FLARE E-PROTOTYPE IEM REVIEW

FLARE E-Prototype are an innovative design that fit right into your ear canal to reduce distortion created there. They cost £250 and are made in the UK. Janine Elliot inserts them and tells us what she thinks.

These FLARE IEMs are an unusual design that fit right into the ear canal.

With the title ‘E-Prototype’ you’d be forgiven for thinking this was a pre-production sample that made its way to chez Janine from Davies Robert’s factory in Sussex. However, this is the final title for the product, simply because “that was the way it was born”; a prototype that worked so well the final model was produced from it. Good or bad, the title certainly gets my attention, and that is something I will go into detail about later.

These are very unusual in appearance, though something I would expect from the ground-breaking inventor Davies.

Davies set up Flare in 2010, and I was one of the first to review his initial headphone which started the theme of reducing pressure in the ear cup with their ‘Vortex’ technology. After all, if the sound doesn’t all get into your eardrum it has to go somewhere else, and that usually means reflecting off your ear and the driver and adding interference. Their next IEMs continued this technology with great results, culminating in the PRO 2HD. The new E Prototype works even further in enabling your ears to pick up a claimed “distortion-free” adaptation of your music. Davies himself has a background in pro-audio and a collection of world-beating producers such as Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T Rex, Sparks, Iggy Pop) and Chris Kimsey (Rolling Stones, Duran Duran, Yes), to name just two, have given significant praise to this Flare product. It’s hard to keep up with Davies. His enthusiasm and desire for perfection and innovation has been seen in a number of new areas in recent years, particularly protecting the ear (such as noise guard ear protectors I reviewed several years ago, and his “Calmer” range to help reduce audio stress during the day or night).

The new E Prototype follows on from his Calmer and the EarHD passive trumpet that enhances and focuses sound in your ear (think of the earliest trumpet hearing-aids but on a much much smaller and beautiful scale). It (E Prototype) is also designed with protection and clarity in mind, ensuring that all audio is pure and directed right into your eardrum and hence its unusual angled shape. The earphone is curved and fits in your ear in front of the tragus as close as is possible to your eardrum. It is also 3D printed in-house using a new type of plastic that is a bio-compatible, non-toxic photopolymer and a medical-grade resin that is used for body parts. Davies told me “From an environmental standpoint I think this is exactly the way plastics should be going”.  Had it been recyclable plastic then Davies would have been adding to the plastic mountains ruining our fragile planet – not good.

The E-Prototypes in production.

CONSTRUCTION

These are unusual looking IEMs, but once that novelty has worn off, the reasoning behind it and ultimately the quality of the music takes centre stage. Getting them in your ear is easy; just fit the correct one in and slightly twist it so that the tip works its way up your ear canal. The beauty of these is that the sound is closer to your eardrum and, as mentioned earlier, reduces the reflections along the way. I must admit that on first listening to these I was amazed by the clarity and pure sound. The technology inside the earpiece itself is just as free from reflections, Davies told me to think of it like an American Stealth bomber that evades spotting on radar due to its clever shape. Maybe he should have called this earphone Stealth 1!

An idea of how the FLARE E Prototypes fit.

USQ 

So, Davies reduces distortion in our ears by the reduction of reflections and getting the sound directly to our ear. This is his “USQ” (Universal Sound Quality), so that “everyone has the same experience that the artist had when they created the original art”. USQ works by changing the way sound is reflected inside the ear, creating a mirror image of the driver movement on the eardrum at every frequency the driver and electronics produce.  Certainly, Flare designs are like no other and are regularly picked up as desirables by magazines around the world. Davies wants every producer to use the E Prototype and Tony Visconti said of the E Prototype “Fidelity and imaging are the best I’ve ever heard.”

It takes 9 hours to make each E-Prototype; the 3D print bed can make 12 earphones (24 capsules) at a time, constructing it in 25micron layers operating at 20W using lasers in resin to mould the biocompatible material, the material itself having only been available since July 2021. Much as I would wish it to be available in pink or blue it is actually only available in the very pleasant grey. Yes, he could have made it in the Far East but that would have meant traditional non-degradable plastics. I am really pleased this British product remains British.

Davies explained to me that the ears create about 21% distortion; that means our ears add around 21dB of distortion (when measured at 100dB). That is, much of the sound working its way to our eardrum is distorted along the way past the tragus and round the bends. His earphones aim to give spot-on phase accuracy by reducing reflections inside the IEMs and then because the tip is closer to your eardrum, reducing distortions further. Let me immediately stress that you should always be careful with levels of sound in your ear, and even more so with the E-P, though this doesn’t reduce your enjoyment. These have a great dynamic range, more than many IEMs I have listened to over the years. Also, ensure your ears are clear of wax because any IEM will push loose wax even further inside. That’s my health advice for you.

The E-Prototypes come with three pairs of matching grey ear tips (S, M, L). Because our inner ears might both be a different size, one might need a medium tip in one ear and a large one in the other, as I did. These were pretty amazing products as soon as I put them in my ear and also very lightweight meaning I soon forgot I was even wearing them.

The driver is a 10mm full-range unit, twice the size of his earlier models, and this not only creates a mind-blowing lower-bass response but also allows a greater dynamic range from earphones than I was accustomed to. Davies doesn’t quote frequency response, believing that the reduction of distortion and phasing opens up the sound from the very lowest bass to pin-sharp tops. I had no reason to argue with that as the response was excellent through my Astell and Kern SE180s.  “Frequency responses,” he told me  “can be very misleading pieces of information in earphones and headphones as each person’s ears will have a drastically different response due to each person’s ear distortions. A frequency response graph does not highlight any distortion; therefore we believe it is a very misleading piece of information to publish” The impedance of the E-Prototype is set at the ideal 16 Ohms.

The E-Prototypes arrive carefully packed complete with a handy hard case. IEMs have a microphone and remote switch in case you use them with your smartphone.

The E-Prototypes come with different tips so you can mix and match according to your ear canal’s size.

SOUND QUALITY

I chose three DAPs for this review; the excellent and cheap ATC HAD-DP20, the Fiio X5 line-out connected to the iFi xCAN headphone amplifier, and the new Astell and Kern SE180 with ESS9038PRO DAC. All three have their vices, though the latter is by far the best all-round. Music was either DSD or 24/192 FLACs.

I could sum up the Flare E-Prototype in a few sentences straight away, as the listening qualities were apparent from the start. Initial findings were of amazing clarity and purity of sound and an extended lower bass that would particularly appeal to any Vauxhallus bumblastus (sound system banger) driver that passes my house after midnight with their subwoofer blasting the nuts and bolts off their cars. Yes, that bass is pretty impressive and allowed me to hear things that my other IEMs don’t give me the chance to. Playing the complete Queen Studio Collection really showed me that bass power and it opened me up to sounds that had previously escaped me. Tracks like “One Vision” and “Don’t Lose Your Head” with its powerful percussion and vocals showed a greater sense of shape and scale than anything I had heard before. “Prophet’s Song” was just so spacious and clear, with vocals more careful in their presentation but no less exciting. Even “Bohemian Rhapsody” introduced me to a new side of Queen; space and musicality and rhythmic fluidity. I was reliving my youth, but better. Not only are the IEMs more clear and more extended – particularly in the bass – but at all frequencies everything was pin-sharp in its detail. There was no distortion. It all seemed purer.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds ‘Ghosteen’ Album has powerful and tight vocals, with exquisite clarity in “Spinning Song”. The pizzicato cellos in “Bright Horses” were nimble and perfectly positioned in the soundstage. Tartini’s Concerto in A, D96 (Chasing the Dragon ‘Vivaldi in Venice’), also has pizzicato cellos and again these were perfectly rendered in a perfect soundstage. Fleet Foxes “Can I believe You” from the album ‘Shore’, has complex vocals, guitars and percussions and varying musical styles and orchestrations, meaning some IEMs will panic trying to perform the music. The E-Prototypes just relished the chance to show their musical muscle – and did so admirably. I could hear everything pin-sharp, with excellent soundstage and no distortion. It was as if everything was lighter; not heavyweight and slow. If this was a car it would be a Tesla Model 3; very fast acceleration and nimble.

Turning to yet more 70’s pop and Mike Oldfield ‘Tubular Bells’ I wanted to hear how tight the percussion instruments could be; particularly glockenspiel, one of the instruments of which the entry is announced by Vivian Stanshall in the album.  Even the “Two Slightly Distorted Guitars” were pin-sharp; yes, that distortion from the instruments is there, but nothing else added to make it worse and complicated. I was hearing it exactly as the producer and sound engineer in the Manor Studio (Richard Branson’s studio) would have heard it and that, after all, is what Davies wants with his USQ. Davies, like me, is very much in favour of binaural music on headphones/IEMs, and I ran several of the albums I have (Chasing the Dragon). With the E-Prototype I could almost touch the musicians.

If I had to pick faults in the sound after my long review, that would be the extended bass can be a little too over-powering.

Katie Melua’s “Far Away Voice” certainly wasn’t distant and the cello was much fuller than I was used to with IEMs. As soon as the full orchestra came in, I was wafted away into a magical world of music. This was perfectly proportioned and excellent listening. These IEMs reduced all distortion thus preventing additional colouration of the sound. Actor Stephen Fry said of the E-Prototype; “clarity + depth = joy.” That certainly sums it up well.

Finally, to Beethoven Piano Concerto 3 (Cristina Ortiz, City of London Sinfonia). This had amazing dynamics with the quiet opening soon getting excited. The piano had excellent clarity, but it was the extension of lower frequencies that really got me hooked. The opening orchestra passage lasts 3 minutes before the pianist begins, and the clarity and purity of sound meant I could really sense those hammers striking the strings and the harmonics produced from them. I could have played my complete collection of FLACs and DSDs. I was so enjoying the listening and was almost hypnotized by the newfound notes and harmonics that had somewhat evaded me before. Only that that lower bass was just too prominent stopped me shouting out in excitement.

CONCLUSION

As Dr Sadia Sadia (MSc FRSA, installation artist) said of the E-Prototypes “I predict that USQ will set a new standard in sound across the audio production chain”, and I have to agree in terms of lack of distortion and space. These are amazing IEMs, and once you get used to putting them in your ear (and it only took me a few minutes to get accustomed) then it will be hard to put them down – or should that be pull them out. I think you will find them a welcome change from the mainstream earphone collection. They were hard to criticize. If I had to say anything it would be that these were just so pure I found them too pure! Think of these as Class D as opposed to valve; sometimes you really do want that valve musicality, though that usually means distortion!

With fast transients, great dynamics and excellent extended bass response, would I use them as my resident monitors? You bet!

AT A GLANCE

Build and Features:

Very basic in look but made from excellent biocompatible materials

Good connections and wiring

Sound Quality: 

Amazing detail and bass extension

Value For Money:

One of the best sounding IEMs at any price that I’ve heard

We Loved:

Excellent transients

Greater dynamics

Sound free from distortion

Lower bass extension

We Didn’t Love So much:

The extreme bass might be too overpowering for some

Price: £250 €306.95

Elevator Pitch Review: Flare boss, Davies Roberts, is renowned for producing the unusual, and touching areas that other manufacturers have ignored, such as ear protection. His E-Prototype is no prototype, this is the real thing, producing a distortion free and honest account of your favourite music. It might not be the best looking, but will certainly win prizes for best sound. 

SUPPLIED BY FLARE AUDIO

Janine Elliot

Review Equipment: ATC HAD-DP20, Fiio X5 line-out connected to the iFi xCAN headphone amplifier, and Astell and Kern SE180 with SEM1 module (ESS9038PRO DAC).