[Ethereal Sound]

I am seriously considering the flare golds but I really wish I could have auditioned them prior. It does seem like a great deal but it's still a decent amount of money.

 

[holden4th]

It's a brilliant deal and I wish that I could have been in your position as my Golds cost a hell of a lot more. Don't hesitate!

 

[Jonathan Dunham]

These are all great value at the moment! Those who have older models though shouldn't feel too stressed that the Pro 2 or Gold is massively better and you must upgrade. They really aren't. One can only tweak the balance of an IEM when you're using the same driver on each one. And the Gold material per se can not do anything for the sound, its just making it look more expensive! You can't squeeze any more resolution out with a different enclosure, obviously you can make some frequencies more pronounced than others, but that is just perception. Fundamentally they are all the same IEM.

My personal opinion on these is that you can change the balance more easily by changing the tips rather the swapping the models. For me though the best ones are still the Flare Audiophile ones, of the 5-6 others I've tried.

 

[Jackpot77]

These are all great value at the moment! Those who have older models though shouldn't feel too stressed that the Pro 2 or Gold is massively better and you must upgrade. They really aren't. One can only tweak the balance of an IEM when you're using the same driver on each one. And the Gold material per se can not do anything for the sound, its just making it look more expensive! You can't squeeze any more resolution out with a different enclosure, obviously you can make some frequencies more pronounced than others, but that is just perception. Fundamentally they are all the same IEM.

My personal opinion on these is that you can change the balance more easily by changing the tips rather the swapping the models. For me though the best ones are still the Flare Audiophile ones, of the 5-6 others I've tried.

I agree the margins are small between all three models, but I'd say housing material can make a change to the overall sound quality.

Different housings and surfaces will resonate differently, introducing a different tonality and potentially distortion or interference with the sound wave being produced by the driver. This is easier to hear on over-ear headphones; models like the Massdrop TH-X00 or the ZMF models use different wood for the driver enclosure to vary the sound signature.

Not 100% convinced by the gold plating, but the main shell of the Gold is actually made it of brass rather than titanium, so that will be a different set of resonance characteristics altogether.

Very difficult to differentiate SQ from tuning, but maybe the tuning of the Gold is done in such a way that it eliminates some masking in the frequency response somewhere.

Any way you slice it, to my ears, the Gold is a slight improvement on the Pro 2, but I definitely think the Pro 2 is very close, making it a no brainer for the original price differential.

 

[Jonathan Dunham]

I agree the margins are small between all three models, but I'd say housing material can make a change to the overall sound quality.

Different housings and surfaces will resonate differently, introducing a different tonality and potentially distortion or interference with the sound wave being produced by the driver. This is easier to hear on over-ear headphones; models like the Massdrop TH-X00 or the ZMF models use different wood for the driver enclosure to vary the sound signature.

Not 100% convinced by the gold plating, but the main shell of the Gold is actually made it of brass rather than titanium, so that will be a different set of resonance characteristics altogether.

Very difficult to differentiate SQ from tuning, but maybe the tuning of the Gold is done in such a way that it eliminates some masking in the frequency response somewhere.

Any way you slice it, to my ears, the Gold is a slight improvement on the Pro 2, but I definitely think the Pro 2 is very close, making it a no brainer for the original price differential.

 

[Jonathan Dunham]

It depends on what you mean by "sound quality". But I'm almost certain given the size and shape of those enclosures together with average driver output levels that you couldn't measure any difference in the resonance characteristics between the Pro and Gold's. There are differences in those metals of course in density, attenuation, longitudinal velocity etc but at the level the drivers are capable of generating, there is going to be very little impact. If you could get a CSD plot of the two, again you'd find there's really very little in it. The surface of the enclosure (output, port and internal chamber) is important of course but again you could get the same on the gold plate as the titanium so again there would be little measurable difference.

The metallurgy of the drivers is much more important and undoubtedly the reason that Flare use Beryllium in these IEM's. Beryllium has the highest break up frequency and best attenuation of all commonly available materials.

If we're talking about enclosures for over the head or normal speakers then of course enclosure material is much more important. But for an IEM, much less so.

And so I'd maintain the differences in enclosure metallurgy are there more for marketing purposes than any other!

 

[scheiderichdmd]

I pulled the trigger on the Golds after reading this thread. I was torn between the RHA CL2 and these, but when I saw the sale, I jumped on it. I haven't really upgraded IEM's for years, so I'm hoping to be blown away. I'm still using Monster Miles Davis Trumpets (pretty good in there own right), and Yamaha EPH-100. I'll be using these either Bluetooth, or with my Mojo.
Do they really get shipped to the states within 3 days with DHL like they say on their website? That would be great. Hopefully I'll be able to offer my own impressions later this week!

 

[Yevgen Chupak]

Hey guys. Pls welcome another user with flares pro (price was too god not to get those)

Few questions.

1. Bluetooth module volume is to low... It fills like volume stopped at 50% and that's it. is it my version only or this is a feature not a bug?
2. Highs are bit piercing. I have a test song (sting Mylene Farmer - Stollen Car) Anything can be done to calm down that peak at 5-6khz? Pads change won't help.
3. They are hard to drive. I have LG v20 and im maxing my volume to hear it on the lvl i like... is it only me?

Anyhow i really glad to get those... Probably the best IEMs under 500$

 

[scheiderichdmd]

I just got my new golds today, and am excited to put them through the paces. Still breaking in, but initial impressions are very good. When I get chills listening to music I've heard many times before, it's a good sign!

 

[dannyking]

Hey guys. Pls welcome another user with flares pro (price was too god not to get those)

Few questions.

1. Bluetooth module volume is to low... It fills like volume stopped at 50% and that's it. is it my version only or this is a feature not a bug?
2. Highs are bit piercing. I have a test song (sting Mylene Farmer - Stollen Car) Anything can be done to calm down that peak at 5-6khz? Pads change won't help.
3. They are hard to drive. I have LG v20 and im maxing my volume to hear it on the lvl i like... is it only me?

Anyhow i really glad to get those... Probably the best IEMs under 500$

1.) For me too. I find the volume with the bluetooth low, compared to it wired. However compared to my Atlas, even the wired sounds low.

2.) for the highs, I cut a tiny bit of foam (from the foam tips that come with the VE Monks earphones) and stuck it inside the hole and that did the trick. I am extremely sensitive to sibilance so I couldn't really stand the flares pro without it.

They are probably the best IEMs under $500, maybe even above that.

 

[dannyking]

Hey People,

I am looking to trade my Flares pro for a good dac if anyone is interested. I'm interested in dacs like the chord mojo, oppo HA 2, ifi xDSD or any other good dacs out there. If you have something that isn't a dac that you might want to trade with, I would also be open to hearing you out. The sennheiser HD700 is also among my interests. I recently got the campfire audio Atlas so my use for the flares have been limited. I would prefer trading but if you want to buy them outright, let me know too.

Thanks.

 

[Ziggomatic]

I've had the Pro 2 for about a week after getting a used set from @Victorfabius (thank, dude!), and I just today realized they are the best sounding IEMs I've ever owned. The only issue at first was some serious sizzle up top, but that was tamed prefectly with the stock foams. Super impressed.

 

[Bananiq]

So they just released a new model: Flare® PRO 2HD
yes... they added "HD" to the name, so we know it has never been HD untill now....
anyways they look real big somehow...and kept ugly Y-splitter
and my beloved old R2A and Pro1 are discontinued, and stopping their repair support as well :'(
my only chance is to wait till 2HD will be on clearance sale as well - or £100 discount on first 100 sales.. hmmm.. nah

 

[jaker782]

So they just released a new model: Flare® PRO 2HD
yes... they added "HD" to the name, so we know it has never been HD untill now....
anyways they look real big somehow...and kept ugly Y-splitter
and my beloved old R2A and Pro1 are discontinued, and stopping their repair support as well :'(
my only chance is to wait till 2HD will be on clearance sale as well - or £100 discount on first 100 sales.. hmmm.. nah

A little faster than I thought, but definitely saw this coming! Is anyone else disappointed in the choice to use the same cabling system as previous offerings? In my opinion, this is the big sore thumb of these iems and honestly the main reason I ended up selling mine! I guess I was hoping for some updates with a fully removable cable as I don't really care about the wireless dac and prefer to use balanced aftermarket cables.

 

[Bananiq]

Yes I agree... just a bit of listening to community feedback would be nice....