MA-900 has sort of conditioned my mind to getting a sense of space from tuning more than actual air coming into my ear in addition to the sound.

 

The left to right and back pans,  and  both sides panning to opposite sides simultaneously is well captured as is the woman’s gate and boarding announcement which resides partly in the early mids but is very clear which is not the case with over extending bass.

 

 

 

BASS

Tupac Amaru Shakur (beloved god of THUG LIFE)…his favorite song was:

“Vincent” by Don McLean

Just a knowledge bomb for ya.

About that bass…

 

I bought these because having a driver with good mids and great bass is something beryllium drivers are becoming famous for. That and it’s cups being made of a metal along with the reputation of Campfire Audio is mostly why I pulled the trigger.

 

On 2pac’s Ambitionz az a Ridah’ the bass thump is clean and falls fast. The speed of the driver is preventing an elevated bass from becoming a mid frequency issue. Nothing else is clouded or less resolving because of the bass hit that pins down the entire track. I like bass but I like mids even more. Scooped mids kill. They kill hopes, they kill smiles they ..

I would rather it sound as if the lead singer were standing on my fucking face than sound like he was in another room behind the band. This set makes me not have to deal with either discomfort but if they had thin mids or distant vocals I would be shredding them in a video..I NEVER DO WRITTEN REVIEWS OF GEAR UNLESS IT IS BOSS. Vids are easy. Writing is an A.D.H.D torture event.

 

 

MIDS

 

AC/DC’s  Girls got Rhythm,

I have come to realize how much this track which is a fantastic vinyl rip, throws guitar and vocals a notch or more back whenever there is a dip in the mids. If the 300-2Khz range is warped it will show on tracks like this and Fleetwood Mac’s Gold Dust Woman loud and clear.

Noteworthy to say the least is the ability of this set to play back guitar with distortion pedals in a way, I have not heard on many sets of head gear of any type, be it B.A. , PLANAR , DD..IEM, on-ear or overear.

The Beryllium driver coating is clearly cleaning things up via speed and recovery of all the minutia that happens during distorted guitar playback. It is almost like a unicorn for folks who have never heard good audio gear as they have never heard it and literally have no idea what they are missing. Ignorance is not bliss but it helps to not drain the wallet like this hobby does.

 

The crunching, grinding harmonic chaos that is an electric guitar with pedals down is just so ….damn…hard…to get right. It does not matter the design or driver type, something is always missing. It’s not missing now

 

Hearing this vinyl rip like this and knowing I can grab this set anytime and hear this kind of replay is worth the price of admission alone.

 

 

TREBLE

E.L.O Telephone Line

 

All kinds of trebles ready to make you want to rip your skin of your face if the driver has spikes in the wrong areas.

Seriously…50Hz tone at 145dB for 20 minutes or

8.5Khz at 145dB for 5 minutes?

Man, I’d get to minute 2 of 8.5Khz and cry before going insane and jumping out a window and impaling myself on something.

The FiiO F9 original version is good for 2 songs in a row and that is it. Game over, fatigue has arrived and annoyance and anger are following close behind. I bought the Beyer T1 and long term listening sessions with that beauty was just impossible.

The Campfire Audio CASCADE is built for long listening. Maybe it’s the basshead in me but this is not a bassy set it is a mid centric one. This is built for full album sessions. I believe this is the first review I wrote while listening to the item reviewed the whole time.

 

 

 

LISTENING JOY 1-10

1 = Get these things off my fucking head

10 = Sound so good I forgot something important and…don’t even give a shit. I’m in this hobby for the 10’s brah!

 

Well…I got an e-mail asking to change a boxing spar session to tomorrow instead of Sunday (J.S.T) and forgot to reply till typing that 1-10 stuff and he has a new baby and I am not gonna mail him at 11:50 P.M and wake his kid and piss off his wife.

My Review of the Campfire Audio CASCADE Headphones.  is done. A pretty good video review will soon follow.

 

 

A star and a movie from 1977.  EPIC,…like these headphones.