so I received a Lovense Solace Pro as a gift from a past girlfriend a while back and frankly their customer service experience gave me the motivation to warn others. I’ll get to that at the end but I might as well make it a proper review
Its got decent speed and accuracy to match scripts but if you set the stroke length to max it clunks each time the track reverses which makes it sound like wreck it ralph is going to town on you. Granted this is only really an issue at speed of 200+ units/s (idk what the units are in relation to but its what is said by Funsync Player) if you go to speeds of 500+ units/s, you gotta cut the stroke length in half give or take to reduce the noise.
Speaking of noise, whatever motors they use lets off a constant high frequency whine that will leave you questioning if you got tenuities after prolonged use. I’m sure with sound proof headphones its not a problem but if your like me and you want to keep track of the noise with one ear open it gets annoying after a while. let me make this clear; I’m a Mechanical Engineer, I spend all day in a laboratory surrounded by motors electrical and combustion. I learned to tune out the noise and eventually you don’t even notice, except for the Solace Pro, somehow that whine pierces through whatever conditioning my work gave me.
It’s overall noise at max movement isn’t too bad Imo, granted my expectations might be different.
at max speed:
Heard through walls? - yes
Clearly obvious some kind of sex toy is in use? - yes
If I turn on a fan to hide the noise will it work? - no, tried that and the previously mentioned clunk overpowers it
if I have thin walls should I avoid max speed? - do you want your neighbors to hear
at half speed:
Heard through walls? - assuming you’ve set limits to prevent clunking, I’d give a hesitant no
If I turn on a fan to hide the noise will it work? - yes
For script compatibility its decent, you gotta tweak the timing latency on you system to get the movements synced but that a common issue I assume. Depending on what player you use I would recommend checking the interpolation method, the smoother you can make it the more accurate the movements will get.
I use interface central to connect mine to most things and here’s a very useful tip. If you leave oscillation turned on under the feature configuration it will completely shatter any compatibility with scripts. With it off it matches the scripts decently well, but if its on the movement is totally random.
For most games it seems to connect fairly well and works decently well. For games that use the Lovense Remote app to connect its got some issues. The setting up process tends to be the longest given you gotta type out an entire IP address. Of course that’s assuming the game can even properly connect to the app. I’ve faced a few games the claim it can connect but return errors saying it’s not finding anything.
Now onto the sleeves… it’s ok I guess. The generic sleeve it comes with feels fine and does the job but then again I’m not a texture aficionado. It’s got a closed end so cleanings a little harder but if your like me and prefer it that way it’s a bonus component. The generic sleeve comes with a plastic cylinder housing unit to hold the Lovense branded sleeves in place. Someone clearly didn’t pay attention to acoustics because that plastic unit acts like a drum for the clunks to get 2-3 times as loud.
I bought the universal grip kit earlier so I can attach other sleeves to it. It makes a solid connection to the system but its very very very short. I’ve read other reviews that complain about the sleeves being too close to the system and this is no different. I don’t really mind it being close as long as I’m not making contact but to each their own. The grip unit comes with a standard single Velcro strap without any rubber grip. You can cut off the original and replace it if it makes a big difference for you. There’s only a single strap at the bottom so longer toys are gonna flop a bit, unless your like me and are planning on adding a second strap. VERY IMPORTANT DETAIL: the max weight stated by the company is 500g for sleeves. now if you own larger toys your SOL, sorry
Mounting to a desk. Lovense designed the connecting points for the Solace Pro to only work for their standard mount. It’s a single screw offset by a peg to add some stability to the connection point. I have yet to find a compatible alternative mount. The mount itself is simple screw clamp for the desk and a patterned hinge point for the angle, i.e. a set of metal teeth hold the angle in place. You can adjust the vertical angle at the hinge and the height along the bar connecting to the Solace Pro.
Why I made this review
Customer service experience:
When I first opened it the plastic holding unit for the sleeve was broken, the teeth that hold it to the system were broken and one of the plastic parts had fallen into the unit. Luckily after shaking it like It owed me money the broken piece fell out. I was able to contact customer support and they mailed me a replacement housing unit a week later. Pretty standard IMO
Here’s the reason why I call it The Apple products of Strokers. After getting sick of the clunking I decided “I got a Masters in Engineering, a garage full of tools and the knowledge to basically design one myself, why don’t I open it up, grease some gears, and put in a rubber washer to absorb the impacts.” like any sane person I first looked online to see if there’s any guides already out there. Nope, nothing, nada. So I contacted customer support to ask if there’s a recommended method. Their response boiled down to, “if it’s still under warranty you can send it back and we’ll fix it here, we don’t want people doing repairs at home.” the warranty is only 1 year. after that 1 year its 10 years of “we’ll give you a 55% discount to buy something new” so I tried to open it up, nothing. Like most Apple products there’s no screw, bolt or latch visible, the most I found was a single bolt pin I fear attempts to remove would break the entire system.
Verdict
for overall ease of use its decent, its got decent functionality, decent connections, decent overall. but It’s got no way to do repairs or maintenance after 1 year.
for $200 USD its an average product, but I’ll be honest if your looking for a great experience, No just no. If I hadn’t gotten it as a gift I would never buy it knowing what I know. The only reason I could think of why you would want one is for the linking to other products. For the price of $200 USD you might as well look into getting a FUNSR1, at least you can repair that one.