Most of the imported high-end headphone brands can not escape an iron law, that is, it is not difficult for high-end products to sell, but there are few models that can really support the entry price of shipments, after all, this market has long been pinched to death by domestic brands. But there are occasional products that have successfully broken through, such as Campfire Audio's Comet.
Sorry, I misplaced the picture.
It is a pity that such a product with a "cute" appearance and a pleasing tuning has never had a successor since it was discontinued last year, and in the long run, Campfire Audio's share of the market in this price segment will inevitably be completely lost.
Fortunately, it came.
For the name Satsuma, I believe that many people's first reaction is like me, which is "Satsuma". In fact, in addition to a place name in Japan, this English term also refers specifically to Satsuma honey orange - in fact, it is introduced from China in the past Wenzhou mandarin, when the Americans pried open the door of Japan at the same time from Satsuma to bring this fruit back, so the name Satsuma, is there a bit of Arabic numerals not invented by the Arabs that meaning? However, there is no need to dwell on it, the Chinese name given by the official product is "honey orange".
As for why it is called "honey orange", I don't think I need to explain it in detail, you can understand it by looking at the appearance: the shell of this thing is orange. The slick orange resin shell looks like freshly peeled, moistened orange flesh, especially sweet and delicious in midsummer. Campfire Audio did not name the product with celestial bodies this time, but if I want to say that the entry price product should be playful and cute, it is always easy to remember the stars and constellations.
Before getting the real thing, I thought that the shell of the mandarin orange was the product of the plasticization of the Andromeda design, but after getting it, I found that its volume was a large circle smaller than the Andromeda and other models, and there were no edges and corners on the inside, and the stainless steel conduit was much thinner. The extremely small, rounded design and lightweight resin material make the Mandarin the best wearing comfort in the entire in-ear headphone category, and female users with smaller ears are basically stress-free.
The original wiring of the honey orange at first glance seems to be the current version of Andromeda and other models equipped with the Same Litz, but after careful observation, I vaguely felt that it was a little thinner and softer than The Smiley Litz, and found the official information that was not the same, the official called it "Smoky Lite", that is, a condensed version of The Smoky Litz.
Accessories or Campfire Audio headphones are familiar with the old few, the only change is that this Portuguese half-moon bag size has been reduced and replaced to canvas material, light green is also very pleasing, after all, buy oranges like to bring leaves. This set of designed Campfire Audio headphone storage bag has experienced the 2019 series of leather, the 2020 series of water pine wood and recycled plastic and then the canvas material of honey orange and honeydew launched this time, and finally it is a bit of a mess on the road of environmental protection, in my opinion, the texture is second only to the earliest leather.
So, is this really a successor to Comet? At least it doesn't matter.
Their commonality, or proof that the Mandarin is a substitute for Comet, is that they are equipped with and only a cut-out moving iron unit. However, the orange is not a complete inheritance of Comet in terms of acoustics, and the Solid-Body technology, which is the standard of campfire Audio's Spring 2020 series, that is, the 3D printed sound cavity, has also been delegated to the mandarin.
In addition to the addition of new technologies, there is also a rather confusing change in the honey orange, that is, the parameters seem to be extremely difficult to drive. Campfire Audio officially gave the orange impedance of 46.4 ohms, and the sensitivity was as low as 94dB SPL@1kHz: 67mVrms. The sensitivity annotation method that Campfire Audio has enabled since last year can be understood as selecting the target sound pressure of 94dB to see how high the input level required by the headphones at this time, the higher the sensitivity means the lower the sensitivity. How frighteningly low the sensitivity of the Mandarin orange is, I will list the sensitivity of several other Campfire Audio headphones that are also labeled:
Solaris 2020-94dB SPL@1kHz：6.54mVrms；
Andromeda 2020-94dB SPL@1kHz：7.01mVrms；
Ara-94dB SPL@1kHz:7.094mVrms;
Dorado 2020-94dB SPL@1kHz：18.52mVrms；
Vega 2020-94dB SPL@1kHz：19.86mVrms。
Not to mention that the impedance of mandarin oranges is also higher than them.
But since I say that this parameter is confusing, it means that the mandarin is actually not as difficult to drive as it seems, at least at the same sound pressure it needs to be a little lower than RS10. Of course, if compared with the solaris 2020 such a typical noise detector is very different, the sound pressure of the 45 volume of the mandarin on the titanium corresponds to the 30 volume of solaris 2020, and the latter adds the same volume even if it does not play the bottom noise, which is enough for you to drink a pot. But in the end, the honey orange is basically just eating volume, the entry price player or the small tail can drive a good dynamic (although it may be a little more expensive), and players do not need to treat it like they did when they served ER4.
Even if the need for the driving force of the orange is clarified is not excessive, there will inevitably be some people who have concerns about its "cost performance", after all, single-action iron, the frequency response range of the moving iron unit is generally narrow, so it is necessary to design multiple units, will the mandarin have obvious shortcomings in some frequency bands?
At first, I was a little worried about this, after all, the impression of Comet is a pair of headphones with a preference for medium and low frequencies and more general high frequencies. Based on this experience, the performance of the mandarin is higher than I expected, and its sense of brightness line is acceptable in the high-frequency parts that I am worried about; and on the low frequencies that Comet is good at, the mandarin orange still has a full body and abundant energy, and maintains a suitable sense of compactness and speed, without giving people a sense of looseness; the vocal density is good, and the male voice texture is better than the female voice. More specifically, we cite the measured data of @Woodenears Our Yi'er to continue to analyze:
From the frequency response, it can be seen that the low frequency of the mandarin orange is indeed slightly more than the Woodenears Target, but it is not exaggerated at all, the energy of the low and medium frequency parts is abundant and full, and the peaks of 3kHz and 6.5kHz retain a fairly clear sense of line for it. The more obvious problem is that its 3kHz peak is so steep that the energy of the front and back frequency bands is obviously insufficient, and this disadvantage reflects on the sound of the result that the performance of the honey orange on the mid- and high-frequency instruments is still lacking in vividness, and the clarity of the sign is poor, and it also hinders the "sweetness" of the female voice.
Another problem is that the nonlinear distortion that is difficult to avoid in pure moving iron headphones is high, and it can be seen from the data that the THD below 3.5kHz is hovering around 1% (it is generally believed that the nonlinear distortion that the human ear can perceive is more than 1%). But then again, the THD test here was measured in the case of entering the 100mVrms level, even if the mandarin is a pair of headphones with high impedance and low sensitivity, at this time its sound pressure at 500Hz has reached 98dB, which is obviously more than the normal use of the listening volume, and the THD will inevitably be reduced at a lower volume, but for large dynamic tracks, this still means that the deduction distortion of some strong tones will be relatively high - but for this price point of the product, the dynamic can be up even if it is good. I really don't dare to expect too much.
Returning to the subjective sense of hearing, the soundstage of the mandarin orange has also improved significantly compared to Comet. The first three Campfire Audio headphones (Andromeda 2020, Ara and Solaris 2020) that were the first to use Solid-Body last year, although the soundstage size and scale sense are different, the sense of hierarchy is significantly improved compared to the old models of the same series, and the expression of the sense of space by the mandarin, which is also equipped with Solid-Body, is much more natural and distinct than Thatt. Although the amount of information and transient performance it possesses is still less interesting for compiling a complex symphony, the interpretation of the popular scene is still more gratifying.
To sum up the impression that the mandarin orange gave me, its sound and color scheme are very compatible with the current mid-summer season, enthusiastic and energetic, the hard quality is not much better but it is indeed better than Comet and the sound is still flattering enough, for most pop music, especially popular male vocals, it has a better performance; benefiting from good dynamics, the mandarin is also competent for rock and metal; but as I just said, compiling a complex symphony is not something it can handle, but to say that there is any product that can be done at this price, I also can't give a good answer.
As for front-end options, my advice is for players or small tails with more neutral or cool tones, such as the Mountain Spirit M3X, THX Onyx and TANCHJIM Stargate. Apple Music joined high-quality music resources set off another wave of streaming music heat, if you want to take advantage of the trend to start a set of high-quality music equipment anytime, anywhere, thousands of yuan headphones + small tail is the most suitable entry segment, both can play the advantages of high-definition resources without sacrificing too much convenience, and the tuning style of honey oranges has a better performance for the pop music that beginners like the most.
Compared with the widely acclaimed Comet of that year, Mandarin orange is a significant product, even in the thousand-dollar price of the strong lin today, I believe it can still be recognized by many players with a pleasing sound style, maintaining the position of Campfire Audio in the entry price.
It is also said that the season of the appearance of the honey orange is also very appropriate, in the middle of summer, open a listen to the orange flavor of the Arctic Ocean just taken out of the refrigerator, put on the honey orange, enjoy a warm and windy afternoon, isn't it beautiful?