TechAudioHeadphonesCampfire Audio Orbit review: quirky but great sounding earbudsHas the über-hipster joined the mainstream, or is there more to Orbit than meets the eye?When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.(Image credit: Future)T3 VerdictAn oddity, for sure, but that seems to be how Campfire Audio likes it. Besides, you can forgive a lot when true wireless earbuds sound this good…Reasons to buy+Big, convincing and entertaining sound+Good battery life+Useful control app+Quirky looks and finishReasons to avoid-No active noise cancellation (ANC)-Imperfect touch controls-No multipoint connectivityWhy you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
TechAudioHeadphonesCampfire Audio Orbit review: quirky but great sounding earbudsHas the über-hipster joined the mainstream, or is there more to Orbit than meets the eye?When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.(Image credit: Future)T3 VerdictAn oddity, for sure, but that seems to be how Campfire Audio likes it. Besides, you can forgive a lot when true wireless earbuds sound this good…Reasons to buy+Big, convincing and entertaining sound+Good battery life+Useful control app+Quirky looks and finishReasons to avoid-No active noise cancellation (ANC)-Imperfect touch controls-No multipoint connectivityWhy you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
Has the über-hipster joined the mainstream, or is there more to Orbit than meets the eye?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Future)T3 VerdictAn oddity, for sure, but that seems to be how Campfire Audio likes it. Besides, you can forgive a lot when true wireless earbuds sound this good…Reasons to buy+Big, convincing and entertaining sound+Good battery life+Useful control app+Quirky looks and finishReasons to avoid-No active noise cancellation (ANC)-Imperfect touch controls-No multipoint connectivity
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
T3 VerdictAn oddity, for sure, but that seems to be how Campfire Audio likes it. Besides, you can forgive a lot when true wireless earbuds sound this good…Reasons to buy+Big, convincing and entertaining sound+Good battery life+Useful control app+Quirky looks and finishReasons to avoid-No active noise cancellation (ANC)-Imperfect touch controls-No multipoint connectivity
T3 VerdictAn oddity, for sure, but that seems to be how Campfire Audio likes it. Besides, you can forgive a lot when true wireless earbuds sound this good…
T3 Verdict
An oddity, for sure, but that seems to be how Campfire Audio likes it. Besides, you can forgive a lot when true wireless earbuds sound this good…
Reasons to buy+Big, convincing and entertaining sound+Good battery life+Useful control app+Quirky looks and finishReasons to avoid-No active noise cancellation (ANC)-Imperfect touch controls-No multipoint connectivity
Reasons to buy+Big, convincing and entertaining sound+Good battery life+Useful control app+Quirky looks and finish
Big, convincing and entertaining sound
Good battery life
Useful control app
Quirky looks and finish
Reasons to avoid-No active noise cancellation (ANC)-Imperfect touch controls-No multipoint connectivity
No active noise cancellation (ANC)
Imperfect touch controls
No multipoint connectivity
Why you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
Why you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
“Number One hipster haven” is how lonelyplanet.com describes Portland, Oregon - and it’s safe to say proud Portland native Campfire Audio is happy enough with that description. Ever since the company got up and running in 2015, it’s been delivering idiosyncratic takes on wired in-ear monitors, with the only constants being celestial model names, giddy designs and giddier price-tags. Nicely done, as the company tag-line has it.
Campfire Audio Orbit review: price & release date
The Campfire Audio Oribut true wireless in-ear headphones are on sale now, and in the United Kingdom they sell for £249. In the company’s native United States they go for $249, while in Australia you’re looking at AU$429.
This is premium money for a pair of true wireless headphones, let’s not pretend otherwise - and especially for TWS that go without some quite standard features. So the Orbit must be mighty talented in other areas in order to justify that asking price. Musn’t they?
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Campfire Audio Orbit review: features & what’s new?
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
If you’re expecting the full-service experience you’ve become used to from the likes ofSonyor Technics true wireless in-ear headphones, the Campfire Audio Orbit are going to seem a little impoverished where features are concerned. If you’re the charitable type, though, you’ll assume this is because the Orbit are strongly performance-focused.
So before we launch into complaining about the features the Orbit go without when compared to their best similarly priced rivals, we should at least discuss those features that are present. If for no other reason than to confirm that, yes indeed, the Campfire Audio Orbit are strongly performance-focused.
The Orbit use Bluetooth 5.2 for wireless connectivity, and are compatible with SBC, AAC and aptX codecs and Bluetooth LE. There’s a 10mm full-range liquid crystal polymer dynamic driver in each earbud serving up the sounds - Campfire Audio is claiming a frequency response of 5Hz - 20kHz.
Battery life is a fully competitive 8 hours from the earbuds, and the charging case holds another 30 hours or so - so as long as you’re not caning the volume, 38 hours between charges is achievable. Ten minutes on the power should hold you for another hour or so. And thanks to an IPX5 rating, you can spend those hours in more-or-less any environment you like.
As far as what’s missing where true wireless in-ear headphones at this sort of money are usually concerned, the most obvious and most glaring is active noise-cancellation. In fact, we can only think of the (similarly performance-orientated) Grado GT220 that have the nerve to omit this feature - everyone else who wants to part you from £200 or more for its true wireless product includes it as a matter of course. Then there’s multipoint connectivity - or, rather, there isn’t. And there are no sensors in the Orbit to take note of when you remove the earbuds - so they just keep on playing until you tell them not to.
Campfire Audio Orbit review: performance
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
If you’re in a suitable environment, though, there’s a great deal to enjoy in the way the Orbit sound. They create a large and persuasive soundstage, with plenty of space both left/right and front/back in which to lay out the individual elements of a recording. Every strand gets more than enough elbow-room to do its thing - but the Orbit manage to present every recording, whether it’s busy and complex or skeletal and spare, as a coherent, unified whole. There’s a sense of togetherness, ofperformance,to the Campfire Audio sound that’s not always a given when a soundstage is as big and strictly defined as this is.
From the bottom of the frequency range to the top, their tonality is beautifully judged. Bass sounds are deep, textured, loaded with detail and are controlled so carefully that the leading edges of low-end sounds are unequivocal. There’s real momentum, as well as solid underpinning, to the low end, and as a result rhythms are describe with absolute positivity.
At the opposite end the Orbit gives treble sounds just as much detail, a fair amount of substance and plenty of bite. Sometimes, if given an unsympathetic recording, or a big dose of volume, or especially both, the top end can getthis closeto becoming hard or abrasive - and yet somehow it never quite gets there. Instead, it’s bright and shiny - and every bit as accomplished at the low end when it comes to control and expression.
And in the wide open spaces of the midrange, the Orbit absolutely pile on the information. Voices, in particular, feel the benefit of the earbuds’ fanatical attention to detail - if there’s emotion, character or attitude in a vocal performance, the Orbit will identify and contextualise it. Tonality is approaching ideal, and the articulacy of the presentation allows singers of all techniques and competences to communicate torrentially.
Where the low-level harmonic variations in a voice, or particularly apparent in a solo instrument, are concerned, the Orbit identify them readily and give them exactly as much emphasis as they require. The big shifts in out-and-out volume so beloved of indie bands and symphony orchestras alike are handled decisively, with the earbuds putting appreciable distance between the quietest and loudest parts of a recording. And throughout, no matter the sort of stuff you’re listening to, the Orbit sound engaged and entertaining - their powers of analysis are considerable, but their palpable enthusiasm is every bit as apparent.
Campfire Audio Orbit review: design & usability
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
The first thing you’ll notice about the Orbit earbuds is just how small they are - the customary Campfire Audio angularity of housing makes measuring them a bit of a chore, but anyone who’s used to wearing, say, aBoseQuietComfort Earbud II is going to find the Orbit earbuds somewhat on the titchy side. The case, no less angular, is easier to measure: it’s a tidy 45 x 60 x 25mm (HxWxD).
Each eartip covers a stainless steel spout with a gridded driver guard. The case and eartips are made of ABS, and there’s a gold-coloured ‘CA’ logo on each earbud. Each earbud also has mic openings to allow for use with a source player’s native voice assistant and to deal with telephony. The charging case, meanwhile, has a USB-C socket (it’s also compatible with Qi-certified charging pads) and a strip of four LEDs inside to give some idea of remaining battery life.
Usability is pretty good - as long as you can get the earbuds out of the case in the first place. They’re extraordinarily and unnecessarily snug in there and altogether too fiddly to extract elegantly. Once they’re out, though, they’re simple to position comfortably and (generally) simple to operate thanks to a combination of capacitive touch-surfaces and a passably well-implemented control app.
The touch surface covers off the usual stuff: ‘play/pause’, ‘skip forwards/backwards’, ‘volume up/down’, ‘answer/end/reject call’ and ‘wake voice assistant’ - and they’re certainly more responsive than some alternative designs we could mention. Our right earbud isn’t always cooperative, though. A double tap is meant to be ‘skip forwards’, while a double tap on the left is ‘skip backwards’ - in practice, though, sometimes all that is available from a double tap on either earbud is ‘skip backwards’. Bad news for the easily frustrated (and we include ourselves in that).
The function of the touch controls can’t be altered in the control app, but they can at least be individually defeated - so if you want to turn off ‘double tap’ altogether, go right ahead. The app is also good for checking for firmware updates, checking on battery life, establishing the Bluetooth codec that’s being streamed, and making EQ adjustments. For some reason, Campfire Audio’s are numbered 1-7 (in addition to ‘off’) rather than being named - and there’s no facility for examining the actual EQ settings themselves. Custom settings are available using a seven-band equaliser - and they are marked ‘A’, ‘B’ and so on. It’s a strangely austere methodology for a company that’s usually all-in on the user experience.
Campfire Audio Orbit review: Verdict
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
Also consider
Today’s best Campfire Audio Orbit, Grado GT220, Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 and Sony WF-1000XM4 dealsCampfire Audio Orbit$249ViewSee all pricesGrado GT220$259ViewSee all pricesBose QuietComfort Earbuds 2$279$249ViewSee all pricesSony WF-1000XM4 Wireless Earbuds$278ViewSee all pricesWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Today’s best Campfire Audio Orbit, Grado GT220, Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 and Sony WF-1000XM4 dealsCampfire Audio Orbit$249ViewSee all pricesGrado GT220$259ViewSee all pricesBose QuietComfort Earbuds 2$279$249ViewSee all pricesSony WF-1000XM4 Wireless Earbuds$278ViewSee all pricesWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Today’s best Campfire Audio Orbit, Grado GT220, Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 and Sony WF-1000XM4 dealsCampfire Audio Orbit$249ViewSee all pricesGrado GT220$259ViewSee all pricesBose QuietComfort Earbuds 2$279$249ViewSee all pricesSony WF-1000XM4 Wireless Earbuds$278ViewSee all pricesWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Today’s best Campfire Audio Orbit, Grado GT220, Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 and Sony WF-1000XM4 deals
Campfire Audio Orbit$249ViewSee all pricesGrado GT220$259ViewSee all pricesBose QuietComfort Earbuds 2$279$249ViewSee all pricesSony WF-1000XM4 Wireless Earbuds$278ViewSee all prices
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Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2
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Sony WF-1000XM4 Wireless Earbuds$278ViewSee all prices
Sony WF-1000XM4 Wireless Earbuds$278ViewSee all prices
Sony WF-1000XM4 Wireless Earbuds
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$278View
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We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
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