Heads up on a 50% kickstarter discount on some apparently superb new headphones.

[Audio Advent]

Thought I'd share this with you - I've worked with Flare Audio before (well, helped set up) and heard their PA system and studio speakers a few times which are pretty astonishing designs and sound great so was interested when I heard about their headphone range.

Anyway, their new iem the R2Pro has been getting some excited although low key industry attention but just has had it's first proper hifi review on Hifi Pig ... and scored very highly indeed! http://hifipig.com/flare-audio-r2-headphones/

Flare Audio is running a kickstarter campaign for the first production run where you can get a 50% discount on the R2Pros as reviewed above, £200 versus a release price of £400. So get yourself signed up for a pair before it runs it's course in 13 days time! I've already signed up for a pair, the Pro Titanium versions.

Here's the campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/584645150/flare-audio-a-revolution-in-pure-sound


As with kickstarter campaigns, if they don't reach their target then you don't get what they're offering.. so please take a look and sign up to it so I can get mine! :lol: Sadly I don't think I can afford the full price. Seems to have gained a few more backers since the review already so fingers crossed.

So yes I have ulterior motives but if the review and comments from those with pre-production pairs are anything to go by they should be a fantastic purchase. Feel I need to know what their impedance is ..

Just to add, there are some aluminium versions which have a 55% discount and cost £79 for the campaign (instead of £175)

[sq225917]

A hifipig review, that's the kiss of death isn't it. To be honest they all seem a little expensive for a single dynamic driver, that's the least expensive driver configuration that one could possibly choose
when designing a headphone.

[Audio Advent]

That applies to ALL high-end hifi ! DIY is the only way to avoid that as you well know to your advantage. They are a really small outfit and make or at least assemble everything themselves from small production runs so don't have economies of scale.

I can't see myself making a pair of DIY IEMs/headphones so if the sound is as good as all the reviews around so far and the quotes from people in the music biz, £200 seems a bargain in comparison to what else it buys you in the headphone world. Many others around of the same form-factor in the £400 bracket and not getting as glowing reviews.

I was previously thinking seriously about saving and dropping £1000 on some Noble Keiser K10s such is my thirst for an ultimate in-ear headphone experience but I wish they'd not force me to pay for all that bling in presentation and I also have serious doubts about the modern trend of high driver counts and a three or four-way design with cross-overs - I can't believe they can be linear phase after all that complexity, especially all firing into a resonant canal inside the headphone itself. I wasn't getting far with that saving up idea I must admit.

Perhaps the single driver and the size of it (meant to match the size of your ear canal as much as is possible) is a major part of what it does along with the pressure matching thing?

[Audio Advent]

Got an update from the kickstarter today to say that they will honour the pledges and rewards even if they don't reach the funding levels so is effectively just a 50% discount - no need for anyone to pledge for me to get mine afterall, only to get the discount for one's self.

[Audio Advent]

Forget the Hifi Pig review..

This Headphonics review is amazing! Really excited about these.. I know it's just words but it's making me thing "what if my hifi can't compete, will I sell it all?" :lol:

http://headfonics.com/2015/05/the-r2a-and-r2pro-iems-by-flare-audio/

[Marco]

Sam, are you in the hi-fi trade? it certainly looks like it. If so, you will require to open a trade account ASAP.

Marco.

[Audio Advent]

Really? Don't see why I look like I'm in the hifi trade. I lump PA and rigging gear in and out of vans and trucks and I have lumped Flare Audio's gear in and out of trucks too, else I would have never have heard of them or their kickstarter campaign. Other than that I have no connection.

If you read the very first post, you will see at that point for me to get my headphones I've pledged for, the kickstarter needed to reach it's funding goal - that's how they work as I'm sure you know. Therefore its natural for me to want to make people aware of it and to get them involved too else I wouldn't be getting mine! Now they've said they'll honour the pledges anyway, so it doesn't matter to me. However the reviews are coming out so I'm more excited about them than before and it's only polite for me to let people know there's a 50% discount available on something rather than keep it to myself.

Have you read that review I linked to? If not then you won't understand why I'm excited about them - you could call me a soundstage freak and I much prefer iems to speakers in general. The review portrays more enthusiasm than your own enthusiasm for the Pi and the DAC and that has run into a 100+ page thread causing many people to go out and spend similar money on two specific items. I doubt anyone has pledged on this kickstarter yet judging by the thread views.

[Audio Advent]

Sorry to go over the top in response but I'd like to post this:


Lol - indeed. I'm of course talking purely in terms of its sonic performance. It would also have to be housed inside a really nice case, for that kind of money. Thing is, how much does a Linn Akurate DS cost? I've heard one, and the Pi/IQ-Audio DAC+ combination unquestionably murders it - and for buttons! £80, to be precise. It's laughable... :D

If that doesn't deserve jumping up and down and shouting about, then I don't know what does.

Marco.

Admittedly I've not heard a pair yet (if I were trade, I guess I would have), but that's exactly how I feel from the reviews. So I'm sure you can now understand.. even the buttons price is the same, cheaper actually. Seriously, get some yourself and then shout about them if they deserve it (if not, sell them on for possibly a profit).

[Marco]

Ok, Sam, just checking... I get the message!! :lol:

Marco.

[Audio Advent]

Haha - Sorry! Went over the top perhaps. More of a heads up about the discount than anything else I guess, as long as I am satisfied with a pair at some point.

Do think about getting some of the cheapest ones though at least as I'd be interested to be able to compare with someone on here later..