I bought these (at £150) expecting much but was shocked by how far they fell short of even competency.



They are very uncomfortable, badly designed and the sound is really nothing special. Whatever I did I couldn't get them to sit flush on my ears so that only the top third of each ear cup would rest properly on my ears, the lower part would stick out away from my ears in a most unnerving fashion - remarkable! - I've never had that happen in a headphone - the effect was actually comical! After struggling with them for a while I finally managed to get a decent seal on my ears by forcibly pinning them down, readying them for an audio evaluation. But by that stage they had become instruments of torture as the steel headband - very thinly covered by bit of ineffectual padding - had started to sink its way into my skull. I had endure quite a bit of pain in order get an idea of this headphone's audio abilities.



The sound is basic, by that I mean you get music reproduction at a most rudimentary level - music just blares out at you with little or no finesse; very shallow sound-stage, bright, big but crude sounding and unnatural. I didn't spend too much time listening to these for the above reasons so I leave the audio evaluation at that, and to be honest, I felt that it didn't deserve more time spent on it than was necessary.



Don't be blinded by the science bit - a typical marketing trick - namely the "DSV (Dual Sided VortexTM) technology" and the "SpaceTM technology" (patent-pending no less), these have a sound reminiscent of below par £70-£80 headphones and no more (I'm thinking Grado headphones which they most resemble and which you're better off buying). At £150-£700 (yes, the price has varied or varies that wildly, currently £500 (!) as I write) it's ridiculously bad value for money. It's this exorbitant and outrageous price that Flare Audio are asking for this headphone that prompted me to write this review; if this had been a £50 headphone my expectations would have been low enough not be bothered too much by its sheer awfulness. I think most, if not all other headphone manufacturers would be embarrassed to release such an ill-conceived and badly executed product. I just hope for their own sake Flare Audio recall these headphones, goes back to the drawing board and design a headphone fit for public consumption.





Needless to say they were packed up and sent back pretty quickly.

