First things first: Thus far, I haven't tested many IEMs in this price range, but as pointed out on the previous page, things are better in this regard for the Campfire Audio Holocene than with the Mammoth. Even so, while I recognize these are expensive, especially in non-US regions with Campfire Audio dealers, I can't tell you whether the Campfire Audio Mammoth is necessarily better or worse than direct peers it is competing against just yet.

The warm neutral sound signature isn't necessarily for everyone, and that's fine since a house tuning as a target curve isn't really being applied. The Campfire Audio IEMs released recently have been fairly different from one another, with some doing well based on set expectations and others not so much. The Satsuma and Holocene are closer in tuning than the Mammoth and Honeydew pairing. What I can tell you, however, is that the Holocene is absolutely superior to the Campfire Audio Satsuma from just a few weeks earlier. It has to be given the Satsuma comes in at $199. But overall improvements are such that I would rather not spend the money on the Satsuma and instead save it for the Holocene if I were in the market for this tuning style from the company.

There are some technical mishaps, especially as it pertains to the lack of resonance compensation in the upper mids, and the Holocene is also more source-dependent than most IEMs in that you may notice a hiss or haze depending on what you use. Any half-decent source will be fine, however, just be aware of this before you declare a fault if you hear the hiss when nothing is playing. The positives far outweigh the cons in my book, and what the Holocene brings to the table as part of an overall package is impressive. The Mammoth was equally fun, and I personally liked the design of the case there more than here, but the Holocene backs it up with better tuning while having the same glow-in-the-dark accents and nicely built shells, which will also be more forgiving to scratches owing to the safer, more neutral brown color.