Flare Audio Calmer — Does It Help Tinnitus?

[ajc]

These days no review can be trusted - even on TrustPilot.

It's very easy to post fake reviews on TrustPilot. Wouldn't be surprised if Flare Audio did that...

 

[Jazzer]

It's very easy to post fake reviews on TrustPilot. Wouldn't be surprised if Flare Audio did that...

I know damn well they've been doing that!!!

 

[linearb]

Hey, I just noticed that they have updated their marketing and this is the messaging now:

I think this is reasonable messaging; obviously, I'd like to see the actual research they speak of, but, we all know finding funding and time to make that stuff happen isn't instantaneous.

If their "full refund" is indeed that and includes shipping, etc, then I don't really have a problem with any of this.

If they're being straight up, then someone will do an RCT because it won't be that hard or expensive and then we'll have some data one way or the other. If no real study ever emerges, then I'll be suspicious they are just milking the revenue chain.

I thought the idea was pretty interesting when I first heard about these, just in terms of what it's trying to do. There was someone else working on earbuds that would electronically let you tweak the frequency response curve of the world, but doing it mechanically is, if nothing else, a neat idea.

 

[Garye]

While perusing the latest research updates etc. this thread caught my attention . I looked Flare Audio up and was somewhat impressed by their response regarding recent tinnitus improvement testimonials. It was surprisingly frank and honest and was making no claims or promises... in fact they seem surprised by the revelation as well.

On a non scientific hunch and for the first time since this started with me (Oct 2015, out of the blue, unilateral right ear, fluctuates from quiet enough to forget and ignore to a high frequency very loud and intrusive steady whine, the loud period can last for days, the much quieter period can last 2-4 days too), I decided to order a set.

For $36CDN plus $10CDN for shipping it will be a relatively cheap experiment.

I will update after it arrives and I've tried for a couple of days.

Cheers all.

 

[Jazzer]

Hey, I just noticed that they have updated their marketing and this is the messaging now:

View attachment 40483

I think this is reasonable messaging; obviously, I'd like to see the actual research they speak of, but, we all know finding funding and time to make that stuff happen isn't instantaneous.

If their "full refund" is indeed that and includes shipping, etc, then I don't really have a problem with any of this.

If they're being straight up, then someone will do an RCT because it won't be that hard or expensive and then we'll have some data one way or the other. If no real study ever emerges, then I'll be suspicious they are just milking the revenue chain.

I thought the idea was pretty interesting when I first heard about these, just in terms of what it's trying to do. There was someone else working on earbuds that would electronically let you tweak the frequency response curve of the world, but doing it mechanically is, if nothing else, a neat idea.

Just more crap from a vile company, more than happy to employ disingenuous claims to sell a totally useless product to a public suffering a highly debilitating condition.
This is just more nauseating 'flannel' of course, and absolutely no surprise to me.

It is high time the CEO of this crew booted his marketing manager out of the back door for dreaming up such a wretched scheme.

It will never happen of course because this campaign has proved a real 'money spinner!'

Tinnitus occurs as a result of nerve damage to the stereo cilia of the cochlea.
We know there is as yet no effective treatment, much less a cure, to reduce the experience of tinnitus noise, by as much as one solitary decibel.

For this mob to claim that a couple of pieces of plastic have effectively proved to be 'the Holy Grail' - capable of reducing tinnitus by as much as 50% - is such obvious nonsense that it would be laughable if it were not such a cynical scheme.

Don't forget that their product
'made a grown man cry tears of happiness.'

Quite simply - Flare Audio sicken me.

'This is no good.
I gotta stop beating around the bush,
and start saying what I mean!'

 

[linearb]

@Jazzer you're entitled to your opinion, it's a lot more vitriolic than mine. I've been following these for 4-6 months, before the tinnitus testamonials started popping up. High frequency noises annoy me, it's why I use Dubs earplugs which cost about the same as these.

All that said, Flare is, historically (for a ~3-4 year old company), notorious for having extremely aggressive advertising and PR groups which often exceed the quality of their products. So, I take everything with a grain of salt but I don't see anything exploitative here, to me, that seems any more fucked up than capitalism in general is.

These also aren't nearly powerful enough to offer any kind of meaningful protection -- which Dubs do, to some extent. So, I'd probably find them less useful than Dubs, unless I was doing something where I really needed to hear full midrange (unlikely, I am no audiophile).

 

[Jazzer]

"Scammers are Scum"

They seek to profit from our distress.

A vile insidious practice.

I am here to give them something to think about!

 

[smartie]

Just got a pair of Flare Audio Calmers today for £20. I thought they might be worth a try.

 

[MRItechssuck]

They did zero for me...

 

[Jazzer]

They did zero for me...

Well what did you expect.

I tried to warn everybody.

A shit product, with no science behind it, from a disreputable company, using vile (delighted) customer reviews, making plenty of money, on the broken backs of severe sufferers.

Total deceit!

My tears of joy then MRItechssuck??

 

[MRItechssuck]

Well what did you expect.

I tried to warn everybody.

A shit product, with no science behind it, from a disreputable company, using vile (delighted) customer reviews, making plenty of money, on the broken backs of severe sufferers.

Total deceit!

My tears of joy then MRItechssuck??

I'm not sure what you mean... if you want a pat on the back... enjoy. You are not better than anyone else, we all knew that the item was likely crap... but fortunately I can afford $30 to spend on a lark.

So your "told you so"... if it makes you feel better today, have at it.
Even if it gives someone peace through a placebo, I'm all for people seeking help versus sitting on a patronizing throne.

I would be remiss not to leave a testimonial to help others who may not have the funds. There is a money back guarantee, we will see if they make good on that.

 

[Jazzer]

I'm not sure what you mean... if you want a pat on the back... enjoy. You are not better than anyone else, we all knew that the item was likely crap... but fortunately I can afford $30 to spend on a lark.

So your "told you so"... if it makes you feel better today, have at it.
Even if it gives someone peace through a placebo, I'm all for people seeking help versus sitting on a patronizing throne.

I would be remiss not to leave a testimonial to help others who may not have the funds. There is a money back guarantee, we will see if they make good on that.

I'm sorry.
It wasn't my intention to upset you or anybody else.
Please accept my apologies.
——————————————
Just for myself now - when this product appeared, with no science behind it, with tremendous, nauseating third party references beside it, I smelt 'SCAM' right away.

"Tears of happiness from a grown man" etc.....

I decided to try to destroy their advertising campaign, even if I had to do it single handedly, by attacking them all over the Internet.
I had some success.
They've gone quiet about their wretched product lately.
Dave

 

[MRItechssuck]

@Jazzer, no, I'm sorry I snapped at you... just have been having a tough time with this. You are a good influence to many on this forum.

Yes, I know many thought it was a scam, but especially with my noxacusis, if this could dampen only high frequency sounds, I thought it might help... even flipping a light switch stabs my ears.

For me the plugs were too small, but they are just squarish type plugs... it's one of those things one needs to try for themselves sometime. I'll let everyone know if this company returns my money.

My apologies again, I know you were just looking out for everyone.

 

[Matthew Piecora]

I have them. It's one of the first things i tried. It didn't work for my tinnitus. They do what they are supposed to though, it's not a scam as far as I can tell. They are just little soft dealies that you stick in your ear. It kinda trims some of the noise out of life but not the tinnitus in your head - at least for me. Worth a try, they are cheap like $30 or something? I'd $10,000 to fix this stupid tinnitus.

 

[Mattemer]

Hey all, long time stalker but finally signed up. I'll give them a shot.

I don't know if you can professionally have you tinnitus measured but using online tools I measured around 4kz. These might not do anything.

As far as a scam, meh, doesn't seem like a scam, but maybe not best marketing practices.

Here's what it comes down to :
- can't say because it doesn't work for anyone you don't know that it's a scam. There's various reasons for T, so that's an ignorant thought to have
- even someone in this thread said they got their money back. Most scams aren't really into giving their money back
- they clearly say it doesn't work for everyone

I'll report back with my findings, a few people in here did, I'm not feeling too optimistic but worse case scenario I get my money back...

 

[Ed209]

Well what did you expect.

I tried to warn everybody.

A shit product, with no science behind it, from a disreputable company, using vile (delighted) customer reviews, making plenty of money, on the broken backs of severe sufferers.

Total deceit!

My tears of joy then MRItechssuck??

This rings a bell...

Reminds me of a few unscrupulous doctors selling "treatments." Only they were charging many thousands.

When these ear filters first hit the scene, I had text messages from everyone telling me about them.

 

[Jazzer]

Guys - guys - the best way to tell a scam is precisely by the marketing techniques employed.

'We were both surprised and delighted to hear..."
(No they weren't......!)

"Reduced my Tinnitus by 50%......." (!!!)
(No it didn't......!)

"They reduced a grown man to tears of happiness."
(WOW.....!)

—————————

Oh they will return your money alright, because not everybody who bought the damn things can be bothered to return them!

Their marketing method stinks.
But I am not here to persuade anybody.
I am happy to raise the alarm, then I'm done.
After that - "Son - you're on yer own!"

Quote from the sheriff of Rock Ridge.
(Blazing Saddles.)

Jazzer

 

[Jazzer]

This rings a bell...

Reminds me of a few unscrupulous doctors selling "treatments." Only they were charging many thousands.

When these ear filters first hit the scene, I had text messages from everyone telling me about them.

Me too Ed.

I got sick of it.

Such an obvious unscrupulous scam.

I wasn't born yesterday
- nor the day before.

 

[Jazzer]

 

[JoeDizzle]

Hello and top of the morning to you all!

I am suffering since, well, I was a kid so I lost hope to ever really get rid of tinnitus. I ordered these without doing research, so, yeah... I'm a sucker, they got me. But at least through this I came to this forum and that might be a good thing.

So, hi everybody. I'm Joe and I hear loud ringing noises that drive me crazy sometimes.

I'm testing those earplugs with a hole in it since yesterday and will let you know if something changes, placebo effect or not, I don't care I just want this effing noises to stop.

Regards, Joe

 

[RKNL]

I've tried these plugs back in July to see if they would reduce my noise damage induced tinnitus. It didn't. They actually quiet down the surrounding sounds, making the ringing very prominent. I would not recommend these to people who have a constant high pitched ringing.

The marketing campaign is misleading in my opinion. At first I thought: Well they don't claim that it will help and they have a money back guarantee, can't hurt to try. Then I noticed that the marketing campaign is very aggressive and basically only centered around anecdotal evidence of these plugs helping people with tinnitus. Today I noticed that they have become a corporate sponsor of the BTA and I went onto their website to look into what that entails. Not much, it turns out. Just that they donate money.

I've emailed the BTA asking them to talk to Flare Audio about their marketing. It's one thing to claim an accidental discovery, it's another to aggressively market it based on nothing else than hearsay, while not mentioning all the people who report it does nothing for them. I've asked the BTA to push Flare Audio on an independent double blind study, although I don't think that'll ever happen.

What's more, is that I realised that I have never gotten my refund, after shipping back my plugs (at my own expense...) in July. I emailed them about it and I hope that it's just a slip up. I'll be sure to mention it here when I don't receive my money back.

 

[Orions Pain]

These people know exactly what they're doing. People call them out as a scam and they say wE nEVeR cLAiMed iTs a cURe fOR tInNItus (well, ya that will be illegal).

So they flood their comments with fake reviews and then use those reviews as "reports of people noticing it helped their tinnitus".

These are no different than regular musician's ear plugs that filter out harmful frequencies but their "reviews" are flooded with comments about tinnitus being improved.

Tinnitus is also the only benefit that is in bold font on the product info??

If the reviews focused more on these helping for taking off the edge of loud noises such as in offices, or around screaming little kids, concerts & so on, that would be more believable but the fact that they're heavily pushing the (fake) reviews of tinnitus improving or in some cases almost going away completely literally screams SCAM.

It doesn't have to be a blatant lie to fall into the scam territory. The fact that they guarantee a money back return doesn't mean much. Loads of companies who offer "free trials" for a month only offer it because they anticipate that people will just forget about it and proceed to use the service. If 1,000 people forget to cancel a $15 service, that's still a profit. In order to ship something back a person had to find the time to do it, package it up, take it to the post office, and so forth. Many will just say F it, not worth the hassle, it's only 30 bucks and just keep the earplugs.

 

[GBB]

These people know exactly what they're doing. People call them out as a scam and they say wE nEVeR cLAiMed iTs a cURe fOR tInNItus (well, ya that will be illegal).

So they flood their comments with fake reviews and then use those reviews as "reports of people noticing it helped their tinnitus".

These are no different than regular musician's ear plugs that filter out harmful frequencies but their "reviews" are flooded with comments about tinnitus being improved.

Tinnitus is also the only benefit that is in bold font on the product info??

If the reviews focused more on these helping for taking off the edge of loud noises such as in offices, or around screaming little kids, concerts & so on, that would be more believable but the fact that they're heavily pushing the (fake) reviews of tinnitus improving or in some cases almost going away completely literally screams SCAM.

It doesn't have to be a blatant lie to fall into the scam territory. The fact that they guarantee a money back return doesn't mean much. Loads of companies who offer "free trials" for a month only offer it because they anticipate that people will just forget about it and proceed to use the service. If 1,000 people forget to cancel a $15 service, that's still a profit. In order to ship something back a person had to find the time to do it, package it up, take it to the post office, and so forth. Many will just say F it, not worth the hassle, it's only 30 bucks and just keep the earplugs.

Anyone with an iota of intelligence would realize blocking ambient noise will only lead to an increase in your perception of tinnitus...

 

[Mr Possible]

I agree it does not make sense, I don't see the way this might work. Anecdotally some people had relief, but by which mechanism is a mystery to me.
Their main page is here

https://www.flareaudio.com/products/calmer

The mechanism is rather simple but I don't see how it can affect tinnitus. If that worked, cutting all external signals should work too. Perhaps it can help a little with reactivity but even that seems strange. It costs $20-30 so it's not too expensive to try.

Next to having Tinninus symptoms a lot of people have hyperacusis symptoms. So I can see why some people say their tinnitus has reduced.

 

[erw]

Going through a rough patch. Cicadas army angry af. I'm willing to try ANYTHING at this point. Please share experiences with this you people getting it.

I don't know if you ever tried the Flare Audio Calmer inserts but I have. They certainly aren't curing anything but they are reducing how annoying some sounds are and that, to me, is better than nothing.

 

[erw]

Anyone with an iota of intelligence would realize blocking ambient noise will only lead to an increase in your perception of tinnitus...

I have the Flare Audio Calmers. They don't block noise, they reduce specific frequencies.

 

[GBB]

I have the Flare Audio Calmers. They don't block noise, they reduce specific frequencies.

Not to be pedantic, but blocking frequencies is blocking noise, it is simply a subset of what we call generally "sound". More to the point, there is no reason blocking the entire spectrum of noise or any subset of frequencies should reduce tinnitus - it should make its presence more obvious.

 

[Garye]

My order to Canada never quite made it. Flare's shipping company wanted another $13 to clear from Canada customs. Seemed like a lot for a fairly cheap small item. Plus I got discouraged in spending more money to try something that a lot of people here say is crap for tinnitus. And I was not going to give their shipping company any credit card info either.

So I wrote to Flare and said they can have it back.

Will I get a refund? Not holding my breath.

 

[tommyd87]

Just more crap from a vile company, more than happy to employ disingenuous claims to sell a totally useless product to a public suffering a highly debilitating condition.
This is just more nauseating 'flannel' of course, and absolutely no surprise to me.

It is high time the CEO of this crew booted his marketing manager out of the back door for dreaming up such a wretched scheme.

It will never happen of course because this campaign has proved a real 'money spinner!'

Tinnitus occurs as a result of nerve damage to the stereo cilia of the cochlea.
We know there is as yet no effective treatment, much less a cure, to reduce the experience of tinnitus noise, by as much as one solitary decibel.

For this mob to claim that a couple of pieces of plastic have effectively proved to be 'the Holy Grail' - capable of reducing tinnitus by as much as 50% - is such obvious nonsense that it would be laughable if it were not such a cynical scheme.

Don't forget that their product
'made a grown man cry tears of happiness.'

Quite simply - Flare Audio sicken me.

'This is no good.
I gotta stop beating around the bush,
and start saying what I mean!'

All these scams have two elements to them.

1. Push some form of treatment that doesn't work effectively.

2. Charge a ridiculous amount of money for this treatment, all the while marketing it in a way which will make people buy it.

This thing gets added to the list of junk.

Just thought it is worth noting that isn't it funny how there were anecdotal accounts about tinnitus improvement when FX-322 medicine actually treated the hair cells and synapses? I think that as about as good of an example of what might work to treat tinnitus.

 

[Ben Winders]

I got the Flare Audio Calmers and they didn't do anything for my tinnitus.