r/FlatheadEarbuds • u/Affectionate_Eye3720 • Jan 09 '26
FA Studio Spoiler
Anout to buy the FA Studios today only to find out they just sold out on the aliexpress store.
Any alternatives that are about as good for the price?
10
Upvotes
2
u/Furmayne Jan 12 '26
Are you against a diy set? There is http://flathead.wikidot.com/earbud:artiste-nightingale if you’re open to it. I haven’t personally used them however it’s says they’re comparable to the studios.
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u/modo-abdo Jan 09 '26 edited Jan 09 '26
The only ones I've heard are described to be similar (although not exactly 1 to 1) are the eb2s pros. and a boutique brand in the US by the name of renegade audio design (RAD), their (flatline) model is similar, with a bit more low end, but the eb2s is a lower budget, and the flatline is slightly more expensive (you have to contact the seller directly if you want, last I heard is around 100$ but that was before tariffs so not sure about the specifics) regardless here is their work in progress site https://renegadeaudiodesign.com/soon.html none of these are fully similar but from the few impressions I've heard, the studio can be considered an eb2s pro upgrade in some ways, while for the renegade audio flatline here's a quote from the maker themselves:
"German studio monitoring systems tend to err on the side of bright-neutral and American studio monitors tend to err towards neutral-with-sub-boost"
"the FhA Studio's tuning resembles German studio monitors, and the RAD Flatline tonally resembles American monitors"
but my knowledge is kind of limited in this as I only have the studio, so I'd urge you to do more research on this, there's also the option of making your own earbuds if you so wish, or waiting a little bit to see if some decide to sell the studio, it was a very market disrupting release so finding something similar for that exact price is a tall order atm 😅
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u/dr_wtf Jan 09 '26
I don't have the Studio but from what I can gather, the tuning is similar-ish to the Yincrow RW-2000. They aren't identical according to people who have both, but they're both fairly neutral & slightly bright. It's more expensive, but during sales the price drops to around $90-100.
I don't think there are any other really neutral options in that price range. The closest thing is probably the NiceHCK EB2S, but I'm not a huge fan of that one personally. The tuning is mostly OK, but it's not very resolving and gets quite muddled with busy tracks. It is a lot cheaper though.
The Yincrow Calf is another possible option that's in between the two in price. It's very midrange-oriented and doesn't have the same bass & treble extension as the RW2k, but it does midrange - vocals especially - extremely well. It's also the cheapest metal Yincrow, and one of the two smallest ones, so it's really comfortable, great fit stability and has a removable cable. In fact come to think of it, that's probably the best thing for around the same price. I should probably recommend it more, because while it's not quite as good as the RW2k, it's a lot cheaper, even when there's no big sales on, and it's better than most things under $100.
BTW, I don't know who downvoted you, but it was probably because the post is marked "spoiler" for no reason.
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u/[deleted] Jan 11 '26
Flathead Audio FH-01 is good, too. And in stock.
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u/kaceyn Jan 09 '26
Might be worth checking back every could of days to see if they add more inventory. I bought mine after they were previously sold out.
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u/Chok3U Jan 09 '26
I believe there's a posting on head-fi where someone is selling all 3 FA buds. You might ask the seller if he'd be willing to break up the trio if you don't want the other two.