[Dobrescu George]

This. The R2A's are an amazing piece of work, and the soundstage is definitely great, but I do believe there was a lot of over hype for these.

That said, for the KS price they're an absolute steal.

I am not entirely sure about the price. For the asked price, one could get something better, R2a costs about the same price as ie80 from sennheiser, and R2pro costs more than ie800. Why are they considered as good priced? They cost more than ie800 sometimes, and sure sound worse, not having the treble of a top tier IEM. 
 
Maybe people do not see the price as they should. They are a flimsy built pair of somethings that are sure not to be up to the the quality of the asked price. At 400 pounds for R2pro, ie800 is clearly better from a distance. I think that if one is up for thick but better sound, could get se846 at around the same price, depending on the country and luck with fiinding a store who has them. Even get a lightly used JH IEM, or countless other options, like a second hand akg k3003.  
 
I would like to not put an accent on how badly they are over-hyped. At the price point of ie80, I am sure that thick sound with lots of soundstage winner will be ie80

 

[tgx78]

I am not entirely sure about the price. For the asked price, one could get something better, R2a costs about the same price as ie80 from sennheiser, and R2pro costs more than ie800. Why are they considered as good priced? They cost more than ie800 sometimes, and sure sound worse, not having the treble of a top tier IEM. 

Maybe people do not see the price as they should. They are a flimsy built pair of somethings that are sure not to be up to the the quality of the asked price. At 400 pounds for R2pro, ie800 is clearly better from a distance. I think that if one is up for thick but better sound, could get se846 at around the same price, depending on the country and luck with fiinding a store who has them. Even get a lightly used JH IEM, or countless other options, like a second hand akg k3003.  

I would like to not put an accent on how badly they are over-hyped. At the price point of ie80, I am sure that thick sound with lots of soundstage winner will be ie80

Have you actually had a chance to hear the R2A/R2pro or just assuming here? If you haven't, you are just as bad as people over hyping it by stating comments based on conjecture rather than knowledge. I do have IE80, IE800 and R2pro/R2A bundle arriving in just few days.

I will run some comparison for you after actually hearing them all. I play first violin at the local orchestra so I can accurately tell you which IEM has the most realistic soundstage, tone, timbre etc.

 

[Dobrescu George]

Have you actually had a chance to hear the R2A/R2pro or just assuming here? If you haven't, you are just as bad as people over hyping it by stating comments based on conjecture rather than knowledge. I do have IE80, IE800 and R2pro/R2A bundle arriving in just few days.

I will run some comparison for you after actually hearing them all. I play first violin at the local orchestra so I can accurately tell you which IEM has the most realistic soundstage, tone, timbre etc.

I have a personal opinion on this matter 

 
No IEM can sound realistic as far as soundstage and timbre goes, and it does not have to. IT is music recorded by a microphone close to the instruemtn, and the music is pumped to the ear directly, or using a diffuser. It cannot sound natural due to music waves not hitting the outer ear. 
 
Not to mention that no music is mastered to sound natural, it is mastered to sound more interesting, subjectively better than natural, and I would not want my music to sound natural.. Not to mention that I listen mostly to metal and electronica, none of which can sound natural as their live counterparts will ALWAYS sound worse than the recorded versions, except for a few albums that were recorded even worse than a live performance. 
 
About hearing them, not, and I will not at that price point. 
 
It is not that I have something against them, but people who put them in that price range forget that the r2a is actually one of the most expensive IEMs on the market, and R2PRo means already luxury items. 

 

[Spyro]

LMAO......  IE800 soundstage rivals most headphones.
 
It's still all a simulation of the sound.  Whether in a 1 sq centimeter of your ear canal with an IEM.....or 1" away via headphone, BOTH are grossly different than live music played 15-20 feet away from the listener.

 

[520RanchBro]

  I have a personal opinion on this matter 

 
No IEM can sound realistic as far as soundstage and timbre goes, and it does not have to. IT is music recorded by a microphone close to the instruemtn, and the music is pumped to the ear directly, or using a diffuser. It cannot sound natural due to music waves not hitting the outer ear. 
 
Not to mention that no music is mastered to sound natural, it is mastered to sound more interesting, subjectively better than natural, and I would not want my music to sound natural.. Not to mention that I listen mostly to metal and electronica, none of which can sound natural as their live counterparts will ALWAYS sound worse than the recorded versions, except for a few albums that were recorded even worse than a live performance. 
 
About hearing them, not, and I will not at that price point. 
 
It is not that I have something against them, but people who put them in that price range forget that the r2a is actually one of the most expensive IEMs on the market, and R2PRo means already luxury items. 

 
 You must listen to some terrible metal bands (when it comes to live performance), I could not disagree with the bolded statement more. Or maybe the sound guys in your area just really suck?

 

[Dobrescu George]

   
 You must listen to some terrible metal bands (when it comes to live performance), I could not disagree with the bolded statement more. Or maybe the sound guys in your area just really suck?

I have been to official concerts, and listen to some of the best and some of the worst metal bands. Practically, I had heared most of mainstream, offstream, you name it, I mostly heared it. Live is not comparable to recorded and IEM/Headphone sound. It is much better in the recorded version for most music anyways. 
 
A few exceptions are very mainstream bands, with huge budgets which recorded the live with more exepnsive equipemnt than albumsm, or processing done in albums is done to the point of destruction of sound. 
 
I would never want to reproduce a live metal concert feeling in my head, I love things clear and how ie800 portrays them. Or hd800. Ot ultrasone sig dj. 
 
Of course, if you happen to listen to the bands that sound extremely good live, you cannot agree with me, not to mention that people tend to not hear the same due to different shape of ear / brain processing.
 
But yeah, you are mostly right about the guys doing the live performances being very bad around here. They pump the volume until everything is on bad clipping, you cannot understand a single thing from music, maybe this is also a co-factor in me having my impressions. I have not been to a single live performance where music was not clipping badly and sounded way off than the album counter-part. Recorded live can sound good sometimes, sometimes even more enjoy-able than the album counterpart (linkin park live albums in particular sound good, but so do official albums)

 

[Stuff Jones]

Best I've heard by far is the Flare R2A.

 

[deltronzero]

Out of all the TOTL IEM's I've heard, gotta be IE800 or JH Angies.

 

[Dobrescu George]

  Out of all the TOTL IEM's I've heard, gotta be IE800 or JH Angies.

 
I really have to hear the Angies. 
 
Is there any place where you can demo them?

 

[JPizzzle]

I'm surprised so many people recommend the IE800's despite the reported microphonics. At least for me, a major reason for choosing IEM's is portability and travel and everything I've read stated that they are horrible for this.

 

[Dobrescu George]

I'm surprised so many people recommend the IE800's despite the reported microphonics. At least for me, a major reason for choosing IEM's is portability and travel and everything I've read stated that they are horrible for this.

I solved the microphonics problem by either wearing over the ear, or using the rubber separator between cables / noise attenuator. 

 

[bobeau]

I'm surprised so many people recommend the IE800's despite the reported microphonics. At least for me, a major reason for choosing IEM's is portability and travel and everything I've read stated that they are horrible for this.

 
Over ear there are no microphonics.  Of course if you're a bigger person (or have a long neck) over ear may not work for you.

 

[sithjedi333]

Best soundstage? Tralucent 1plus2.

 

[Dobrescu George]

  Best soundstage? Tralucent 1plus2.

I am curious what you would say after trying ie800. I have been curious as to how 1plus2 compares to ie800 for some time. 

 

[Jon Sonne]

Have you actually had a chance to hear the R2A/R2pro or just assuming here? If you haven't, you are just as bad as people over hyping it by stating comments based on conjecture rather than knowledge. I do have IE80, IE800 and R2pro/R2A bundle arriving in just few days.

I will run some comparison for you after actually hearing them all. I play first violin at the local orchestra so I can accurately tell you which IEM has the most realistic soundstage, tone, timbre etc.

Looking forward to this soundstage comparison