[shiftywxm]

It seems to be hard to fit, im waiting for my S model too

I wouldn't say that they're hard to fit. Probably the same as any iem to get the right fit for you with regards to getting the right size tips for you.

 

[Pepocoyo]

I wouldn't say that they're hard to fit. Probably the same as any iem to get the right fit for you with regards to getting the right size tips for you.

So, fitting is okish? Anw, that triangle faceplate a little bit weird
Can you give us some more impression sir? And a comparision with other iems you have?

 

[Haden2866]

My R model arrived a few days ago.

Early days - I'm still experimenting with tips; stock silicone with and without silicone putty (Mack's swimming earplugs) wrapped around the stem; Flare Audiophile Earfoams; MandarinEs Symbio W. All of these seems pretty good - all are quite wide-bored. I haven't found a set / size that is 100% fit 'n forget yet.

Get a good fit - twisting seems to help, and relax...

They sound awesome, to me. Treble is maybe a little safe - perhaps that will improve with some more hours on the drivers. Everything else is incredible - melt into the sound and the layers of texture and detail just keep on coming. Bass is everything I hoped it would be; folk are scared of it over on the Indiegogo forum.

Packaging is low-key - that gets a tick from me.
Cable is nice and discrete, seems well made - tick.
I'm struggling with the design, though - not loving the triangles or the way they stick out.
Bluetooth cable is functional, but seems like it's been built down to cost. My Bluetooth experience with these so far has been very good.

Good shout @Jackpot77 to swap L&R and wear them up. I have a high-purity copper balanced cable that I'm using that way - not enough hours on that yet to form an impression of whether it helps or hinders the overall presentation. Maybe a silver or hybrid cable might bring a little welcome sparkle to the table.

I anticipate spending a lot of time with these, so will report back.

 

[Haden2866]

The Symbio W's are winning at the moment.
I'm using M, but if I had them, I'd probably try out S first.

 

[SexAndManCity]

Looks like the first batch of perks have been shipped. Flare are being cagey about tracking, which is attracting some grief among the backers.

I'm excited for these - Flares Pro2 HD were my daily driver until the cable broke, so looking forward to detachable cables.

Flare occupy a funny place in the market - I wish they would engage the enthusiast community a bit more, but their marketing swings between pro audio testimonials and what someone described as a 'peppy' consumer pitch, with very little actual detail.

Still, let's see. I'm expecting a beryllium driver aluminium 'R' model.

FYI - contact Flare's support team and they'll replace the cable on your Flares Pro2 HD - possibly even for free (they did my R2S for only the cost of shipping it to them, don't even think I had to pay return shipping)

 

[SexAndManCity]

Had the EARS for over a week now, and have some initial thoughts (on the S model):

Sound is a natural evolution of where Flare started to go with the Flares Gold and Pro2HD, merged with the bolder and bassier sound of the E-Prototype. Bass is big but very textured and doesn't encroach on the higher frequencies. Clarity is excellent, pulling a lot of small details into the mix that can get buried or blurred on some IEMs I have.

Staging is large and enveloping, and overall the EARS are extremely immersive, pulling you in to the music very well.

The elephant in the room is the design. The actual barrel design is fine and comfortable, but they stick out from your ears write significantly, and the solid metal faceplate may be serving a purpose for the design, but in terms of economics it just adds a large amount of metal hanging off the rest of your IEMs that pulls them down and out of your ears when you are walking or moving around, especially so given that the "standard" fit is with the cable down. I have large ear cavities, and even with L foams, the fit isn't rock solid in terms of stability, so these lose seal easily and require constant adjustment for me. L in "cable down" mode.

I have discovered a better way to wear them for me - simply swap the cables on the L and R IEMs then swear then upside down in the ear. The channels are the same, the design is symmetrical so there are no fit issues and the cable then routes up and over the ear, helping to take the weight of the shell and keep the seal of the IEMs a lot easier when you agree moving around. To help further in this regard I have signed the tips out for some AZLA Xelastec (which basically glue the nozzles on my ear) and switched the cable for an ALO Audio SuperLitz, using the memory wire to aid in helping support the shell weight.

Sonically these are fantastic, but unless there is a rock solid reason for the outlandish design of the faceplate, that definitely feels like form over function for me here, and detracts from the otherwise excellent wearability and ergonomics of the rest of the housing design.

I believe they stated that the triangular design, in part, was to help people get the correct fit, i.e. ensuring they were wearing them at the correct angle etc.

 

[SexAndManCity]

Lordy. Again.

Dear Flare, please give us something that doesn't look like leftovers from a science experiment.

Best,

I suspect the 'old' design was probably just a render and potentially not achievable in the same way. I agree that they could protrude a lot less.

 

[SexAndManCity]

I got frustrated with a lot of the comments on the Indiegogo page, and I'm also looking for some good advice from dedicated enthusiasts, so I think I'll make the switch over here permanently and see if any of you guys can help!
Going to repost a question/poser that I posted over there about the Bluetooth cable being imbalanced and keep falling off my neck to one side:

How is everyone finding the Bluetooth cable? I haven’t used a neck-band like this for a while so I might not be the best to judge, but the lack of symmetry on the cable, with the controls high up on the right side, but the battery centred, so the left side is completely empty, keeps causing mine to slide off my right shoulder and pull tight against my left ear. (I suppose a clip or lanyard to take the weight off the cable might solve that.) *Actually yesterday, it slipped the other way, pulling the inline control behind my neck whilst on a call, and my Dad started shouting that he couldn't hear me (he gets very impatient with audio dropouts on any phone call!)

I’m wondering on several different possibilities:

1. Purchase a pair of short MMCX male to MMCX male cables and use the Bluetooth DAC from my Flares Pro – help sourcing would be appreciated
2. Purchase a Bluetooth DAC similar to the Flares Pro one but with MMCX connectors on the end, like the Shure RMCE-BT2 – potentially cheap-ish now that it’s a few years old but might be hard to find and reviews are so-so.
3. Purchase some over-ear TWS adapters with MMCX connectors like the Shure RMCE-TW2-EFS or the FiiO UTWS5 (V2.0) and try reversing the buds to accommodate the over ear design as suggested previously – Quite expensive at ~£100-£150 and unsure how well they'd fit
4. Use an existing Bluetooth DAC that I forgot I had, Nexum Aqua+, with the included 3.5mm cable and just coil it up and clip to my shirt or something – actually that option is free!
5. As above but try to purchase a shorter 3.5mm to MMCX cable to make it slightly sleeker – again, help sourcing would be appreciated
*6. A new suggestion by my wife: attach something of equal weight to the cable on the left hand side to balance it out!

Anyone care to wade in with any new suggestions or variations on anything I mentioned? Is there a clip on DAC like the Flares Pro One, better than the Shure RMCE-BT2? It does support BT Multipoint which I have come to like for work and I would prefer to stick to a minimum of BT 5.0 and also USB-C if possible.

 

[shiftywxm]

I got frustrated with a lot of the comments on the Indiegogo page, and I'm also looking for some good advice from dedicated enthusiasts, so I think I'll make the switch over here permanently and see if any of you guys can help!
Going to repost a question/poser that I posted over there about the Bluetooth cable being imbalanced and keep falling off my neck to one side:

How is everyone finding the Bluetooth cable? I haven’t used a neck-band like this for a while so I might not be the best to judge, but the lack of symmetry on the cable, with the controls high up on the right side, but the battery centred, so the left side is completely empty, keeps causing mine to slide off my right shoulder and pull tight against my left ear. (I suppose a clip or lanyard to take the weight off the cable might solve that.) *Actually yesterday, it slipped the other way, pulling the inline control behind my neck whilst on a call, and my Dad started shouting that he couldn't hear me (he gets very impatient with audio dropouts on any phone call!)

I’m wondering on several different possibilities:

1. Purchase a pair of short MMCX male to MMCX male cables and use the Bluetooth DAC from my Flares Pro – help sourcing would be appreciated
2. Purchase a Bluetooth DAC similar to the Flares Pro one but with MMCX connectors on the end, like the Shure RMCE-BT2 – potentially cheap-ish now that it’s a few years old but might be hard to find and reviews are so-so.
3. Purchase some over-ear TWS adapters with MMCX connectors like the Shure RMCE-TW2-EFS or the FiiO UTWS5 (V2.0) and try reversing the buds to accommodate the over ear design as suggested previously – Quite expensive at ~£100-£150 and unsure how well they'd fit
4. Use an existing Bluetooth DAC that I forgot I had, Nexum Aqua+, with the included 3.5mm cable and just coil it up and clip to my shirt or something – actually that option is free!
5. As above but try to purchase a shorter 3.5mm to MMCX cable to make it slightly sleeker – again, help sourcing would be appreciated
*6. A new suggestion by my wife: attach something of equal weight to the cable on the left hand side to balance it out!

Anyone care to wade in with any new suggestions or variations on anything I mentioned? Is there a clip on DAC like the Flares Pro One, better than the Shure RMCE-BT2? It does support BT Multipoint which I have come to like for work and I would prefer to stick to a minimum of BT 5.0 and also USB-C if possible.

I tried the bluetooth cable once and decided that it really wasn't for me, so I can't help with thoughts on the cable. Seems like a step back in time and sound quality wasn't good compared to cabled sound quality, so it will always be a non-starter for me. If I want bluetooth or TWS I will always go to my airpod pro 2. What I would suggest though is maybe trying the Qudelix 5k. It's a clipped bluetooth DAC and the best sound quality I've got out of bluetooth for my cabled IEMs. IFI audio also have a few offerings I think, but the price is higher I think.

 

[Haden2866]

iFi Go Pod looks decent but £££

 

[SexAndManCity]

Update - I dug out my Nexum Aqua+, attached the 3.5mm cable and plugged it in with the cable coiled up and the Aqua+ clipped to the neck of my t-shirt and it works a charm.

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/nexum-aqua.22938/

That device can pack a punch volume-wise and the EARS seem to be generally well tuned for volume, so it’s working well. The upscaling to 32 bit is a nice feature when pairing with earbuds like these.

I don’t have to contend with MicroUSB charging, as it uses a Qi wireless charging mat (which itself does use MicroUSB admittedly!), but I am restricted by Bluetooth 4.2. Which leaves me in a similar position to the Flares Pro Bluetooth DAC. I have found a Shure RMCE-BT2 online but debating whether I bother shelling out for it.

What I’m more interested in is finding a 3.5mm to mmcx cable that’s around 30cm long. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Haden2866]

Early days, but these might be the ones for me.

Helpful that they do in-between sizes e.g. MS, as well as SML.
I was finding the Flare Audiophile Foams M a little uncomfortable, but these seem just right.

 

[SexAndManCity]

I missed out on the Shure RMCE-BT2 that I saw on eBay (went for £65 in the end - which is more than I wanted to pay anyway), so it looks like I'm sticking with the standard Bluetooth neckband (which isn't terrible, just niggly), or my Nexum Aqua+, so I'm really on the hunt for a shorter 3.5mm to MMCX cable if anyone knows where to find one?

 

[Haden2866]

Does anyone have experience of beryllium-coated dynamic drivers? Is there a typical burn-in profile?
It feels like my R model might be starting to present a bit more HF detail and presence than it did initially.
Might just be just wishful thinking on my part, as it definitely felt on the dark side to begin with, or at least rolled off - my first impression was that they sounded like the original Flare R2Pro up top. I'm not sure I think that any more. Still by no means airy, sparkly and definitely not bright, (and thankfully not tizzy, like the first PRO model). but more open, perhaps, after maybe 75 hours, something like that.
Any thoughts? If burn-in isn't your thing, that's fine too, I'll quite happily accept that it's all in my head and you can go about your business.

 

[Sinocelt]

Any thoughts? If burn-in isn't your thing, that's fine too, I'll quite happily accept that it's all in my head and you can go about your business.

I didn't believe in burn-in until I got the Atrios, which started very muddy then got much better. Of course, it could also be just in my head -- maybe I simply got used to the sound signature -- but then why did I experience this only with this IEM? So while I'm still not 100% sure about burn in, I still lean toward it being real, and quite important for some IEMs with a dynamic driver.