Steven Slate VSX Immersion One Headphones

[cryophonik]

https://stevenslateaudio.com/immersion-one

Open-back, coming soon…

[MFXxx]

Look very similar to my Audeze LCXs that I use with Acusticas Sienna and a Mentor Amp... Interesting.

[cryophonik]

Yeah, interesting indeed. I don't love the fit of my OG closed-back VSX compared to my AKGs, but these look like they're probably more comfortable and I love the idea of them being open-backed. I'm certainly intrigued...

[bmanic]

..and depending on the performance of these, with the 30 day 300$ vsx discount, these may be a great deal. Or just average? Who knows. I'm thoroughly tempted.

Unfortunately in my opinion VSX software, the 5.0 rooms have regressed significantly. v2, 3 and 4 technology is much better and not just basic impulse responses / hrtf. Not sure what happened but it seems Slate burned the bridges with whoever was behind the original VSX software technology. To my ears, v5.x sounds and behaves exactly like all the other wannabe "studio in a headphone" solutions out there.

[lfm]

I had a ticket to Slate over maybe taking the leap out of curiosity.
- but some confusion about their site have an upgrade fee for v5
- but there is a v5.1 now and some text not updated

So upgrade cost is from v4.x of VSX software.

Also had an old iLok2 evaluating ProTools long ago, and that is sufficient they said
- for sale now I see only ilok3, so a bit of confusion there for me at least

But even having an upgrade fee for people buying their hardware is a bit awkward.
- and you had to log in to get an offer what you own in expansions etc what to pay

Not having anything iLok or Steinberg on my 2 year old computer, trying to keep it clean, I stay away from VSX
- there is a campaign until today where Essential version is seriously discounted
- though I'd buy Essential and 1 or 2 expansions of choice possibly

I wonder when software spatial processing will make audio right in front of your nose like if there were speakers right there in front of you?
- this HRTF processing does not do that, just obscure positions where one ear will be getting more direct audio
- emulating a room with speakers in front of you will not be there

Distance 2-3 meters in front of you will expand up through your forehead with phones, not feel like right in front.

Listen carefully when the moving ball is in front of your nose and then move away a distance


It's not feeling straight in front of you, just goes up your forehead(upwards in video).
- level is just reduced, as that happends

When this can be handled with processing many things will change, like VR and everything will be more authentic.
- would be a major breakthrough, I think

When you have physical speakers of a surround system in room, positioning is handled by your brain, where things are.

Wavearts Panorama plugins is cool in many ways, you can define a space and what materials are in walls, ceiling and floor etc.
- but it only handled first order near reflections

Talking to developer he said handling more near reflections will be more cpu
- so make that a choice if you want to get a more accurate room/space

Not sure if handling 2-5 reflections from the defined space will solve much, but something is missing as processing goes in phones to make things come at you from any direction.

[bmanic]

.. and all of that speaker/room simulation is moot until we get a reliable way to duplicate how people hear things, how the ear-brain connection works, both in terms of psychoacoustics and physically. nobody has cracked that nut yet.

[legendCNCD]

Yep watching this space closely as I have the Founder Editions still running 100% here. Originals have been sent by the gods because of these concrete cubes they call apartments...

[bmanic]

Looks like the new Immersion One is manufactured by Sendy Audio (a Chinese company). Probably a version of the Aiva 2.. so a mid/low tier planar. Aiva 2 msrp is around 600$. Reviews on the Aiva 2 seem to be quite positive for the most part.

So yeah, not really a true 900$ thing. We'll see how it goes.

[lfm]

Yep watching this space closely as I have the Founder Editions still running 100% here. Originals have been sent by the gods because of these concrete cubes they call apartments...

If that meant that you since getting VSX you only do ONE TRY FINAL MIX
- that is perfect and what everybody is looking for.
- a timesaver

You can get your mixing done on any gear, really
- but how many retries

The most frustrating part of having bad mixing gear is that you do FINAL MIX maybe a dozen times after listening in various devices.
- it's sickening and takes all the fun out of it

Dave Pensado had a mixing contest(this was 10 years or so ago first contest)
- winner of first contest was using DT880 phones, that's it
- God knows how many retries he did on different devices, or no more than once

You can probably use earbuds to your smartphone to get it working there.
- if using reference tracks you have a great help doing that
- ears get calibrated to professionally mixed tracks and can compare if similar genre

The uncomparable you get using monitors is the bleed between channels as one thing.
- to me it affect amount of send to reverb and some panning most of the time
- not so sure you can emulate that in VSX properly since phones all the way
- back of the room in phones goes up your forehead, and not in front of you, really

That's why I wrote all that text over emulation of a room in phones above.

So investing is good monitoring everything still fun to do
- redoing listening in the car or other device not so much
- it kills the fun of finalizing it

[legendCNCD]

Looks like the new Immersion One is manufactured by Sendy Audio (a Chinese company). Probably a version of the Aiva 2.. so a mid/low tier planar. Aiva 2 msrp is around 600$. Reviews on the Aiva 2 seem to be quite positive for the most part.

So yeah, not really a true 900$ thing. We'll see how it goes.

Steven said: I wouldn’t say updated or improved, I have a set of Aiva 2 and they are awesome. Really sparkly top end, lots of life.

VSX has different driver tuning, different wood shell material, different metal hardware, uses semi perforated pads, and totally different airflow/exterior grill, so it’s just a different solution.

It sounds really clean and natural without any software.

But the software combined with the headphone is really magic.

[legendCNCD]

Yep watching this space closely as I have the Founder Editions still running 100% here. Originals have been sent by the gods because of these concrete cubes they call apartments...

If that meant that you since getting VSX you only do ONE TRY FINAL MIX
- that is perfect and what everybody is looking for.
- a timesaver

You can get your mixing done on any gear, really
- but how many retries

The most frustrating part of having bad mixing gear is that you do FINAL MIX maybe a dozen times after listening in various devices.
- it's sickening and takes all the fun out of it

Not maybe one final, but less than before. Much less. We still do check in real car too - because we're driving, its fun. VSX's have taken the "guessing" to very low level/amount.

[lfm]

Not maybe one final, but less than before. Much less. We still do check in real car too - because we're driving, its fun. VSX's have taken the "guessing" to very low level/amount.

Thanks, good to hear.

[bmanic]

VSX for me has completely taken "guessing" to zero. I'm much more comfortable mixing with that system than at the studio where I have a room with 100k€ worth of room treatment and a custom built room within a room solution. And the room is awesome.. perhaps a bit on the dry/too dead side of things (I got obsessed with room modes and waterfall plots when it got built 20 years ago).

But this is only true for the version 4 VSX rooms. Like I said, version 5 rooms don't work for me at all.

EDIT: It's worth noting that I've used VSX so long and so much that I can "calibrate" almost any headphone now to work with the plugin (version 4 rooms that is). The headphones really don't matter much to me, as long as they are of decent quality. It's the software where all the magic lies.

[lfm]

But this is only true for the version 4 VSX rooms. Like I said, version 5 rooms don't work for me at all.

Could you expand on that bit, please?

Is it to do with VSX software version, and those "rooms" made while up to v4?
- those are ok

When upgrading to v5 software, are "rooms" you've got replaced with new modelled ones?
- and everything sucks suddenly
- so you reverted software to v4

Or is it about staying on using rooms that were made before v5?
- then they work just as well
- that newcomer room models are just worse as made

In short, if modelled "rooms" stay the same no matter VSX software version?
- two entities, rooms and software, and upgrading software does not touch room model

[bmanic]

Rooms stay the same. You get all the versions from version 2 upwards, it's fully backwards compatible. It's just that the new version 5 rooms seem to use a completely different (much simpler) way of capturing/modelling the rooms, at least to my ears. They sound exactly like HRTF captures in my opinion. The illusion of sitting in the actual room just doesn't work for my ear/brain.. doesn't work at all. Whereas with v4 it's pretty much perfect once I've calibrated it.

Having said that, it is important to note that I am probably in the minority. Most people seem to prefer version 5 rooms.