Drop + Campfire Audio Darkstar IEMs

In a world cluttered with IEMs, sometimes you have to search the stars for something great. Even there, the constellations can get a bit crowded, so it’s the spaces in between that really shine. Looking (and listening) into the void, we huddled around the campfire—Campfire Audio, that is—to create a pair of IEMs as profound as the pitch blackness itself. Meet the Drop + Campfire Audio Dark Star IEM. Spiritual successor to the brand’s celebrated Black Star IEM, this new celestial body boasts much of what made its twin star so powerful. The same meticulously modeled 3D enclosures. A Sonion balanced armature handling the mid frequencies. Two Knowles balanced armatures tackling the high frequencies. But the Dark Star is also debuting something brand-new. It’s a dual-magnet 10-millimeter dynamic driver with an innovative bio-film membrane—and it’s designed to deliver out-of-this-world low-end response. It’s the core driving the Dark Star’s densely detailed audio, tuned together with the rest of its top-tier components to shed new light onto your audio. 

In a star, density is a delicate business. Too much, and the whole thing collapses in on itself. In a sense, the same is true for an IEM. As more drivers are added to an inherently small form factor, intended detail can quickly become inarticulate distortion. Through careful component sourcing and a process called Phase Harmony Engineering, Campfire Audio does density right. 

Selecting drivers, segmenting the frequency spectrum, and sculpting the acoustics of the earphones themselves all take place at the same time. Through a combination of precision-engineered driver housings and shell geometry, together with custom damping values, Campfire Audio physically shapes the tuning and response of the drivers—as well as their interaction with one another. In the Dark Star IEM, this process coalesces in a seamless listening experience across the entire frequency spectrum—anchored by a dual-magnet 10-millimeter dynamic driver with an innovative bio-film membrane for exceptional low-end clarity.

Attention to detail: it’s a quality that defines most audiophile listeners. At Campfire Audio, it defines the audiophile builders, too. Founded by Ken Ball—owner and founder of cable- and DAC-manufacturer Audio Line Out—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 materials and techniques to push the boundaries of the listening experience. Based in Portland, Oregon, the Campfire Audio team designs and assembles everything by hand. Each earphone is the culmination of countless iterations, hours of listening, and rigorous performance testing. It’s an audiophile-approved standard of quality—with results that sound the part.