Flare Audio

[UVAUDIO]

Hi all,

 

Anyone ever used 'Flare Audio' products before? In particular the two on ebay at the moment - " stealth array "

 

Cheers!

[smalljoshua]

I have both heard on Dance/Pre Recorded and mixed on their newer systems (Live/Rock).

 

They are loud, very clean and unforgiving to an engineer. The mix you put through them has to be perfect. The subs (Quad Horn, not the ones in the systems on eBay) are very very good, 60kg for a double 18 with a bloomin' good punch!

 

I really would avoid the systems on eBay though, they're not the current (or last gen) stuff, need very good amps behind them (Davis only allows new boxes to be sold with Lab PLM10000Q on tops and PLM14000 on subs) and the Processing needs to be configured by Flare for optimum performance.

 

Josh

[MarkBarl]

They look like the rig I heard at PLASA a few years ago. They are trouser flapping loud on the bass end yet with a good top definition. I believe that the HF couples within 30cm of the box meaning you get a good sound even close up. As Josh says though you need the Lab PLM amps to get the best from them though. Nice bunch of guys at Flare and Davis has a real passion for perfection and no compromises in his design. Flippin' heavy though.

[smalljoshua]

Flippin' heavy though.

A double 18 box that's the size of an elongated Q sub and can be stacked (3 high) by one person? Doesn't seem that heavy to me!

 

Josh

[deitel]

Flippin' heavy though.

A double 18 box that's the size of an elongated Q sub and can be stacked (3 high) by one person? Doesn't seem that heavy to me!

 

Josh

 

I've set them up before and found them very light, or are you talking about the amps?

 

 

 

[davies]

Hi everyone,

 

Thanks for your nice comments about me and Flare, I want to assist you in letting you know more information about our old product line and the new exciting loudspeaker developments we are making.

 

I started Flare in 2010, born from a frustration over the lack of sound quality at events. In the early days of the company I focused on designing systems that we were hiring ourselves, weight was not considered an issue. The first system 'Stealth Array' was designed to supply a crowd of up to a few thousand from just one system a side. As our hire company grew we needed to evolve into line array to support the touring work which was coming in. This led to the development of Triwave and Quadhorn which was launched at Plasa 2011.

 

Quadhorn made me start to realise that the approach to building loudspeakers was misguided. Based on our patent pending Nanoflow technology, Quadhorn was the first loudspeaker to be built using what we term as a 'Waveform Integrity' approach. This approach keeps the waveform of sound accurate as it is produced from a loudspeaker, rather than the amplitude equality approach everyone else uses.

 

In Spring last year we realised that we had uncovered the fundamental problem of why a loudspeakers sound quality is so hit/miss and how it could never become totally accurate using the equality approach. Following this breakthrough the hire company was closed down and we focused on research and development to unlock how to create pure sound from any size of loudspeaker.

 

It was in June last year that I discovered how to do it, the result is the first true advancement in loudspeaker technology since the invention itself some 90 years ago. We called this exciting patent pending technology Space Technology. Space Technology makes the loudspeakers enclosure sonically invisible. Rather than trying to control a loudspeakers resonance, Space Technology does not produce it in the first place. This breakthrough allows us to create any size of loudspeaker in order to produce pure sound.

 

The first products featuring this new technology is Space S1 (Studio, Install, Home compact), hot on the heals in a few weeks will be Space X3 (high pack) and Space X5 (line array).

Used with our existing bass range (Quadhorn Q12, Q15, Q18) will enable total waveform accuracy from 20Hz - 32KHz, it is really quite incredible to hear.

 

Unlike Stealth or Triwave the new Space Technology can run on any amplifier, no EQ is required as no resonance is produced to correct.

 

Space Technology was announced to the press just a few days ago, an article about it can be found here... http://www.eventindustrynews.co.uk/2013/01/audio-innovators-unlock-the-solution-to-pure-sound-first-product-space-s1-launches/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+event-industry-news+(Event+Industry+News+-+An+online+magazine+and+n#sthash.HWCL2BDc.dpbs

 

If you are interested in knowing more about the Waveform Integrity approach we are pioneering, here is a white paper I wrote about it... http://www.flareaudio.com/news/waveform-integrity.html

 

We are running a preview demo program featuring Space S1, Space X3 (Prototype), Space X5 (Prototype), we have already received some amazing comments from highly respected studio and live engineers during this preview period.

 

If any of you are interested in hearing Space Technology please contact us, we have a demo room here in Lancing, West Sussex with all the new products.

For the larger hire companies and venues well be happy to include you in our 'touring' demo program where we come to you.

 

For those who want to grab some of our old technology for a real bargain price should not hang around as there is not a lot left...

 

I hope this answers your questions, I will be happy to answer any more questions you have.

 

Kind regards

Davies Roberts (Inventor and Flare Audio Lead Designer)

[mervaka]

If you're not creating some form of resonance, is there a cost in terms of sensitivity, ie would you have to put a lot more power in for similar SPL?

 

At a guess, it's the resonance that allows standing waves to increase output at certain frequencies for a given input power. Is the group delay much shorter by avoiding resonant frequencies? Will this be a much taller order for lower frequencies if traditional enclosure designs rely a lot more on resonance?

 

Saw the Flare system put in at Leopallooza '12, was very impressed. Very, very good transient response.

[davies]

If you're not creating some form of resonance, is there a cost in terms of sensitivity, ie would you have to put a lot more power in for similar SPL?

 

At a guess, it's the resonance that allows standing waves to increase output at certain frequencies for a given input power. Is the group delay much shorter by avoiding resonant frequencies? Will this be a much taller order for lower frequencies if traditional enclosure designs rely a lot more on resonance?

 

Saw the Flare system put in at Leopallooza '12, was very impressed. Very, very good transient response.

 

Hi Mervaka,

 

Resonance destroys sound wave energy, if you do not create resonance, a driver is far more sensitive.

 

As I am sure you'll know resonance absorbs sound wave energy by delaying the amplitude and destroying the integrity of a frequency. I will give you an example; lets say that 3 KHz is created through the resonance of 4 KHz, this will mean that 4 KHz is reduced and 3 KHz is increased. On average the overall amplitude is reduced as some energy will be absorbed into whatever is resonating. It also means that you would hear a false positive, every time a 4 KHz frequency is created what you end up hearing is some 3 KHz as well when it was never meant to be produced.

 

Drivers become truly pistonic in Space Technology, whatever frequency is applied to the loudspeaker is created accurately.

Nanoflow is the technology we created for low frequencies, rather than acoustic chambers or a large horn, Nanoflow works by combining drivers energy so that waveforms as low as 20 Hz retain their Waveform Integrity.

 

Thanks for your comments about Leopallooza '12, this featured Quadhorn but not the new Space Technology.

[dbuckley]

is there a cost in terms of sensitivity, ie would you have to put a lot more power in for similar SPL?

 

Even if that is the case, this is a tradeoff that proaudio has been making for years.

 

Valves -> WEM 100W slave -> DC300A / Phase Linear -> today's monster amps.

[davies]

is there a cost in terms of sensitivity, ie would you have to put a lot more power in for similar SPL?

 

Even if that is the case, this is a tradeoff that proaudio has been making for years.

 

Valves -> WEM 100W slave -> DC300A / Phase Linear -> today's monster amps.

 

Space technology applies to any sector, from headphones to pro-audio, that is what makes this advance so exciting

[TallMike]

I'm interested - what's the measured freq response -/+3db of the S1?

How do you eliminate resonances that occur within the empty space occupied by the driver chassis?

 

Regards

 

Mike

[davies]

I'm interested - what's the measured freq response -/+3db of the S1?

How do you eliminate resonances that occur within the empty space occupied by the driver chassis?

 

Regards

 

Mike

 

Hi Mike,

 

Independent freq resp tests will be published by the spring on S1, until then I am unable to tell you the exact freq resp.

The technology allows a driver to improve its freq resp due to the way the loading occurs, no additional resonance occurs in the technology.

As the inventor I wish I could tell you how we have achieved it, but until the patent publishes I am sorry it will have to remain a secret.

 

Where are you based? If you are too far away from Lancing I maybe able to arrange for you to come to one of the demo's we are doing for the major hire companies?

If you are near Lancing then come and have a listen!

[PatrickSmith]

I had the S1 and X5 demoed to me this week (thanks to Davies and Loz).

 

My initial impressions were two-fold:

 

1. Incredible fidelity. They sounded amazingly clear and even at very high SPL they remained a superbly comfortable box to listen to.

2. Pattern control needs a bit more work. I wasn't convinced of the consistency of the tonality off-axis. What was labelled as a 90 degree box sounded more like a 60 degree box, and once you get out of the dispersion there is still a lot more MF going on than I would like. For me I would like a box to sound the same everywhere in the rated dispersion angle, and to drop off quickly and evenly outside of that. The X5 certainly isn't a bad box in this respect, but it didn't quite deliver to the level I would have liked considering that they are pitching these at quite a high market level.

 

I think for a studio the little boxes will be brilliant, for live work there is perhaps one more developmental generation of the larger format products to go before I'm totally convinced. Well worth a look in though, Davies has certainly produced something innovative and new and the fidelity definitely has to be heard.

[splodge360]

Good proaudio hire company demo of Flare Audio Space Technology X5 vortex array system was run today at Hatfield house today. Seemed crystal clear at the back of the field, and although windy, very little hf drop out. Will be intresting to see if this new alternative technology ever becomes rider friendly.

[davies]

Thanks for coming to the demo Splodge360, it was pretty windy wasn't it!

Patrick the speakers you were shown were prototype versions, we have now addressed the balance and coverage aspects of X5 with the addition of our patent pending Vortex technology.

 

As shown at the demo the throw and even coverage of X5 was impressive, even as far back as 400m the sound was coherent and even with just 7 flown X5 a side.

I was shown initial readings of -2dB over doubling of distance, which was far greater than I had hoped for!

 

We are working hard to make people aware of the advances we have made, if anyone would like to come to a future demonstration please feel free to contact us!