Money no object
We love to give practical buying advice on the latest gadgets here at TechRadar. But sometimes what we love even more is to indulge in the most high-end, cutting-edge, luxurious tech on the planet. That's what we bring you in our Money No Object columns – you can find the whole series here.
In case you missed the news, a quick recap: back in mid January, the gloriously oddball Portland Oregon IEM specialist Campfire Audio and Alessandro Cortini – oh yes, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inductee and celebrated Nine Inch Nails synth player/guitarist/bassist – announced an in-ear monitor collaboration called Clara. And the story goes that it was actually Cortini humbly sniffing around Ken Ball's Campfire, if you will, not the other way around.
I still don't know how it happened (and look, this isn't the place to get into that) but I got hold of a pair. And reader, I put them in my ears. I am not about to bite the hand that feeds…
This is not to be considered a full review – you'll note the lack of a star-rating at the top of this missive. But you should note that I have tested many, many in-ear monitors over the years (including most of the best wired earbuds on the market), and listening to Nine Inch Nails with Campfire-and-Cortini's Clara was a rare joy indeed.
My listening session included reference Flac files stored on my trusty FiiO M23; downloaded Apple Music tracks on my lowly old iPhone 12 Pro via the superb iFi hip dac 3 (this CA x AC collab arrives with a USB-C to Lightning adapter and a Pilot 3.5mm to USB-C DAC/dongle, plus Campfire's 3.5mm and 4.4mm 'Time Stream Duet' cables, so practically all portable sources are on the menu), and the Astell & Kern HC4 to my MacBook Pro, streaming Tidal's hi-res output.
All I ask is that if you're using your smartphone as a source, please, please hardwire these in-ears to a good digital-to-analog-converter – and by that I mean one of the best portable DACs. Because given the highest resolution you (and your wallet) can muster, CA's Clara IEMs will have at it, pull it apart, separate it, emphatically not violate or desecrate it, and bring it closer to God.
Let me be abundantly clear: if you've never heard Nine Inch Nails (or in fact any layered, heavier track) in hi-res audio or on a decent high-res portable player, and you're a fan, I really hope you get the opportunity to at least try these in-ear monitors.
We're in this together…
Deep breath everyone: Campfire Audio's Clara IEMs are available now, as I type, priced at $1,999 / £1,999 (around AU$3,900). So nearly two grand – yes, with a capital G. And I think they're worth every last cent. If you cannot get your head around that right now, it's okay. But I'd like you to try…
Aside from being some of the most stunning-looking in-ear monitors I've seen in some time – think ice cubes permeated with a deep-blue melancholy – the pre-fitted Comply memory foam tips slip into my ears happily to allow the ergonomic driver housing to hug my concha. The cable also snakes neatly around my auricle as if its sole desire is to be there, and that's highly unusual for my smaller ears. Often, fitting IEMs is an issue for me, the kind of thing I wouldn't do in a rush but worth it once I get it right. That's simply not the case here; these earpieces are spot on.
I've written countless words on this Portland Oregon IEM maker's output since I became a full-time audio journalist in 2018, (see my considered thoughts on the Trifecta, Fathom, excellent Solaris Stellar Horizon, and Moon Rover) but the Clara have stolen the spot on heavy rotation I'd previously assigned to the Solaris Stellar Horizon. Why? Because for me, Campfire Audio x Alessandro Cortini – specifically Ken Ball on design and production; Cortini on headshell and overall sonic profile – is the perfect drug.
No, you can't take it
I cue up Head Like a Hole, because if you can convince me Cortini did anything other than tune Clara using tracks on which he's played synth, guitars, keys and bass live, I'll give up (and perhaps head into the void). The percussion, drum kicks and samples over in my right ear reveal themselves like sonic artifacts in cut-glass jars, each ready for my approval – but only if I've fully appreciated the previous article, intake of breath, or frequency.
Even if I didn't know it beforehand, listening to the IEMs Cortini has put his name to emphatically confirms that he'd already mastered various axes before joining NIN in the mid noughties. Cortini never lets anything go awry. Keys are human, brought deftly to the front of my cerebral cortex; guitars remain resolutely held in check but with miles of space to expand; a hardcore industrial inky bass underpins the whole. The band's more ambient or purely instrumental soundscapes (A Warm Place; The Persistence of Loss) call to mind the silky layers one sees in French pastry lamination.
The brooding With Teeth intro slithers from my left to right ear. A guitar arrives somewhere above my left collarbone. It moves to my right ear and ultimately back again, of course. It always does. But this time I hear how slowly it snakes over; I notice an overlap I'd not detected before, as if I've just glanced at it anew.
I also listened to a treasured Cortini collaboration with Daniel Avery, (one I was lucky enough to hear at L-Acoustics in London), Illusion of Time, and seldom have I heard a set of in-ears so eager to open out and celebrate the delightfully dark and pensive detail in these tracks. A set of headphones rarely reveals fresh elements within much-thumbed albums for me any more. But it happened here.
What else should you know? The cable is flat in design, noise-free, and certainly will not tangle. Oh, the accessories! Yes, there's plenty to get through. You get a hard case, a folding leather pouch with a carabiner to clip it to things (it's marginally smaller than the one I got with the Solaris Stellar Horizon, but still), a mesh zipper bag, and a two-pocket IEM pouch for just the headshells. Then, there's a microfiber cleaning cloth, assorted eartips (foam, silicone, Final Type-E) and a little IEM cleaning tool.
Underneath it all is the latest version of Campfire’s dual-magnet dynamic driver, an advanced dual-diaphragm balanced armature driver for mids, and Campfire’s signature dual super-tweeters with proprietary Tuned Acoustic Expansion Chamber (TAEC) tech. And I have no complaints about their integration.
In fact, I've yet to detect a significant flaw in the dynamic rise and fall, healthy low end, sparkling treble or stone-cold sonic precision that Campfire Audio and Cortini have achieved here for the money. You could even say that when Campfire agreed to send me a set, I had to try… and I came back haunted.
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