Flare Audio ISOLATE

I recently was made aware of a crowd funding campaign for these little ear plugs and I have to say it got me hooked. As some of you know I have a background in academic acoustics and psychoacoustic and thus the ear are something very important to me. I also an a huge advocate of protecting one's hearing from hearing loss in musician circle (as they can be the most immune and the least caring....until it's gone!).

Testing one...two

I have also been very fortunate over the years working in the Acoustic department at the University of Salford to have taken part as a subject in numerous hearing defender tests which are conducted in the department for a variety of companies. I have lost count of how many times I have had gunk squeezed into my ears to make moulds! So, as I am sure you can guess this is an area close to my heart.....and something which I am very 'preachy' about to other musicians and engineers when I know they are in danger.So, I have tried out my fair share of ear plugs over the years and currently favour either the ACS 15 Pro Custom molds, or in low level situations something as simple as the Pro Plugs which work well. The problem is (and I totally get this!!!) that as soon as you put something into the ear canal, you are having a direct impact on the frequency response of the ear and for some instrumentalists this can be fine, say drummers or bass players where the low end isn't attenuated as much and they aren't totally reliant on the mid's to get a feel of what they are playing.

The guitarist

As you might have guessed (or know) as a guitarist, your instrument sits slap bang in this frequency zone, as such any attenuation can make you feel disconnected from the actual sound coming out of your amp. I am sad to say that currently no ear plug I have tried can bypass this issue, but some are better than others and over time you get 'used' to the sound.FlareAudio's ISOLATE are no exception and I have put together two video reviews for you to watch to get a feeling for the issues and plus points encountered using these new plugs in a live environment.First ImpressionsFollow up reviewSo, in summary.....

Pros

They are amazing and offer a fantastic level of attenuation.
They are very reasonably priced.
They come with a great range of earbuds (and the packaging is awesome!)
They offer a greater level of bass attenuation than most plugs and thus the resulting sounds is less muddy.

Cons (And these are probably just for me!)

The amount of attenuation can not be adjusted (i.e. like changing filters in the ACS)
They still attenuate and affect the frequency range of my instrument, but that will be a problem with anything inserted into the ear canal.

In short, they are pretty awesome for the money and have SO many uses, I will always have a pair with me and will be the backup for my ACS's at gigs.Enjoy.Peace,Neil