Arysyn
100+ Head-Fier
Arysyn, appreciate all the insight your providing on the flares gold but i’m torn with how HiFlight and you are describing these iems. My style of music is mostly new and old jazz and classic rock occasionally. Also i’m not a fan of the warm slanted sounding iem’s, i’m a big fan of somewhat neutral balanced sounds.
Quoted from HiFlight
“The Golds simply have a more visceral impact with fuller (not brighter or bassier) mids and highs that are somewhat similar to the Ety's but not as thin. Instrumental timbre and tonality of the Golds create that intangible sense of realism that I did not experience with my Etys, with the possible exception of the binaural recordings I made for use with my ER4B.”
I hear all of this with my etys er4s amped as you mention with the flaresgold, call me crazy if you will, maybe i’m best not to know how much better the sound can be over my etys. I get all the nice balanced sounds across the spectrum from deep tight, clean bass with plenty of body and depth, excellent mids and highs all with excellent imaging and separation. Plus, it sounds as close to real live studio quality music as you can find without being there in person. Maybe my technique and fitment with the insertion is getting the best out of these iem’s that no one else can get that’s making the difference. Like i said call me nuts for not believing that nothing can surpass the er4s sound. I can’t say i’m with the understanding how others describe the sound of the etys as lifeless and thin. I just don’t get that impression when properly inserted and running with a amp.
I wish there was a way to audition these FlaresGold out.
spinrite, based on what information you've written to me about here, I'm now quite confident you'll love the FlaresGold.
If you are concerned about the price, you can try to see if the coupon code GOLDEN still works. That takes a few hundred $ off the price. Then consider that Flare Audio gives a 30-day trial.
Also, what I can say is different between the Etymotic and the FlaresGold, is with all ba drivers I've heard, again they seem to lack depth of emotional dynamism in contrast to speed and a certain clarity I notice with ba drivers. You've got to keep in mind too, the FlaresGold are not the typical dynamic driver either. Most are bassy, veiled recessed mids, vocals seemingly hollow, then treble that can vary wildly from one dd iem to another.
The FlaresGold probably are the closest thing you'll find to an Etymotic in dd driver form. I know this because I've had several of the Etymotics. Actually I live about a 45 minute drive from their hq. They are quite nice too. Yet so are the people at Flare Audio, who gracefully accepted my FlaresPro back, because there is too much emphasis in the upper treble range. I went from thinking it was an error in tuning to thinking perhaps Flare deliberately made it that way to produce a slight V shape turn to it in order to capture the V shape enthusiasts over to Flare's more mid-centric sound.
However, the FlaresGold goes further away from the V-shape. Its less bassy than the FlaresGold and it has a lighter, yet still powerful treble - I suspect possibly Flare may have reduced the upper treble while increasing the lower treble from the FlaresPro, which would still give it great detail without as much harshness.
The other thing is, I'm not suggesting the FlaresPro had an inherent V-Shape. Not really. Its mire of their own twist, where instead of boosting the upper part of the bass and lower part of the treble, they went for the subbass and upper treble increase, which don't interfere as much in the mids, which definitely are not recessed on the FlaresPro. Again with the FlaresGold, those extensions are diminished, with the exception perhaps Flare may have increased the lower treble.
I won't know for sure until Flare gets their new testing equipment ready and updates me with the frequency response graph for the FlaresGold. I have one for the FlaresPro I'll share here, but remember - since you're an Ety fan, you are likely not to like the FlaresPro on the basis of conversion, since you're looking for something more similar. The FlaresGold are more for you.
Well, here is the FlaresPro frequency response graph. You can take what information I gave to you about the FlaresGold and figure what its measurements "might" be like based on this :