[Arysyn]

It is very difficult to describe the sound of headphones subjectively, but I can say that the Flares Pro are not bassy, are not bright, not mid-forward. They just present the music in such a natural manner that I quickly forget that I am listening to recorded music. Although the term "holographic" is often used (and overused), I can say this is what I experience with them. When I tested them with all of my tone files and sweeps, I found they actually deliver bass at 20hz. It has sub-bass that is almost palpable but never intrudes where it doesn't belong. Same goes for the highs. They are there when called for but never sibilant or with annoying spikes, both of which are quite annoying to me.

I think what really contributes most to the sense of realism is the perception of depth to the music and to the accuracy of the imaging and timbre. These are performance components that do not lend themselves to measurements. I have also found the sound to be more expansive and enveloping when using the tips supplied by Flare. I never got a decent seal with the foams, but the Everyday silicons not only provide me with a perfect seal, but they are also so soft that the soon "disappear" and I find that I often have to remind myself that I have phones in my ears.

Although I don't wish to be considered a Flare fanboy, IMO these certainly deserve to be considered a TOTL instrument regardless of price.

Thank you for describing the FlaresPro here, HiFlight.

I ought to better explain my perception regarding my preferences for forward-sounding vocals. There is the type of forward-sound that is like being on stage in front of the singer. While I sort of like this presentation, I admit it has its downside of taking away some of the spacing of the instruments, as its not far away enough from the singer to get a real sense of the rest of the stage. The Grado 8e and 10e have this type of sound to them.

I also have the Ortofon EQ8, which is a bit less forward on the vocals, but have the same sibilance of the Grados. Despite the three earphones utilizing Moving Armature drivers that are meant to produce a sound style in between Dynamics and Balanced Armatures, there still is a sibilance-prone "artificial"-like sound that is devoid of the emotional stylings of Dynamics. This is why despite BAs having a closer sound signature to my preference, I still prefer a Dynamic further away from it, so long as it isn't V-shaped.

Unfortunately for me, so many of the Dynamic Driver - based iems are V-shaped. This is the tonal opposite of the on-stage vocal stylings of many bas, including the Grado moving armatures, and even the slightly reduced on-stage vocals of the Ortofon EQ8. What I'm really looking for is a Dynamic Driver iem that has vocals that sound center stage within the first rows far enough away from the stage to get the full scope of the presentation, but completely without any recessed tonality to the vocals, as if I'm far away from the stage. Soundstage is not important enough for me to lose that sense of closeness to the vocals, but not where it gets too intimate either.

I'm considering making a slight edit to my review of the RE800, to include more detail of the presentation in terms of soundstage presence. It isn't too intimate of spacing, but not large like an arena staging. When hearing that the Flares Pro are advertised to have the "live" staging, while the term has its advantages to what I like, I don't want the venue to be too large where my placement among the presentation needs to be further away, in order to hear everything that is being presented on stage, which means placing me further away from the vocalist.

Therefore, the arena needs to be smaller, though not too small, and the dimensional spacing could have me better placed to get the best of both the soundstage presence and close enough vocal distance. The opposite of what I want is to be placed further away where the vocals seem more distant and hollow, despite the advantages of getting the full range of sound presence among the surrounding environment. A "live" sound could mean either style, which leads me to my curiosity of the Flares Pro.

 

[LuckyNat]

If one had natural sounding iems that were transparent and neutral, then one could rely on the recording to give you that presentation you like.

Can any iem give you that presentation if the recording wasn't made to give it?

I like the Flares (and the older R2s) because they appear to me to be quite transparent and neutral - the sound they give changes quite easily from one type of recording to another, even if they are completely different and opposite. To me that's the sign of something getting close to the ideal of a perfect sound reproduction. (I'm not saying these are perfect but are on the right path).

 

[rickhawk22]

Why not order a set, and review them. I believe they have a 30 day return policy.
To me, I prefer Headphones and IEM's to be as colorless as possible to the music, and provide it in the manner in which it was mastered and intended. Flare's R2's do that for me, and provide a natural presentation of depth and space. Nothing unnatural. I love the details in the music you experience with these IEMs. It just sounds right to me. Give them a spin, and if you cant return, I'll take them off your hands if you don't enjoy them.

 

[Arysyn]

Why not order a set, and review them. I believe they have a 30 day return policy.
To me, I prefer Headphones and IEM's to be as colorless as possible to the music, and provide it in the manner in which it was mastered and intended. Flare's R2's do that for me, and provide a natural presentation of depth and space. Nothing unnatural. I love the details in the music you experience with these IEMs. It just sounds right to me. Give them a spin, and if you cant return, I'll take them off your hands if you don't enjoy them.

I might. Its very tempting, especially after finding a review this morning on Headfonics I previously overlooked. The review there sounded exactly my preference, especially with vocals not being recessed and perhaps a bit forward, though they did say not as forward as other iems they've heard. I'm figuring perhaps they're referring to Balanced Armatures.

I want forward vocals, though not ba-forward. Sounds to me from the review that the FlaresPro does this, and also was reviewed as having very clean bass, which is another match. The treble sounds also like it'll be great from giving a "live" sound, so I'll look into this.

 

[majo123]

Ok , mine arrived this afternoon and so far im pretty impressed with them , as the previous poster hinted at the first things that I noticed was the sub bass presence (in a good way) and how clean sounding they are , they reminded me of listening to my planars , seem very articulate and pretty neutral across the board.
Still early days and il reserve proper judgement once I have used them for a bit, but at the moment I'm feeling pretty pleased I picked these up.
Not had a chance to try the Bluetooth yet.
If I have any gripe at the moment it would be there a bit fiddly to insert.
Also I tried going from green to the next size up ( i have small ears) and it sort of created to much seal and distorted the sound so much it sounded like a blown driver...fortunately when I went back to green it was gone??? This was on standard silicone...anyone else experienced this ???
One other thing does anyone think they improve with burn in??

 

[Arysyn]

Ok , mine arrived this afternoon and so far im pretty impressed with them , as the previous poster hinted at the first things that I noticed was the sub bass presence (in a good way) and how clean sounding they are , they reminded me of listening to my planars , seem very articulate and pretty neutral across the board.
Still early days and il reserve proper judgement once I have used them for a bit, but at the moment I'm feeling pretty pleased I picked these up.
Not had a chance to try the Bluetooth yet.
If I have any gripe at the moment it would be there a bit fiddly to insert.
Also I tried going from green to the next size up ( i have small ears) and it sort of created to much seal and distorted the sound so much it sounded like a blown driver...fortunately when I went back to green it was gone??? This was on standard silicone...anyone else experienced this ???
One other thing does anyone think they improve with burn in??

Great thing the bass is clean-sounding. I have a few questions though, if you don't mind answering.

Is the bass neutral-sounding? What interests me is a bass that isn't increased in quantity along with the lower mids. A bass that isn't either interfering or vying for position with the vocals.

Regarding vocals, I want vocals that are not at all recessed. Preferably slightly more forward than the bass. Then important are the issues of spacing. If these have a "live" sound, the staging should sound larger and more enveloping, three-dimensional, than closed-in studio sounding. My current iem, the RE800, is in-between that, which is near-perfect, and if there were any larger staging, it might recess the vocals more in compromising with the larger tonality. Yet, if the bass were lowered, the vocals could have more presence even at their neutral state, while still offering a good amount of soundstage.

I view the ideal audio frequency response as having just enough bass for the need of serving the emotional mechanics to music, but should be reserved only to doing that. Neutral and flat is the highest bass should ever be on a measurement. Vocals could be neutral, allowing for a better emphasis on treble and soundstaging, but I prefer upping vocals in the mid to upper range of the mids to being in between the bass and the treble. I'd be fine even with just a slight increase to the vocals, but I'm beginning to think even bass and vocal levels aren't going to provide enough vocal closeness for me.

 

[barondla]

Ok , mine arrived this afternoon and so far im pretty impressed with them , as the previous poster hinted at the first things that I noticed was the sub bass presence (in a good way) and how clean sounding they are , they reminded me of listening to my planars , seem very articulate and pretty neutral across the board.
Still early days and il reserve proper judgement once I have used them for a bit, but at the moment I'm feeling pretty pleased I picked these up.
Not had a chance to try the Bluetooth yet.
If I have any gripe at the moment it would be there a bit fiddly to insert.
Also I tried going from green to the next size up ( i have small ears) and it sort of created to much seal and distorted the sound so much it sounded like a blown driver...fortunately when I went back to green it was gone??? This was on standard silicone...anyone else experienced this ???
One other thing does anyone think they improve with burn in??

Think most drivers improve with burn in. So guessing these will. The old Flare drivers improved.

 

[majo123]

Great thing the bass is clean-sounding. I have a few questions though, if you don't mind answering.

Is the bass neutral-sounding? What interests me is a bass that isn't increased in quantity along with the lower mids. A bass that isn't either interfering or vying for position with the vocals.

Regarding vocals, I want vocals that are not at all recessed. Preferably slightly more forward than the bass. Then important are the issues of spacing. If these have a "live" sound, the staging should sound larger and more enveloping, three-dimensional, than closed-in studio sounding. My current iem, the RE800, is in-between that, which is near-perfect, and if there were any larger staging, it might recess the vocals more in compromising with the larger tonality. Yet, if the bass were lowered, the vocals could have more presence even at their neutral state, while still offering a good amount of soundstage.

I view the ideal audio frequency response as having just enough bass for the need of serving the emotional mechanics to music, but should be reserved only to doing that. Neutral and flat is the highest bass should ever be on a measurement. Vocals could be neutral, allowing for a better emphasis on treble and soundstaging, but I prefer upping vocals in the mid to upper range of the mids to being in between the bass and the treble. I'd be fine even with just a slight increase to the vocals, but I'm beginning to think even bass and vocal levels aren't going to provide enough vocal closeness for me.

Ok as I said I have not done much listening and my observations have been brief ...i would usually give a couple of weeks before I realy made decisions but i would say the bass is clean and nothing seems to be bleeding/interfearing with anything else to my ears...vocals i would say are very neutral definitely not recessed and I wouldn't say any increase either at this point in time. The sound stage is average I wouldn't say huge but separation ( hence why I said nothing seems to interfere with each other) is great.
I do have to say these are slightly different in there approach than im used too but in s good way .... picking out hi hats and certain things in tracks I hsve not noticed before it just seems to do it without effort ..
Sorry if not more informative im not the best at explaining but hope it helps in some way.

 

[Arysyn]

Ok as I said I have not done much listening and my observations have been brief ...i would usually give a couple of weeks before I realy made decisions but i would say the bass is clean and nothing seems to be bleeding/interfearing with anything else to my ears...vocals i would say are very neutral definitely not recessed and I wouldn't say any increase either at this point in time. The sound stage is average I wouldn't say huge but separation ( hence why I said nothing seems to interfere with each other) is great.
I do have to say these are slightly different in there approach than im used too but in s good way .... picking out hi hats and certain things in tracks I hsve not noticed before it just seems to do it without effort ..
Sorry if not more informative im not the best at explaining but hope it helps in some way.

That is fine. I know it took me a while to understand some of the audiophile lingo, and even now there are some things I'm not quite sure of, such as treble spikes. I'm assuming it means a loud reverberation around instruments, such as the clashing of cymbals, but on iems such as the HiFiMan RE800, I'm not hearing it.

That would also lead me to another concern I'd have with the FlaresPro, if Flare Audio were a larger company and could afford to do tuning changes based on the market. I'm suspecting I got a U.S.-tuned RE800, whereas some of the HF members in the Asia Pacific/Australia/NZ markets seem to be receiving a more treble-tuning, in contrast to bass-tuning in the U.S.

I'm glad with Flare being focused on what they know and do well, rather than testing market sales around the world with tuning based on common preferences. Its got my attention for sure.

 

[HiFlight]

Great thing the bass is clean-sounding. I have a few questions though, if you don't mind answering.

Is the bass neutral-sounding? What interests me is a bass that isn't increased in quantity along with the lower mids. A bass that isn't either interfering or vying for position with the vocals.

Regarding vocals, I want vocals that are not at all recessed. Preferably slightly more forward than the bass. Then important are the issues of spacing. If these have a "live" sound, the staging should sound larger and more enveloping, three-dimensional, than closed-in studio sounding. My current iem, the RE800, is in-between that, which is near-perfect, and if there were any larger staging, it might recess the vocals more in compromising with the larger tonality. Yet, if the bass were lowered, the vocals could have more presence even at their neutral state, while still offering a good amount of soundstage.

I view the ideal audio frequency response as having just enough bass for the need of serving the emotional mechanics to music, but shoul d be reserved only to doing that. Neutral and flat is the highest bass should ever be on a measurement. Vocals could be neutral, allowing for a better emphasis on treble and soundstaging, but I prefer upping vocals in the mid to upper range of the mids to being in between the bass and the treble. I'd be fine even with just a slight increase to the vocals, but I'm beginning to think even bass and vocal levels aren't going to provide enough vocal closeness for me.

We can discuss SQ endlessly, but until you actually hear them, you will never know for sure if they are for you or not. Given the 30-day return policy or the fact that they should be easy to resell, go for it! Based on your preferences, I believe you will be pleasantly surprised.

 

[majo123]

That is fine. I know it took me a while to understand some of the audiophile lingo, and even now there are some things I'm not quite sure of, such as treble spikes. I'm assuming it means a loud reverberation around instruments, such as the clashing of cymbals, but on iems such as the HiFiMan RE800, I'm not hearing it.

That would also lead me to another concern I'd have with the FlaresPro, if Flare Audio were a larger company and could afford to do tuning changes based on the market. I'm suspecting I got a U.S.-tuned RE800, whereas some of the HF members in the Asia Pacific/Australia/NZ markets seem to be receiving a more treble-tuning, in contrast to bass-tuning in the U.S.

I'm glad with Flare being focused on what they know and do well, rather than testing market sales around the world with tuning based on common preferences. Its got my attention for sure.

Well i understand a bit of lingo but im just not very good at describing what I'm hearing, I know what i like and what i don't.
Also I tend not to over analyze , the flares seem as I said pretty damn neutral , nothing seems out of place i.e no blooming bass, mids vocals in the right place for me and most important no sibilance or overly bright at the top.
Just a nice neutral sound with nothing seemingly so far out of place...the only thing thst has majorly stood out is the sub bass but in a good way.
They seem to be doing whst im looking for effortless which for me is a good sign of an iem.

 

[Arysyn]

We can discuss SQ endlessly, but until you actually hear them, you will never know for sure if they are for you or not. Given the 30-day return policy or the fact that they should be easy to resell, go for it! Based on your preferences, I believe you will be pleasantly surprised.

I'm going to place an order for them soon. They look really great, and at least knowing their neutral and not V-Shaped is a great thing and a rarity for Dynamic Driver iems these days. I've been reading the CanJam London impressions which seem to show a decrease lately in new iem production to a few models in favor of alot more over-the-ear design headphones.

I was also expecting a report from Atomic Floyd, but none of the show reviews seem to mention them. Plus, Echobox still has the Nomad listed as a pre-order for months now. So, its definitely a good time for Flare Audio to bring the FlaresPro to market.

 

[majo123]

The sub bass is damn good on these ..listened to a few tracks now where they have realy made me go wow! ...whole lottal love/led zeppelin ....sonething in the way /nirvana .... ike and Tina/Jamie T.. if you have ever stood next to a speaker at a gig and felt the sub bass in your gut then you know what I'm talking about ..it reminds me of it at times.

 

[HiFlight]

HERE is a good musical link to get an idea of the dynamics and transient response of a headphone.
The Flares do an exceptional job with this.

And HERE is a good test of soundstage and sub-bass.

Enjoy!

 

[LuckyNat]

I will, thanks!