Gold has just arrived. First impression, yes, if you have problems with Pro's treble, these pretty much fix it. Initial impressions, the difference in sound may not be as pronounced as the difference in price, but the improvements that can be found there may still be very worth it for you.
I was thinking of selling my Pro prior to getting the Gold, but I'm not so sure now haha. I might miss the bites in the highs that could be perceived as harshness by some, sometimes those are exactly the spices I need on the music.
Hasn't listened enough to gather about other things, but I don't think you can go wrong with either IEM at least.
Unless you are clearly noticing a difference between left and right it's highly unlikely you have driver issues. The chances of both drivers having the same problem is pretty minimal in chance. Have you tried running a frequency sweep and checking for differences between left and right?
I think what you are noticing is your brain finally embedding to the earphones response. You have gone past the immediate wow factor and now your brain keeps homing in on the upper mids/lower treble spike that unfortunately has a very unnatural emphasis on the pro. This often happens with earphones that have odd tunings. Your brain tries to 'equalise' what you're hearing by comparing to what you think it should sound like and unfortunately it fails.
Fiberoptix, fyi... the issue with the harsher treble on the FlaresPro isn't in the lower treble, its in the upper treble. Prior to my getting the FlaresPro, I actually scoffed at the notion treble had harshness.
Example : the HiFiMan RE800. I had the HFM iem for a short time, which I bought partially on the basis of Head-Fi member Brooko having posted the frequency response graph for it. He seemed to like the iem, as did many in the thread for it, so seeing that it was well-liked and seemed close to my sound signature preference, I bought it. Even though despite there was one complaint frequent throughout that thread, which was the lower treble being harsher during cymbals.
When I received the iem and gave a good listen to it, I did not hear the issue at all with anything, not even my treble test track "Rivers of Belief", by Enigma, which became that to me after I noticed the issues with it from the FlaresPro. I returned the HiFiMan RE800 not because of treble, but ultimately because mine had more bass and recessed mids than others, which I didn't get a response to from HiFiMan, a company I've since read is notorious with QC issues.
Then I decided to go with my next choice, which was to try one of the few neutral tuned, lesser treble iems, which the Flare R2 would have fit in. To note here also, despite my issue with the HiFiMan RE800, I received the Massdrop HiFiMan RE00 from a very nice Head-Fi member I met shortly after I got the FlaresPro, which the RE00 turns out to be very close to my exacting wants in sound signature, and is a very good iem in its own merits. I think its tuning would have been much better for HiFiMan to have utilized for its flagship line, and its sound signature actually sounds like a less refined tuning of the FlaresGold, or at least somewhere between the Pro and the Gold.
The tuning I ended up thinking I'd have to 'adjust' to from any iem more refined than the RE00, would be to reduce my lower treble preferences and stick with neutral/less than neutral tuning all the way through. I like neutrality in tuning in most areas, but with a slightly mid-forwardness in the mids/vocals, and a bump higher in the lower treble. It was the treble I'd be sacrificing by going with the Flare R2 series, though its still great in the other areas in its tuning.
Yet at around the time after the HiFiMan RE800, when discovering the Flare thread that preceded this one (I created this thread by the encouragement of others there), I read about the FlaresPro and asked alot of questions, among requesting to Flare Audio for a frequency response graph of the FlaresPro, which they sent to me. Despite my showing this before, I'll post it again for reference. Here it is :
Compare that to the R2Pro, there definitely is a difference in treble tuning :
The moment I saw the frequency response graph of the FlaresPro, I didn't think much of the extended upper treble hump, as I never heard any harshness in treble before, neither from lower nor upper treble bumps, peaks, spikes, and whatnot. I had an attitude of "treble is great, better than bass, no matter what".
While I still prefer treble over bass, my interest has shifted towards neither, but rather the mids/vocals, as I was getting really tired of recessed vocals in dynamic driver iems, which until I get the opportunity to hear a natural, emotional sound balanced armature driver iem, I'm keeping to dynamic drivers, despite the rarity of mid and lower treble-focused iems.
Anyways, I listened to the FlaresPro and after hearing the harshness of the cymbals and tambourines on a few songs, including "Rivers of Belief" by Enigma, that would push those particular instruments so much forward, they'd overshadow the other instrumentals and even the vocals, while having too much glare/shimmer to what could also be considered as a metallic tinge to the sound.
Yet if there were a problem with the drivers on the FlaresPro I had, then I figure it would affect all music I'd listen to through it. However, it didn't. It only affected those particular sounds/areas of certain songs that otherwise play normally/perfectly fine on other iems, hence I knew it wasn't an issue with the recordings. Another thing, all the music I have are genuine FLAC files, absolutely nothing lossy. I don't even listen to MQA, despite my having the Meridian Explorer 2 dac and Tidal.
I gave the issue a good think, posted about it plenty of times in this thread - to which I received several helpful responses with good advice and met some nice people here from the communications. I was very glad to have such support to test out different possibilities to the problem, to which I discovered ultimately was in the upper treble tuning of the FlaresPro.
I went back to look at as many frequency response graphs I could find online of the iems I've listened to, none of them have the upper treble tuning anywhere near the FlaresPro, with the exception of the HiFiMan RE00, which gets very close in detail to the same frequency space/region as the FlaresPro, but just misses the point where it could become harsh.
There definitely is a spike there in the upper treble, though it isn't extended enough through the range perhaps to hit that sensitivity spot where the FlaresPro clearly does. I'd really like for Flare Audio to be more forthcoming with frequency response information on their website. Granted, I like the company alot and especially for the excellent tuning of the FlaresGold, but more information on their website regarding the sound tuning would be great for getting more customers.
Right now, currently the FlaresGold looks like an enigma product on the site, rather than as a clearly posted, upfront on the site product placement. The Isolates and the Snoozers even seem to get more recognition. As great of products they might be, and yes I know those are big sellers for Flare Audio, the name of the company signifies audio, so I'd hope their iems would have more of a prominent placement/appearance on their website, along with lots of detailed information that encourages purchases beyond just talking about dual jet technology, which isn't so clear either.
Otherwise, Flare Audio absolutely is doing something right by the amazing tuning of the FlaresGold. Which despite my issues with the FlaresPro treble, I'll say this : Its possible Flare Audio has tuned the FlaresPro that way, in order to make an easier transition towards their products for people so use to the "V-Shape" sound. While the FlaresPro bass is fairly excellebnt, it sounds a slight bit more than the R2 and the FlaresGold. Same with the treble.
So while the FlaresPro isn't necessarily V-Shaped, especially the vocals definitely not being recessed, it seems to have an edge to the bass and treble that may satisfy those fond of V-Shaped sound, all while introducing them to better mids/vocals. Whereas the FlaresGold remains as the defining iem of purity, neutrality in the bass, a boost in the midrange for vocal detail, along with the treble enhancement needed to help remedy the limits in space by the iem format.
