These $250 earbuds solve a big problem for lossless newbies

Price, availability, and specs

The Campfire Audio Axion is available from Campfire Audio and Amazon for $249.

What I like about the Campfire Audio Axion

An effortless, high-quality everyday carry

According to Campfire Audio, the Axion uses a first-of-its-kind Silicon Dynamic Driver (SDD), which looks more like a boxy, balanced armature than a traditional dynamic driver. But let's back up a bit -- unboxing the Campfire Audio Axion reveals some nice kit. You'll see the IEM bodies and the cable, as well as six pairs of eartips -- three foam and three silicone -- in sizes small, medium, and large.

In the box, you also get Campfire's Breezy Bag Jr. and Breezy Bag Micro. The latter is a dual-chamber soft-mesh bag that keeps the two IEM bodies separated so they're well cushioned during transport. Rounding out the gear inside is an IEM cleaning tool and a Campfire Audio collector's button.

The IEMs themselves are beautiful. Their tiny bodies have brass fasteners and nozzles with gold PVD accents on transparent shells with internally dyed components. Each shell has ergonomic dimples, a nice touch when handling and placing them in your ears. The connectors on the bodies are MMCX, so you'll find broad support for cable upgrades on Campfire's site and across the web -- something I'll touch on more momentarily.

The packaging and accouterments are great for what you're paying, but what's most important is how these IEMs sound. It's relatively balanced, with a scoop in the lower mids. These won't be a basshead's dream, but bass is definitely not missing from the tuning. When listening to The Roots' "Do You Want More?!??", the bass and sub-bass hit with the delightful punch and resonance that they should. It's this same track that also exposes the lower mid scoop as the bagpipes, which are often tuned in the 400-480Hz range, don't have the presence I've experienced with other IEMs. Granted, some of those IEMs are double, even several times the price of the Axion.

The soundstage presents with delightful depth and width when listening to the title theme for the film "Get Out," "Sikiliza Kwa Wahenga." The eerie vocals fill your head, with plenty of space to breathe. Ladysmith Black Mombazo's a cappella intro on Paul Simon's "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" also displays the expansive soundstage.

Listening to my favorite track for imaging, Charles Mingus' "Moanin'", the stereo imaging is nice, though instrument separation isn't as discreet as I'd like, but this is a challenging track for imaging due to its frenetic jazz improvisation. What also gets showcased here, and when I listen to "Violin Duel" from the "Chevalier" OST is the smooth upper mids and highs that are reproduced with enjoyable clarity, free of fatigue. This places the Axion in the realm of entertaining, not analytical listening.

Rounding out the experience on offer here, the MMCX-connected cabling features an inline microphone and a three-button remote for calls and audio playback control. I've played with it on both Android and iOS and found that playback control can be a bit finicky, depending on which apps you're using. Audio from the microphone is clear, if not a bit bottomy, but your conversations and video chats will do well.

Best of all, since the cable uses the MMCX standard, these headphones can grow with you if you decide to upgrade to a better mobile DAC. Just buy some aftermarket MMCX cables, terminated with a 4.4mm connector instead of the USB-C connector, and you can access files with higher resolutions than the included DAC supports (32-bit/384kHz).

What could use improvement

Not small ear canal friendly for me

The only glaring issues I found during my time with the Campfire Audio Axion are nozzle diameter and DAC power. The nozzle that the eartips connect to doesn't fit my baby-size right ear canal, while my left ear is a bit better because it's slightly larger. There are eartips that can mitigate the issue, though. You can see the dome eartips in the image above on the right. They seal better against my ear canal despite having a shallow canal depth. I commonly have this problem, though, so it isn't a knock against Campfire Audio at all.

When playing music from my Microsoft Surface Pro 11, the power output was solid as I listened to lossless audio files using the MusicBee app. In my trials, I found that the IEMs benefit from more power than my iPhone 16 Pro Max and Google Pixel 9 can deliver. When playing music from my Surface Pro or the FiiO M21 DAP, the Axion's full capabilities are revealed. In future versions of the Axion, I'd like to see higher DAC power output, but the trade-off is that it will drain more power from your smartphone.

Should you buy the Campfire Audio Axion?

For quality and convenience...

If you're looking for a turnkey mobile lossless audio solution, the Campfire Audio Axion is a solid option, with room to grow as your active listening exploration does. You get quality Campfire Audio IEMs, an inline microphone and playback controls, and a DAC to give you mobile access to music that is CD-quality or "better." And while $250 may seem like a lot for earbuds, in the world of audiophile gear, it's relatively inexpensive.