The Flare Audio R1's cups are made of metal. The shiny and chrome circles can be polished clean and gleam in the light. Sliding freely along two nails, they must be pressed against your ears for the headphone does not clamp at all. This is the least comfortable full-size headphone I have ever used. Maybe you're supposed to nail it down to your head, Hellraiser-style. The Flares are from the vortex.
The R1 sounds like you're stuck six feet underground while the band plays fifty yards away. It's what Jimmy Hoffa hears and he's dead. Cheap headphones like the Koss KSC75, PortaPros, and the Apple Earbuds with the slit out-resolve it. This headphone is only worth its weight in scrap. There is nothing positive about it. You can't even watch Youtube with it. I would rather listen to elevator music over a rotary telephone while on hold. Whoever designed these should be forced to buy back every single unit, smelt them down, and lower himself into the molten metal like Arnold Schwarzenegger at the end of Terminator 2
The R1 sounds like you're stuck six feet underground while the band plays fifty yards away. It's what Jimmy Hoffa hears and he's dead. Cheap headphones like the Koss KSC75, PortaPros, and the Apple Earbuds with the slit out-resolve it. This headphone is only worth its weight in scrap. There is nothing positive about it. You can't even watch Youtube with it. I would rather listen to elevator music over a rotary telephone while on hold. Whoever designed these should be forced to buy back every single unit, smelt them down, and lower himself into the molten metal like Arnold Schwarzenegger at the end of Terminator 2
Seems a pretty unhelpful review to be honest - you don't say what you use them with and your experience sounds a lot like a very fussy headphone being driven very poorly by whatever you used.
Other reviews did find them tilted in frequency response (again that can be matching issues with a headphone that doesn't match much!) but they reported some unique positives too.
Also they sorted out the headband and clamping with the Mk II which was launched immediately, with the Mk I being more a test model - sounds like you got one of the Mk Is somehow.