Campfire Audio has built its most complex in-ear monitor to date with the Chimera, a nine-driver flagship IEM that like the figure from Greek mythology that it’s named after, combines many elements, including dynamic, balanced armature, electrostatic, and bone-conduction drivers.
These drivers are all housed inside a single CNC-machined magnesium shell, which is hand-assembled at the brand’s Portland, Oregon facility.
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The drivers look to divide responsibility across the frequency range, with a newly developed 10mm True-Glass dynamic driver covering low and low-mid frequencies. A dual-diaphragm balanced armature handles the midrange, with two dedicated high-frequency balanced armatures for clarity and articulation. Then there are four electrostatic super-tweeters that extend into the uppermost range for air and precision.
Alongside those eight conventional drivers sits a bone-conduction unit embedded directly into the magnesium shell, a first for Campfire Audio. It allows low-frequency energy to be felt physically through the shell as well as heard acoustically, adding tactile weight to bass content that a acoustic driver arrangement supposedly cannot replicate.
Image Credit (Campfire Audio)
Internally, a pressure valve regulates airflow behind the dynamic driver while a final-stage tuning damper sits integrated into the nozzle, two components that work alongside Campfire’s acoustic routing to maintain coherence across a driver array that combines four different transducer technologies operating at the same time.
The shell pairs that magnesium body with a carbon fibre and brass Damascus faceplate, where layers of brass are folded into carbon fibre and then CNC-machined to produce a patterned surface that carries subtle variation between units, with the finish available in black and gold PVD variants.
Each Chimera ships with the ALO Audio Valence-6 cable, marking the reintroduction of the ALO Audio brand and features four high-purity copper conductors alongside two mixed copper and silver-plated copper conductors, finished with black anodised aluminium hardware throughout.
Pre-sale opens on 16th May 2026 ahead of an expected June shipping window, with the Chimera priced at £6,999 / $7,500, with limited initial quantities available worldwide.
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