Campfire Audio’s new Alien Brain IEMs are a hi-fi, sci-fi glass act

Campfire promises "close encounters of the Hi-Fi kind"

Campfire Audio Alien Brain IEMs on a grey background
(Image credit: Campfire Audio)
Quick Summary

Campfire Audio just launched some new hybrid IEMs.

Those have a five-driver configuration with a new glass-pu dynamic driver and a new USB-C DAC dongle.

Campfire Audio, maker of hand-crafted, high-end IEMs, has announced a brand new model in its range of hybrid headphones – Alien Brain.

The Alien Brain IEMs have a five-driver design, a new internal architecture and a new version of Campfire's dual magnet dynamic driver. That driver is made with a new glass-pu diaphragm with a glass speaker dome and polyurethane coating, and Campfire says that it delivers "incredible bass texture and impact" without being overbearing or too bass-heavy.

Campfire's copywriter is clearly having some fun with these headphones. Not only are they "close encounters of the hi-fi kind" but they promise to deliver a sonic experience that's "out of this world".

Campfire Alien Brain IEMs: key features and pricing

In addition to that revamped dynamic driver the Alien Brain features four high performance balanced armatures, with two dedicated to the highs and the other two handling the mids. Five drivers is a lot of drivers, but Campfire Audio says that it's not interested in a razor blade-style arms race to see who can get the most components into an IEM.

Campfire uses what it calls Phase Harmony Engineering to break up the frequency spectrum and assign each segment to a specific driver pair. That involves careful control of driver-to-driver interaction to eliminate potential phase cancellation and improve imaging, separation, resolution and the sound stage.

In addition to the uprated dynamic driver the Alien Brain IEMs also come with a new portable USB-C DAC dongle with 32-bit/384kHz resolution.

The Alien Brain IEMs are available now for $999 US. That's roughly £757 before tax / AU$1,575.

Carrie Marshall

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).

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