[Arysyn]

Brief update again,

AudioSanctuary is being helpful, and I found out the delay is due to an illness of my good contact at Flare, who I hope for a speedy recovery, and not because of getting my issue resolved faster, but because illness in all forms is bad, especially when it strikes good people. I'll have more of an update soon.

Anyways, I have some other non-audio stuff going on that is quite exciting, so I'm not in a hurry now for this to be resolved, and my review may take some time to get around to, even when this issue gets fixed by a driver replacement, l/r marking fix, or perhaps a new R2Pro, whatever ends up happening. I'm really hoping for an exciting 2018, and also to everyone here in this Head-Fi thread whose been helpful/supportive of me also have a wonderful 2018!

 

[Arysyn]

Another update :

Unfortunately, I'm returning the Flare R2Pro. I'm not even certain these are the correct item anyways. Audio Sanctuary still is listing the product for sale on their website, despite not actually having them for sale, as the pair I have they supposedly had to locate and found as a demo pair that doesn't even have the l/r markings. My mother is going to try getting the return shipment costs reimbursed.

I've had much better experiences trading with individuals here on Head-Fi than I have from supposedly reputable merchants here. The few individuals I've traded with have been very honest, courteous, and responsive in the process of working out arrangements. Yet the merchants I've bought from have sent me very questionable conditioned items and have given me the run around on returns.

For instance, I had a miserable experience buying from MusicaAcoustics back around winter 2016, who sent me the Ortofon E-Q8 without supplying me the instruction manual, kept apologizing for it claiming they were going to send it, but over a year later I still don't have it. I rarely use the Ortofon earphones now because I don't know how to maintain the earphones being they are a unique item I don't want to break. Since MusicaAcoustics refused to refund me without a huge restocking fee, I still have them. So, if anyone is interested in purchasing them from me, you can send a pm to me. I'd be interested in trading them for a real Flare R2Pro, if someone wants to and has photos showing l/r markings and a box for them.

Otherwise, I may try getting the Unique Melody ME1. Brooko posted a frequency response chart of them, which back up alot of the reviews I've read showing a forward midrange with increased lower treble. While I really like the R2A I have, Flare could tune the lower treble a bit more detailed, but without increasing the upper treble such as with the FlaresPro.

I'm still encouraging Flare to consider making a product with the lesser bass quantity that is great about the R2A, along with the R2A's (and the FlarePro's) great forward vocals, but with an enhanced lower treble, while pushing back on upper treble to control sibilance.

Also, I may get a new frequency response chart configured for me by the designer who made the other ones, to reflect my change in sound signature preference. I'll of course share it here on Head-Fi when I have the completed design.

 

[HiFlight]

Another update :

Unfortunately, I'm returning the Flare R2Pro. I'm not even certain these are the correct item anyways. Audio Sanctuary still is listing the product for sale on their website, despite not actually having them for sale, as the pair I have they supposedly had to locate and found as a demo pair that doesn't even have the l/r markings. My mother is going to try getting the return shipment costs reimbursed.

I've had much better experiences trading with individuals here on Head-Fi than I have from supposedly reputable merchants here. The few individuals I've traded with have been very honest, courteous, and responsive in the process of working out arrangements. Yet the merchants I've bought from have sent me very questionable conditioned items and have given me the run around on returns.

For instance, I had a miserable experience buying from MusicaAcoustics back around winter 2016, who sent me the Ortofon E-Q8 without supplying me the instruction manual, kept apologizing for it claiming they were going to send it, but over a year later I still don't have it. I rarely use the Ortofon earphones now because I don't know how to maintain the earphones being they are a unique item I don't want to break. Since MusicaAcoustics refused to refund me without a huge restocking fee, I still have them. So, if anyone is interested in purchasing them from me, you can send a pm to me. I'd be interested in trading them for a real Flare R2Pro, if someone wants to and has photos showing l/r markings and a box for them.

Otherwise, I may try getting the Unique Melody ME1. Brooko posted a frequency response chart of them, which back up alot of the reviews I've read showing a forward midrange with increased lower treble. While I really like the R2A I have, Flare could tune the lower treble a bit more detailed, but without increasing the upper treble such as with the FlaresPro.

I'm still encouraging Flare to consider making a product with the lesser bass quantity that is great about the R2A, along with the R2A's (and the FlarePro's) great forward vocals, but with an enhanced lower treble, while pushing back on upper treble to control sibilance.

Also, I may get a new frequency response chart configured for me by the designer who made the other ones, to reflect my change in sound signature preference. I'll of course share it here on Head-Fi when I have the completed design.

Based on your frequency response preferences and listening preferences that you posted, perhaps the Campfire Audio Orion would be a good match for you. Less bass emphasis than the Flares and flawless mids without any upper treble sibilance.

 

[Arysyn]

Based on your frequency response preferences and listening preferences that you posted, perhaps the Campfire Audio Orion would be a good match for you. Less bass emphasis than the Flares and flawless mids without any upper treble sibilance.

Thank you for the suggestion. I definitely prefer less bass, though my concern from balanced armature drivers, as I found out with the Ortofon and Grado iems I have, while they do wonders for instrumental music and also have a more forward vocal presentation, the vocals seem lacking of enough power to me, they are more shallow sounding in body than dynamic driver iems I've listened to.

Flare Audio, so far, has produced the closest to my preferences I've heard, along with the HiFiMan RE00 that seems to have an alternating vocal forwardness/lower treble detail in comparison with Flare Audio. The RE00 and the R2A I've received through trades here on Head-Fi have been the best I've heard in audio out of many products. I would love to combine the features of them both into one iem. So far though, I'm pretty intrigued by the ME1.

 

[LuckyNat]

You did say earlier that your preferences have changed. Perhaps after listening to something different to what you normally listen to, you will be surprised and your preferences will change again!

I recommend not going into these things with too many ideals in one's head - it encourages one to search out disatisfaction in my opinion.

Sorry to hear of your experiences trying to buy the R2Pros! I can't imagine why a merchant would sell you something that they hadn't tested and didn't seem to know was only a prototype... sounds like they may be a company that carries minimal stock. Here in the UK, by law all the problems you had were the responsibility of the Merchant to deal with and not Flare Audio.

 

[Arysyn]

You did say earlier that your preferences have changed. Perhaps after listening to something different to what you normally listen to, you will be surprised and your preferences will change again!

I recommend not going into these things with too many ideals in one's head - it encourages one to search out disatisfaction in my opinion.

Sorry to hear of your experiences trying to buy the R2Pros! I can't imagine why a merchant would sell you something that they hadn't tested and didn't seem to know was only a prototype... sounds like they may be a company that carries minimal stock. Here in the UK, by law all the problems you had were the responsibility of the Merchant to deal with and not Flare Audio.

Very true about Flare not being directly at fault. I do wonder why Flare made this product as they did, unless at some point the l/r markings were removed by the store or whoever had them. At this point though, I wouldn't recommend Audio Sanctuary to anyone. Despite their efforts to assist, there were just so much that went wrong with this purchase it really deserves to be dealt with in a better way regarding resolution.

I wasn't happy with MusicaAcoustics back in winter 2016 with the missing instruction manual I still don't have and the rudeness in their responses toward my inquiries, but at least the product itself is fine. Still makes me skeptical about resellers. Buying directly from Flare was much easier. Unfortunately Flare doesn't have the R2Pro anymore, otherwise I'd buy it. I do think Flare, despite being a small company, ought to have a small stock of them in the rare case of warranty claims in the short amount of time there may be left from the last purchases of the R2Pro. Although, I'm not sure exactly when they stopped being sold, but wasn't it in Spring 2017?

Regarding my preferences, I ought to note that it wasn't so much a change of preference, but more of a realization I had my preferences misunderstood in terms of how I would describe to others about being a major treble enthusiast. That definition I'd tell people was wrong. At the time though I really didn't know. As I understood, the detail, speed, airyness of treble couldn't be too much, and I denied sibilance even being a true factor in audio, but rather I deemed it as some people just having sensitive hearing. I tried not being a jerk about it though, especially as my dislike for heavy bass in music was more of an issue to me than my preference for treble.

Essentially, while I could forgive a person in avoiding a debate about treble having a potential downside in music, I'd be much less tolerable towards bass addicts, if they made a case for bass being so outright important in music. Having a bass preference is fine, but there are those who believe such and such sound signature must be the way people listen to music, which of course is a bad judgment to place upon music listeners.

Again, everyone has their right of preference, but when bassheads push that agenda, which not all do, obviously, but there are some I've encountered. That is when I'll try reasoning with them as fairly I can, but admittedly it can get to a point when they are making an impassioned case for why they believe audio naturally ought to be tuned for bass preference.

When this happened, I'd usually counter with my preference for treble being above the bass in terms of the structure. What has changed is that ever since my experience with the FlaresPro, I realized the negative in treble from the upper treble, while also discovering how valuable a more forward vocal range is in the music I listen to, which the FlaresPro really brought to light, not just the negative issue of the upper treble tuning that ruined listening to some of that music.

So now I no longer state the former focus I had on treble when discussing sound signature preferences with others. Instead, I separate the lower treble from the upper treble when describing my interests, along with now mentioning the vocal range as a very important factor to be forward in my preference. Both forward, enveloping, and 3d-like, with no recess in the vocals at all, not at all 'veiled' sounding.

I welcome any recommendations and suggestions for iems from others who think a particular product is worth listening to. I wouldn't mind loaners either, so long as I'm not expected to keep the product in exchange for a review. I really don't like having the expectation to review a product a manufacturer is giving for free.

 

[LuckyNat]

If I were designing a product, as a small manufacturer especially, I would favour clean lines in my design over any obvious markings for left and right. They were discretely placed on the splitter that came with every pair. And of course the owner could mark them up in any way they wanted, I used different coloured tips . On my other pair, I swapped out the cable for one with a microphone on the left side. I like the cable colour difference on the Flares now, that seems the best solution to me.

Again as a small manufacturer, you might want to make sure you had no excess stock of old products and instead sold it all to third parties, local businesses around the world to provide that extra service. Depends on ones outlook.. but then if you believe your new product is much better then you would also feel you were helping your customers by pushing them to the new one for a better quality of life via sound..

 

[paul2qute]

I received my flare pro the other day,just waiting to get my Hugo 2 which comes this morning,the Bluetooth sounds quite good but what's with the lack of volume ?Disappointed it won't go louder

 

[Arysyn]

I received my flare pro the other day,just waiting to get my Hugo 2 which comes this morning,the Bluetooth sounds quite good but what's with the lack of volume ?Disappointed it won't go louder

There seems to be a favorable view of the bluetooth function of the FlaresPro by many I've read mention it. I didn't try the bluetooth when I had it since I'm not planning on trying bluetooth again until 5.0 products with AptX HD become more mainstream and available. I wasn't impressed with the quality of older bluetooth.

I'm probably going to try getting the Unique Melody ME2 and making the one particular treble adjustment via EQ Head-Fi member Brooko recommended in his review. I'd really like to see Flare try a similar Planar iem that I'd be very interested in trying also, especially with Flare's great forward vocal quality.

 

[HiFlight]

There seems to be a favorable view of the bluetooth function of the FlaresPro by many I've read mention it. I didn't try the bluetooth when I had it since I'm not planning on trying bluetooth again until 5.0 products with AptX HD become more mainstream and available. I wasn't impressed with the quality of older bluetooth.

I'm probably going to try getting the Unique Melody ME2 and making the one particular treble adjustment via EQ Head-Fi member Brooko recommended in his review. I'd really like to see Flare try a similar Planar iem that I'd be very interested in trying also, especially with Flare's great forward vocal quality.

I use the bluetooth adapter with my Flares probably 3/4 of the time. Excellent SQ. Although the adapter is not overly powerful, I can always get my desired listening level and more by using my source volume control in addition to the adapter control.

 

[holden4th]

I'm still waiting for a pair to become available second hand....

 

[Arysyn]

I use the bluetooth adapter with my Flares probably 3/4 of the time. Excellent SQ. Although the adapter is not overly powerful, I can always get my desired listening level and more by using my source volume control in addition to the adapter control.

I remembered your mentioning of the Bluetooth quality being pretty good on the FlaresPro. The FP seems to be a good pair for that, and ought to be a consideration for those wanting a good wireless unit. I'm still not quite convinced on Bluetooth though, at least until reviews start describing products using Bluetooth 5 with either regular aptx or aptx hd. Then I might be more willing to give it a try. If Flare ever has an updated model, I'll consider it too.

 

[HiFlight]

I remembered your mentioning of the Bluetooth quality being pretty good on the FlaresPro. The FP seems to be a good pair for that, and ought to be a consideration for those wanting a good wireless unit. I'm still not quite convinced on Bluetooth though, at least until reviews start describing products using Bluetooth 5 with either regular aptx or aptx hd. Then I might be more willing to give it a try. If Flare ever has an updated model, I'll consider it too.

You should give it a try rather than dismissing it without an evaluation with lossless music files. The included balanced adapter does a fine job!

 

[paul2qute]

I ordered the audiophile ear tips from flare ,they come in a pack of three pairs ,they told me on the phone that they are better quality than the ones that come in the box and will last longer,they seem much better to me,not in sound but as in wear and tear

 

[Arysyn]

You should give it a try rather than dismissing it without an evaluation with lossless music files. The included balanced adapter does a fine job!

I'm definitely not being critical of the FlaresPro Bluetooth feature, and I recognize that many have, including you, mentioned it being very good. With that said, my issue is not with the FlaresPro Bluetooth, but rather Bluetooth in general. I'm just not impressed with the sound quality of Bluetooth I've listened to on other earphones, and have decided to wait until Bluetooth 5 aptx or aptx hd devices become available.

One particular device I'm waiting for, is the Sony XZ Pro/Premium 2 or whatever Sony names their 4k flagship phone this year, which certainly will have Bluetooth 5 on the Snapdragon 845. So, all I'll need to do is research for the high quality aptx models that are not full of bass. Its why I'd really like to see Flare have a Bluetooth 5 updated model, though thats not to say there is anything particularly wrong with the FlaresPro Bluetooth. Again, its my noticing differences between Bluetooth 4 and the 3.5mm input that has me avoiding Bluetooth until the wider bandwidth Bluetooth 5 has supporting models using aptx.