[Hi-Fi'er]

  The FLC8S with the gold filter

Are they very forward or just average?

 

[Whaleshark12]

  Are they very forward or just average?

It's forward but not the "into your face" that kind of sound. It still sounds pretty airy. Which I think is pretty good!

 

[audio123]

It's forward but not the "into your face" that kind of sound. It still sounds pretty airy. Which I think is pretty good!

controlled upper mids

 

[Whaleshark12]

controlled upper mids

Yea, thanks for correcting. Been using the Nova for about few weeks. Now back to FLC just feel so airy. (Or probably I'm not used to warm iem)

 

[audio123]

Yea, thanks for correcting. Been using the Nova for about few weeks. Now back to FLC just feel so airy. (Or probably I'm not used to warm iem) :rolleyes:

yes I get you which is why Nova didn't appeal to me as compared to Andromeda but Nova is highly technical without a doubt

 

[ezekiel77]

  Oh my.
 
So after my first pair of FLC8S blew a gasket (literally) I decided on a whim to jump on the QT5 hype train, which derailed brutally, wounding nearly everyone aboard. Immense buyer's remorse set in immediately, and was exacerbated by $80 I lost on shipping & handling charges—money I didn't exactly have laying around, stuffed in mattresses. I realized my mistake and went back to the FLC8S, which I never should have abandoned in the first place. My new pair arrived yesterday morning.
 

 
I too, am one of those burned haha. Exchanged them for a SW3 which is way better for my preferences.
 
The FLC8 has tonality and balance hard to beat for its price. Still one the best all-rounders in my opinion. Where the SW3 is fun, FLC8 is more mature and "audiophile", so depends on what you listen to. I like both equally.

 

[Whaleshark12]

yes I get you which is why Nova didn't appeal to me as compared to Andromeda but Nova is highly technical without a doubt

Have you tried the Jupiter? I heard it was slightly brighter  .

 

[audio123]

Have you tried the Jupiter? I heard it was slightly brighter  .

i have heard the whole CA range already, dont like the Jupiter at all (personal preference). Only CA iems that I like are Orion and Andromeda

 

[canali]

looking forward to receiving the FLC 8S in the next few weeks.
 
there are so many good iems under $500 nowadays that it makes you wonder if you
really need to join the $1k Club (yet i'm sure they're superior as i haven't heard any...
but for $1000 or more i'd prefer to spend on cans or a nice desktop unit, which i 'm still trying to investigate
that's just me).
 
i mean  even the Vsonics GR07 BE is a fab little unit...along with the FLC 8S,... the Dunu Titan series, Dunu 2000j
Fidue a83, Sony 7550 ....the  Cardas a8 has a lot of love (actually when i was in demoing
the dragonfly red and mojo at a local shop, i saw the cardas a8 on the wall and asked about them.
the owner sells a lot of $$$ JH audio iems: layla, angies, etc, yet the cardas a8 were
among his favs as great bang for the buck.)

 

[audio123]

  looking forward to receiving the FLC 8S in the next few weeks.
 
there are so many good iems under $500 nowadays that it makes you wonder if you
really need to join the $1k Club (yet i'm sure they're superior as i haven't heard any...
but for $1000 or more i'd prefer to spend on cans or a nice desktop unit, which i 'm still trying to investigate
that's just me).
 
i mean  even the Vsonics GR07 BE is a fab little unit...along with the FLC 8S,... the Dunu Titan series, Dunu 2000j
Fidue a83, Sony 7550 ....the  Cardas a8 has a lot of love (actually when i was in demoing
the dragonfly red and mojo at a local shop, i saw the cardas a8 on the wall and asked about them.
the owner sells a lot of $$$ JH audio iems: layla, angies, etc, yet the cardas a8 were
among his favs as great bang for the buck.)

its really worth the jump i must say

 

[yellowbirdfly]

Oh my.

So after my first pair of FLC8S blew a gasket (literally) I decided on a whim to jump on the QT5 hype train, which derailed brutally, wounding nearly everyone aboard. Immense buyer's remorse set in immediately, and was exacerbated by $80 I lost on shipping & handling charges—money I didn't exactly have laying around, stuffed in mattresses. I realized my mistake and went back to the FLC8S, which I never should have abandoned in the first place. My new pair arrived yesterday morning.

Why did I ever cheat on them? What was wrong with me!? These things are incredible! Their clarity, spaciousness, transparency, and effortless reproduction of everything I throw at them is unparalleled among my collection. They're relaxed when you want them to be and vibrantly dynamic when it's called for. Instrumental separation is nothing short of astounding, and the best part is that they are, bar none, the most comfortable IEMs I have ever used in my life. I pulled them out of the box with the default tips equipped, popped them in, and realized immediately that I could barely feel them at all. The FLC8S are so light, ergonomic, and gentle on my ears that when I lay back and close my eyes I can completely forget that I'm wearing headphones at all: the music just seems to be emanating from the air around my head—outside of my head—and flowing through my ears like water.

What an incredible experience!

Last night, while drifting off to Lunatic Soul's "Suspended in Whiteness" on infinite repeat, I felt like I was sinking into a sonic lake. Waves of sound lapped at my fingertips while I floated gently across the song's ethereal beauty. I inhaled, released, and sank beneath the surface, rising and falling in perfect synchronicity with the cadence. 

I awoke hours later with the IEMs still secured in my ears. They were every bit as comfortable as they had been when I'd first plugged them in.

Wow.

Yeah, these things are pretty much an insane value. I'd like to apologize to FLC for having jumped ship over a tiny defect that nobody else has reported. I was wrong. Please forgive me. I'm back, and I'm sorry. I won't ever cheat on you again.

---

I'm also impressed at how FLC has clearly taken our feedback seriously and improved the design already. My first pair of 8S had fairly useless heat shrink wrap as a y-splitter and cable cinch. This pair has proper components made of matching blue plastic, and the cinch has exactly the right amount of grip to it. It makes the total package just that much sexier. I've also noticed they cleaned up their user manual and improved the English grammar and spelling. Huge kudos for taking the time and effort, FLC!

My new pair has noticeable driver flex and a few minor imperfections in the cable (imperfect twisting and one side is about a centimeter longer above the y-split), so FLC clearly has some room for improvement; however, these look, feel, and sound like I would imagine a flagship product ought to.

Excellent write-up! Your thoughts echo mine completely. They are just that amazing, and I will never let go of mine for a long time. I did have the problem with the gasket breaking or sinking in too, but chose not to report it because LMUE were kind enough to replace it with a brand new set (twice, in fact!). Now I've just been extremely careful when changing sub-bass filter so as not to break/sink the gasket.

 

[canali]

its really worth the jump i must say

Oh im sure if you can appreciate it, and have the skillsets, which i clearly dont...So which ones? Andromeda?

 

[audio123]

Oh im sure if you can appreciate it, have the skillsets, which i clearly dont...So which ones? Andromeda?

yeap flc8s is a good iem to show you the right direction when you jump to totl category.

 

[dlayman]

  its really worth the jump i must say

I think the answer to that depends on each individual.  A tripling of purchase price of the FLC8S isn't going to give you any where near 3 times the sound quality, maybe 5% better if I had to put a number on it.  It might produce a much DIFFERENT sound, but not one much better.  That may still be worth it to some people, but it isn't to me.  Too many other things to spend money on, both out of necessity and to enjoy, and I think a lot of others are in the same boat.

 

[Djinnenjous]

Excellent write-up! Your thoughts echo mine completely. They are just that amazing, and I will never let go of mine for a long time. I did have the problem with the gasket breaking or sinking in too, but chose not to report it because LMUE were kind enough to replace it with a brand new set (twice, in fact!). Now I've just been extremely careful when changing sub-bass filter so as not to break/sink the gasket.

I think for me the solution will be either to simply never remove the red sub-filter (which I love and prefer), or to very rarely do so. I've found that the sub-filter is very difficult to replace with tips and the nozzle inserted, as they force the edge of my rather large fingers away from the center of the filter port. Removing both tip and nozzle filter first makes this a bit easier.
 
I'm glad LMUE has been so helpful to you. I ordered mine through Amazon via LMUE so I had no problem with a return. I do hope that FLC fixes their QC issues, though; last I'd heard, I was the only person who had reported this gasket issue, and although it's a very small imperfection I am disproportionately bothered by the uneven cord length above my y-split.
 
Still, I love these things. I just wish I could find tips in the same gray-blue color so the entire things matched.