Steven Slate VSX Headphone

[Daimonicon]

I hate ILOOK - is there any way around it?
Also I use sonarworks hd650 pre-calibrated headphones - and im good with it but.....
the slate stuff looks impressive. Should I wait for the next batch? will there will an updated version of the headphones or this is it and I should just buy the leftovers in different stores?

Update and Slate?

[legendCNCD]

I dont have a measurement device..

Next update should bring us Stevens own mixing studio if I'm not completely wrong, maybe something else too.

[bmanic]

Did anyone measure the weight of the vsx headphones?
Cant find anything about this in the specs.
Wondering how comfortable they are in a long mixing session.
Im used to work with R70X...

Just weighed mine on the kitchen scale. 252g

They are quite comfortable but not in the same class as open back headphones like AKG K701 in my opinion. But this is all very subjective.

The soft cushion is awesome though on the VSX. I can easily work pretty much indefinitely with these.

[sisarii]

Are any rooms on the VSX any good for production? Like in terms of vibes and not super clinical stuff.

I am looking cans that I can use for both productionand mixing but coming from the akg q701 I just hate their vibeless clear sound with a passion when writing music.

[Passing Bye]

Are any rooms on the VSX any good for production? Like in terms of vibes and not super clinical stuff.

I am looking cans that I can use for both productionand mixing but coming from the akg q701 I just hate their vibeless clear sound with a passion when writing music.

Try Realhpones first, some people prefer that with their VSX over whole Slate software thing, there's great thread on GS, plenty of great feedback.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=554121
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/product ... lugin.html

[legendCNCD]

Are any rooms on the VSX any good for production? Like in terms of vibes and not super clinical stuff.

I am looking cans that I can use for both productionand mixing but coming from the akg q701 I just hate their vibeless clear sound with a passion when writing music.

I do most of my composing (and mixing) stuff in the Archon room with ATC & Pelonis. I also check from time to time in the car, club, NRG nearfields and engineers position in the Howies mastering room. Apple crap-pods are ok too to check at least in the mixing phase.

[d-s-m]

Got a pair of these today, really impressed with them. Went through a bunch of my mixes and quickly got any issues sorted out. Mostly been using the Archon Farfields as those have the most depth and just sound the best to me....the NRG Farfields and Howie's room are cool too, don't really use any of the others though. I heard there's an update incoming that adds a bunch of new rooms, so looking forward to that.

Would definitely recommend these if you're on the fence about them

[bmanic]

Are any rooms on the VSX any good for production? Like in terms of vibes and not super clinical stuff.

I am looking cans that I can use for both productionand mixing but coming from the akg q701 I just hate their vibeless clear sound with a passion when writing music.

This is actually an area where VSX very much excels! I love composing/creating music while using VSX and it's larger monitors, especially the far field ones in the Archon room (the big Peloni speakers).

It's extremely satisfying and much nicer to work with this than with plain headphones.

Cheers!
bM

[out without]

I'd be curious to hear how the Slate VSX stands up to the $2,000 plus class of headphones for mixing and production not just in terms of it's ability to present a linear response but in low distortion/clarity, soundstage, and dynamic presentation. If I understand correctly the VSX's strengths lie in its ability to emulate listening environments which aid in translation, but the engineering in the headphones themselves is perhaps nothing to write home about?

I ask because I'm hoping to go "monitor free" and in a recent podcast (Darko Audio) John Tejada mentioned that he did his entire album on a pair of Rosson Rad-0s, even trusting them more than his Genelec 8351 in a treated room. If this were true I'd have no problem picking up a pair, even at their $2600 price point, but if Slate VSX can do it for a fraction of the price...

[dfinkmusic]

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So I'm not sure if what is being told about how they designed these headphones has something to do with facts VSX can still sound great tho. The sound quality and their software has literally nothing to do with anything I just said. In fact, RBH HP-2 had really good reviews, people seem to really like the low end in these headphones.

That makes me wonder if Slates patent pending APS actually does something for the sound or they just use "patent pending" to make this product sound innovative (pretty common in marketing).

If the driver and casing are not custom, then they were not designed for this APS technology. So what exactly they had to do in order to make this work? laser cut 2 holes I guess. Sometimes simple and random ideas can give unexpected results tho.

I was able to find an asian version of this headphone with a claim for a patent right on the page.

https://ko.aliexpress.com/item/32815973404.html (https://ko.aliexpress.com/item/32815973404.html)

More photos: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/urbanf ... one.23735/ (https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/urbanfun-transound-one.23735/)

[bmanic]

So I'm not sure if what is being told about how they designed these headphones has something to do with facts VSX can still sound great tho. The sound quality and their software has literally nothing to do with anything I just said. In fact, RBH HP-2 had really good reviews, people seem to really like the low end in these headphones.

That makes me wonder if Slates patent pending APS actually does something for the sound or they just use "patent pending" to make this product sound innovative (pretty common in marketing).

If the driver and casing are not custom, then they were not designed for this APS technology. So what exactly they had to do in order to make this work? laser cut 2 holes I guess. Sometimes simple and random ideas can give unexpected results tho.

I was able to find an asian version of this headphone with a claim for a patent right on the page.

https://ko.aliexpress.com/item/32815973404.html

More photos: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/urbanf ... one.23735/

This has been confirmed to be false. The overall design and chassis design (the plastic enclosure) is used by many different headphone brands. The Slate VSX electronics (and also the actual plastic materials used) have been completely inhouse designed and made.

You can, if you want to void the warranty, open up the VSX Headphones and indeed confirm the custom electronics and custom driver. It's there.

.. or you can go right ahead and purchase the Ali Express version and confirm within first 5 seconds of actually listening to those and comparing to the Slate VSX headphones.

[dfinkmusic]

This has been confirmed to be false. The overall design and chassis design (the plastic enclosure) is used by many different headphone brands. The Slate VSX electronics (and also the actual plastic materials used) have been completely inhouse designed and made.

You can, if you want to void the warranty, open up the VSX Headphones and indeed confirm the custom electronics and custom driver. It's there.

.. or you can go right ahead and purchase the Ali Express version and confirm within first 5 seconds of actually listening to those and comparing to the Slate VSX headphones.

I'm sensing a bit of defensiveness and bias from your post. Confirmed to be false where? Please cite where this is confirmed and proven. If you have demonstrable evidence of this other than what people they or other people have said, then I'd listen. Otherwise I'll assume the simplest explanation to be true. This is what they did with the mics as well. I highly doubt slate has done much other than work with asian companies who have pre built manufacturing in place to potentially tweak options and nothing more. Reality is if you have a decent headphone, you can tailor the software to it. Setting up manufacturing of such a thing just isn't cost effective. Have a good one!

[dark water]

^^ if you can, get those Asian headphones (they seem pretty cheap?) and report back here.
You might have a good point and it would be interesting to learn more about them from a KVR member.


I'll let bmanic answer for himself, but in fairness, I doubt he could care less about your ultimate preference of headphones. He seems pretty happy (as am I and as are many others) with Slate VSX.
Each to their own tastes...

Undoubtedly, there is an element of marketing hype with Slate (who has previous form of hype...) but the only two weaknesses that I have read about, but not experienced, regarding Slate VSX is the phasing sound in Oct-Dec 2020 of some of the rooms (and this issue has now been fixed with an update), and a very small percentage of the physical headphones snapping due to a sub-quality production run of some early headphones (and Slate has been excellent in posting replacement headphones to the few people who suffered this physical breakage issue).

Imho, they would be expensive for just headphones at around £500 (and I wouldn't buy them if they were just headphones).
But tbf they are instead a whole system that is very comparable with the price point of monitors etc.

If you are going to buy the whole Slate VSX mixing system then you will get the Slate headphones included.
It would be interesting to see how well swapping out the Slate headphones for your Asian headphones would allow the whole Slate VSX mixing system to still function or not.

Slate VSX won't appeal to everyone but they do have very decent feedback from users (including many professional mixing / mastering engineers).
You pays your money and takes your chance.
As put above, if you prefer to try out those Asian headphones, many of us would be interested to find out what you discover.

[Passing Bye]

Nvmnd

[olepro]

I don't ever see it to be possible for headphones to honestly sound like an actual room.

It's probably going to happen at some point.. but that's definitely in the realm of science fiction at this point in time. I suspect the headphones need to somehow "scan" your whole head and insides of ears, then apply some voodoo AI magic to calculate the perfect HRTF for you..

https://smyth-research.com/