The Drop + Campfire Audio Darkstar was kindly provided free of charge in exchange for an honest review. I didn’t receive monetary or any other kind of compensation and I don’t use affiliate links. The price of the Drop + Campfire Audio Darkstar is $599 (originally $799) and is exclusively available by Drop.
Drop + Campfire Audio Darkstar
Drop’s latest collaboration for its audiophile community is with the renowned earphone manufacturer Campfire Audio. Founded by Ken Ball, Campfire Audio creates innovative earphones with patented technologies and world-class performance. Powered by a small team of highly skilled craftspeople, the brand continuously experiments with various materials and techniques. Based in Portland, Oregon, the Campfire Audio team designs and assembles everything by hand.
The Drop + Campfire Audio Darkstar is the spiritual successor of the much celebrated Black Star IEM. It is equipped with two Knowles balanced armatures for the high frequencies, a Sonion balanced armature for the mid frequencies and a dual-magnet 10mm dynamic driver with an innovative bio-film membrane to deliver the bass.
You can read more technical details here.
Design and wearing experience
The Darkstar has a plain, yet modern looking and minimalistic appearance. The lightweight ear-shells are made from PVD-coated aluminium that is CNC machined and are complemented with shiny, acrylic faceplates that have the disadvantage of attracting fingerprints. The main body and the faceplates adorned with a deep black finish but the nozzles, the venting holes and the outer rings around the MMCX connectors are silver polished to tastefully contrast the monotony of the total blackness.
The small size and the anatomical shape of the ear-shells, combine with the carefully calculated length and the angle of the nozzles to offer a comfortable and stable wearing experience with good passive noise isolation. The Drop + Campfire Audio Darkstar is exceptionally well made and suitable for extended listening sessions without sweating too much or causing any kind of discomfort.
Cable and accessories
The Darkstar comes packed in Drop’s environmentally friendly cardboard box that I much prefer to the unnecessarily luxurious and costly packages by other brands.
Included inside are a detachable cable, two mesh carrying pouches, two sets of ear-tips (memory foam and silicone) in three sizes each, a cleaning cloth and a brush.
The cable is a four strand, Litz braided design with MMCX connectors and an angled 3.5mm plug that are both made from plastic instead of aluminum. The cable is rather thin but looks robust enough as it is reinforced with a plastic coating. It is lightweight with low microphonic noise and it doesn’t get too tangled but the pre-formed ear-hooks are stiff and don’t bend easily.
Honestly speaking, I think that the cable is much inferior to the price of the Darkstar. Something better made with a modular plug system and higher quality materials would be much more appropriate. Also a regular carrying case instead of the mesh pouch and maybe a few more ear-tips would have made the package more appealing.
Driving efficiency
The Drop + Campfire Audio Darkstar has a 9.212Ω impedance with 94dB (at 1 kHz, 7.74 mVrms) of sensitivity so it is very easy to drive but also extremely sensitive to source noise. The source should be silent and with a gain low enough to allow a good margin of volume adjustment before getting too loud. For most part of the review I have used a Lavricables balanced cable with the FiiO M23 and the iBasso DX180 DAPs.
Listening impressions
In a world of earphones that is dominated by too many Harman-like and V-shaped tuning variations, the Drop+ Campfire Audio Darkstar is a star shining in the dark as it is not afraid to set a new path with its unique sound signature. Exceptionally balanced and tonally accurate, the Darkstar offers a whole new tuning concept where musicality is the dominant force and technical precision follows to serve the music rather than steal the show.
The Darkstar has ample sub-bass depth that is followed by a tastefully emphasized bass that manages to balance the fun elements of the music with the right amounts of tonal accuracy. The tuning is not reference neutral but nevertheless is masterfully realized to sound both exciting and punchy with modern music, and at the same time correct enough for listening to classical music without much takeaways. Note that the aforementioned low-end balance is achieved with the aid of the silicone ear-tips as the memory foams will emphasize the bass by adding extra mid-bass coloration, making it less appropriate for critical listening.
The technical behavior is rather amazing for the category, the bass is impactful and dynamic but also tight and controlled without echoing effects. The 10mm dynamic driver has lightning fast recovery speed but the bass is not deprived of elasticity, it has plenty of depth and is textured, weighty and quite visceral but also crystal clear and well defined. The transition to the mid-range is done right without audible bleeding or any masking effects.
More listening impressions
The mid-range is sweet and expressive, musical and engaging with good tonal accuracy and plenty of colorful harmonic saturation. The upper mid-range is mildly emphasized and more energetic without causing listening fatigue. The overall timbre is mostly natural and organic except some over-emphasized overtones in the upper mid-range that can lead to some minor audible artificiality. The Darkstar is very pleasing to listen to for hours on, it lets the music flow and manages to grab the attention of the listener, successfully communicating the message with all kinds of music.
The textural and timbral integrity is very satisfying. There are some minor differences in note weight and the timbre quality characteristics when the music transitions from one set of drivers to the other, but generally speaking the sound is very cohesive. The four drivers are well integrated with exceptionally low amounts of balanced armature timbre.
The treble is smooth and rather docile but you can’t say that it is muted or lacking in extension. The sound has plenty of energy and excitement, it is brilliant enough and not too dark while detail retrieval is definitely more than adequate. Some people that are used to brighter tunings or more analytical sounding earphones might find the Darkstar as too safely tuned or lacking in brilliance and sparkle. Most others however are going to appreciate its deeply musical nature and understand the idea behind its tuning where technicalities are deliberately pushed to the background in order to leave room for the music to breathe.
And some more…
The higher frequencies of the Darkstar are distinguished by their natural timbre, they lack any serious metallic artificiality or too sharp edges and they don’t sound thin or dry. Brightness and too many technicalities should not be always confused with resolution and refinement or clarity and transparency, fields where the Darkstar really excels without sounding bright or clinically sterile.
The soundstage deserves its own paragraph because the Darkstar is so open sounding that it reminds more of open back full sized headphones rather than your typical IEMs. Expansive and wide but without mannered stretching, the soundstage offers plenty of air and space around the performers that get positioned into the soundscape with excellent precision even in the most demanding symphonic works. The Darkstar might not have the same amount of depth layering or holographic relief as more expensive flagships but it offers a realistic and grand sized presentation, successfully communicating the size of the ensemble and the ambience of the recording venue.
In the end
The Drop + Campfire Audio Darkstar is a shining star into the darkness of the night (sic) that is populated by earphones with repeatedly similar tunings. This is an earphone made by a brand that has proven that it is not afraid to break new ground and tune their earphones against popular or scientifically validated target curves that are supposed to be the best and the only acceptable among the others.
The Darkstar is made for mature listeners with trained ears that have learned to acknowledge and appreciate the importance of timbre and musicality over academic technical precision and mass acceptable tunings.
If it was not for the collaboration with Drop, the Campfire Audio Darkstar would be much more expensive and still deserve the price of admission despite its lackluster cable and accessories. For $799, that was its original launch price, the Drop + Campfire Audio Darkstar was already a good value. Now that it sells for $599, it is a steal and one of the best bargains in the portable audio market. You can rarely buy so good sound and comfort at such a fair price, so hurry and grab a Darkstar while stocks and sale prices still last.
Copyright – Petros Laskis 2025.
+ Mature and balanced tuning
+ Impressive bass technicalities for the category
+ Natural and organic timbre
+ Expressive mid-range and smooth treble
+ Great resolution and refinement
+ Musical and engaging sound
+ Especially open and spacious soundstage with precise imaging
+ Beautiful looking and well made
+ Lightweight and comfortable to wear
+ Exceptional value at its current price
- Not as tonally accurate as the best
- The soundstage could use more depth
- Not as comfortable as custom-like designed earphones
- Very low impedance demands absolutely silent sources
- Lackluster cable and accessories
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