Campfire Audio Orbit Review

A common theme of recent true wireless releases is high-end going Bluetooth. The latest brand to participate is Campfire Audio, whose IEMs have garnered acclaim across the audiophile world. Their Andromeda and Solaris IEMs are some of the most sought-after earphones out there, and now they have their very own true wireless earbuds for $249. Are they worth it just for the name alone?   

What You Get

• Campfire Audio Orbit Wireless Earbuds
• Portable Charging Case
• 3 Pairs of Silicone Eartips
• 3 Pairs of Foam Eartips
• USBC charging Cable
• User Guide
• Campfire Audio Pin

Look and Feel

If you’ve seen some of Campfire Audio’s more budget IEMs like the Satsuma and Honeydew, the Orbit carries the same construction. As it turns out, this is a great build for a pair of wireless earbuds, with a small housing and ergonomic shape. Campfire in-ears tend to protrude outside of your ear cavity rather than sit naturally in your concha, and that is the same case for the Orbit. I never had trouble wearing them for a long time though, and no fatigue could be felt. The charging case is also quite small and fits in your pocket well. If there was one thing I would add to the Orbit, it would be color variants, as Campfire IEMs tend to be a lot more colorful. 

Design and Functionality

There is a 10mm driver within the Orbits housing that uses a liquid crystal polymer diaphragm. In terms of its volume, the Orbit showcases an impressive amount of gain. It is more than what you normally hear over Bluetooth, as the Orbit exhibits some nice headroom for loudness adjustment. Touch-controls have a good response that is consistent with all of their actions. You can’t change which gesture activates what control, but you can toggle which ones are active. There is no ANC or environmental options, but Campfire Audio does have a companion app available at launch with an EQ. The EQ has a few different presets and seven different frequency ranges to boost and attenuate. There is no option to adjust Q size though, leaving you with more limited customization options. 

Bluetooth

The Orbit features Bluetooth 5.2 and has a stable connection with fast pairing. For audio CODECs, the Orbit offers your standard AAC and SBC compression, with the addition of aptX Adaptive.

Battery Life

From a single charge, you should be able to enjoy the Orbit for around 8 hours. You should have a total of 30 hours of playtime when including the case. This is a good amount of battery life for the price and only volume determines how fast the battery starts to drain. 

Soundstage

Past efforts from Campfire Audio have proved them to have great control over their soundstage and imaging. Does it translate over Bluetooth? After listening to the Orbit for some time, I think the answer is mostly yes. With the Orbit, the placement of sound elements falls into the right place. From left to right, the stereo field appears well-organized, and it maintains strongly individualized performances throughout its space. The soundstage is nowhere near open, but it does a good job of not congealing the sound elements together in the middle. 

Low End

The orbit wants you to know right away what kind of sound it is going to provide. That sound is bass and a lot of it. There is a dominance of low frequencies throughout the Orbit’s sound signature, for better and for worse in my opinion. It's definitely a bass-head earbud, but not all of its performance is displayed clearly. While you get a ton of resonance from the tone, the frequency content is not as well articulated. With the thickness of the tone comes some significant bleed that muffles the timbre. You hear the initial boom of the bass, but the resolution isn’t as clear. 

Mids

With the bass taking up so much room in the sound signature, the midrange mostly suffers as a result. Those that like a darker tone in their sound profile will enjoy some of this response. However, the clarity of instruments and vocals can only go so far. There is a bite to some of the performances, but they’re muddied by a bloated lower-midrange, which obscures a lot of detail in the fundamental frequencies. Vocals take the hardest hit, feeling like they are barely sticking out in the mix. Adjusting the EQ only helps clear some room, but it won’t add back clarity.

Highs

In the highs, there isn’t a lot of information that stands out. Its content is left feeling very thinned out, but the actual quality of the tone is a lot more forgiving. I usually like a bit more brightness, but I never felt like the best part of the highs was completely cut out. There is even a bit of sibilance here that gave the timbre a bit more to chew on. EQ helps more here than in the mids, allowing more height and more naturalness to the sound signature without losing its dark profile. 

Summary

Although the sound profile didn’t work for me, there are some qualities of the Orbit that I can see people enjoying. If it wasn’t for the price that places these earbuds with some of the best on the market right now, this would be an easier recommendation for me. They have a nice design and a great fit, and with more firmware updates, the Orbit could get even better in terms of interaction. However, I think its standard sound signature is going to turn some people off, even those that enjoy Campfire Audio. Maybe with a more interactive EQ, you can start to clear things up more. As it is now, the Campfire Audio Orbit just has too many flaws in its sound signature for me to fully recommend it. 

The Campfire Audio Orbit is available here.