Flares Jet 2 Earphones Review
Advanced sound and a premium build are boasted from the press release for the Flare Audio JET 2 earphones. But the headline feature is the unique jet-like internal design surrounding the speaker drivers inside each earphone, promising balanced audio that doesn’t distort at £69.
Design
A very straightforward earphone setup, with high quality aluminium casing and a reinforced cable. One cause for concern we have though, is that the cable, where it meets the earphones’ body, isn’t particularly thick, perhaps leaving the design prone to stress over time. Along the cable there is a control with included microphone, but it’s only a one button control which can be used to pause, play and skip music tracks. The lack of a volume control is an annoyance, but the overall compactness of the earphones makes for balanced comfort.
Audio Performance
The Flares Jet 2s capture an ambience of music with an airiness that we don’t often associate with earphones and which would normally be more anticipated with headphones. Added to this there is no distortion, even at full volume. All of this might be because the 10mm drivers are assisted by the characteristic jet design; or perhaps it is the fact that the tuning is quite good across the genres. For instance, ‘Beauty’ by Accordi Disaccordi shows off the sharpness of clarity within the energetic playing of Spanish guitars. ‘Mother May I Sleep With Danger’ by Joy Crookes, highlights nice highs, the splendid stereo control and a broad mid-range that pleasingly greets the ears. Having said this, the Epilogue soundtrack, composed by Justin Hurwiz for LaLa Land, demos a very slightly cluttered sound that isn’t glamorous, yet the bass response remains quite strong even when other ranges strain by a smidgen under the pressures. Really it boils down to the high range not being quite dynamic enough and thus squeezing onto the mid-range to become a bit rowdy with busier sounding musical tracks. This is worth keeping in mind, but it doesn’t impair the audio enough to affect a purchase decision when taking into account the rather remarkable general performance at the price point.
Verdict
We welcome the rethinking of how audio drivers should be engineered within earphones, and the Flare Audio JET 2s do undoubtedly provide value combined with an enjoyable listening experience - with focus on detail. Whilst there is the very slightly deflating aspect of the above mentioned cluttered atmosphere occurring with busier and bolder musical arrangements, we wouldn’t rule them out because of this.
