I'll be visiting Flare Audio on Thursday morning (UK time) to play with their toys. I live just a few miles away from their premises. A couple of weeks ago (aprox) I saw their kickstarter described in the local newspaper and signed up for the "R2A BLACK (SUPER EARLY BACKER)". This is a price point (£79) that in UK is directly comparable to Shure SE215 or the midrange RHAs and similar, and it is about as much as I will spend on a new product of this type without the benefit of seeing reviews and, more importantly, credible measurements such as are found at innerfidelity.
I don't have any super high-end IEMs for comparison. I like my full size headphones, Sennheiser Momentum (v1 circumaural), very much and also have Shure SE215, Samsung HS330 (dual driver dynamic), Xiaomi Pistons 2.0, 2.1, 3, 3 Youth Edition, Koss KSC75, some hideously unlistenable Superlux, several different IEMs by Digital Silence (Wolfson's noise cancelling brand) and I have also owned UE600 (single balanced boredom...err I mean armature), some horrid boomy Klipsch stuff and more cheap Sennheiser IEMs than I can remember. And some other stuff. I think.
Anyway, I think I will be able to form some kind of opinion and make some kind of comparison, though not necessarily authoritative or l33t. I will post about my experience on Thursday evening, or at the weekend if I get arrested.
Anyway I have to say that corresponding with Flare Audio is not just painless but actually entertaining, good humoured and a pleasure. This is real people, not astroturfers or marketing drones. For many years I have subscribed to the ever reliable Bill Hicks view of marketing and advertising https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiukc1yfzCI but Flare Audio's dedicated team (of one! She's called Naomi and she lives on caffeine and good will) might have changed my mind.