[Paulnguy3]

So, perhaps I'll keep the golds and 2HDs and sell on my Pro and Pro2 (whatever terrible money I'll get for them...).

Would be interested in the Pro2 if you plan on letting them go. Hopefully at a not so terrible price.

 

[chickenmoon]

Flare is selling some new open box Flares Pro for £99 on eBay at the moment. I bought one yesterday.

 

[Sathindra]

Flare is selling some new open box Flares Pro for £99 on eBay at the moment. I bought one yesterday.

Can you give me the link? I can't seems to find it.

 

[chickenmoon]

Can you give me the link? I can't seems to find it.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Flare-Au...690600?hash=item2f2ecd9fa8:g:8XwAAOSwM6VcneH1

 

[LuckyNat]

Thats interesting, something else they're selling (old stock) looks like the driver they used in their R1 over-ear headphones ages ago: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dayton-A...32-Black-32Ohm-in-400-count-box-/192870767966

I have a pair and want to upgrade the drivers to something much better..

 

[Sathindra]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Flare-Au...690600?hash=item2f2ecd9fa8:g:8XwAAOSwM6VcneH1

Thanks for the link. Too bad, they only ship to UK

 

[awayeah]

I've just received a third pair of PRO2HD (the frist 2 had visual flaws and some imbalance). And they've actually sent me pair with even worse visual flaw - first two had stains, this one has stain and a scratch. Apparently 4 people, including director. personally inspected and none saw what was apparant to me 2 seconds after unboxing...

How are your Flares, visually? No stains?

I know it's nothing major - but how 4 people can miss that? It's just a picture of the scratch, there's also stain on front - you can see part of that here as well.

 

[Gabriel Sontag]

Yeah, see the two spots, I wouldn't care nearly as much if I didn't know that underneath the coating is a darker metal, both spots look like a coating issue but one shows what should be

<i>underlying</i>

metal, not visible... Further, the Bluetooth module I received was faulty: the right channel constantly crackles, it is bad enough that I have to use wired... I wish that I received a reply to the visual issues, but I only received a reply to the one referencing the module (I noticed the module immediately, it wasn't until I looked over the outside after seeing that some people had issues, probably would have been fine if I never noticed, but...)

On the bright side they do sound amazingly accurate, on recordings meant for headphones (ie. a soundstage recorded in properly, if you have these listen to mqa recordings by eluvietie, and the only album by Grace vanderwaal) they sound awesome, however they do make garbage recordings obvious, if only by contrast to what can be done with quality...

 

[Gabriel Sontag]

I've just received a third pair of PRO2HD (the frist 2 had visual flaws and some imbalance). And they've actually sent me pair with even worse visual flaw - first two had stains, this one has stain and a scratch. Apparently 4 people, including director. personally inspected and none saw what was apparant to me 2 seconds after unboxing...

How are your Flares, visually? No stains?

I know it's nothing major - but how 4 people can miss that? It's just a picture of the scratch, there's also stain on front - you can see part of that here as well.

I see it right behind the the beginning of where the tip would be right?

I've just received a third pair of PRO2HD (the frist 2 had visual flaws and some imbalance). And they've actually sent me pair with even worse visual flaw - first two had stains, this one has stain and a scratch. Apparently 4 people, including director. personally inspected and none saw what was apparant to me 2 seconds after unboxing...

How are your Flares, visually? No stains?

I know it's nothing major - but how 4 people can miss that? It's just a picture of the scratch, there's also stain on front - you can see part of that here as well.

Right behind where the tip should be there is a curved line/scratch, looks more like a score than a scratch, bit to wide and smooth

 

[LuckyNat]

I've not even looked this closely at my pair, not once in the two weeks or so I've had them and I hadn't any intention to *ever* do so. I also see smudges from fingers in that photo that are more apparent than the two marks that are being talked about... giving a sense of perspective.

And you're saying the previous 2 pairs had flaws that were even less apparent?? Is there a facepalm emoji on this site? I guess it's your energy to spend on what you wish, although it's not fair to expect others to do so - I think this is well beyond a consumer rights issue (other than the bluetooth module problem) and Flare are being generous.

 

[Jonathan Dunham]

I wonder if Flare's quality control is not as good as it should be on the new IEM's.

Looking at the 2HD and the pictures of them I can see the machining marks in the brass under the rhodium plating. I've not seen those types of flaw on the titanium bodied models, certainly mine seem pretty flawless and well polished or at least very finely machined.

I'd be really interested to know why Flare went to a plated base metal instead of using titanium. Maybe its a cost issue? The 2HD info on the site seems to infer that the rhodium plate gives a "super-slick and flawless mirror finish" but I do wonder if that's really better than polished titatium. Titanium is harder than both rhodium and gold plate, at least grade 5 is anyway.

I can't really see if those scratches or stains on those above are very sever or not, I'd need to see them in the flesh. But that doesn't look too good does it?!

 

[Gabriel Sontag]

I've not even looked this closely at my pair, not once in the two weeks or so I've had them and I hadn't any intention to *ever* do so. I also see smudges from fingers in that photo that are more apparent than the two marks that are being talked about... giving a sense of perspective.

Yeah, my problem is that it looks like the coating of rhodium is way to thin in at least a couple spots, true right now they aren't much to look at due to size, however the metal underneath is a softer metal and I am afraid the missing patch (little brown spot) is simply the thinnest patch that signals the whole area being thin (metal is opaque after all) I can't see through any significant thickness of metal, but a patch simply missing in a roughly circular spot to me indicates a gradual curve with a center, so yes visibly not terrible, then again I know the information that I can see is limited,
I care far more about the Bluetooth module, that is a serious issue, mostly since I have to scale up to a decent dac in order to pass it, and wireless is convenient, also it's not user replaceable, the right channel constantly crackles even when not paired to a device...

 

[LuckyNat]

(Should have inserted a quote here... to make it clear who I was replying to)

It's about plating. Same with the Golds. If you want the smoother surfaces for the jets and plating is the answer to this, you have to use certain metals for the metalergy of plating to work.

Also brass is more dense than titanium which gives different accoustic properties. Although I think those claims are probably thought up aftewards..

How does one polish the titanium inside? I don't think it would be possible in a sensible, practical way..

 

[Jackpot77]

A few IEM manufactures who CNC titanium for use in their shells have commented previously that is an absolute b@#£&-d to work with. Expensive, and wears down the drill bits quicker due to the extreme hardness.

Suspect that may have something to do with the choice of brass underneath, unless that's integral to the plating.

Had a chance to compare to the Pro 2, and while it isn't night and day (to coin a phrase people like to use on these forums), whatever they have done to the internal tuning and design is definitely worthwhile for me from a sonic point of view.

 

[Jonathan Dunham]

(Should have inserted a quote here... to make it clear who I was replying to)

It's about plating. Same with the Golds. If you want the smoother surfaces for the jets and plating is the answer to this, you have to use certain metals for the metalergy of plating to work.

Also brass is more dense than titanium which gives different accoustic properties. Although I think those claims are probably thought up aftewards..

How does one polish the titanium inside? I don't think it would be possible in a sensible, practical way..

Of course, for plating you have to use certain base metals, and brass is common for that.

As you also say though, its more dense than titanium. But actually I can't think of any reason whatsoever why using brass is a good thing apart from if you want to plate it. With an enclosure of that size and shape, resonance is not going to be an issue at all vs titanium. So yes in the same way that Sony used to quote brass as a winning enclosure material with questionable rationale, its really nothing more than marketing hype!

Surely also there's an advantage in having lighter IEM's than heavier, brass is twice the weight as titanium! The titanium Pro's feel great to wear, compared to a number of others I've used where weight is definitely a problem.

On the other area, titanium is no harder to polish than any other of the harder metals, machining may not be as easy as brass, but again no worse than other harder metals. There are many machine tools that have no problem with it.

On a related note, I've just bought a pair of those eBay Flares Pro, ostensibly to give me a spare pair of drivers and cables (especially as they are used in all of the Pro models at the moment). But actually, given the Flare claims for the Gold's and 2HD, I'm going to have them apart as soon as they come and will polish the enclosures and see if there's any benefit to that!