Steven Slate VSX Immersion One Headphones

[cryophonik]

Just got the update from my sales rep that my headphones are shipping out today! I still haven't even tried the v6 update with my OG VSX yet - I think I'm going to wait and do the maiden voyage when the new IM1's arrive.

[bmanic]

So? How do you like them?

I've been using the IM1 now with all kinds of devices and mostly it's been working extremely well. I still prefer them while connected to a semi high-end headphone amplifier but I've got pretty good results with them connected to my MPC Live and little Boss Katana Go thingy as well. I also took them to a music shop and plugged them into various synths there and most seemed to have enough juice to at least get the volume loud enough (though frequency balance was slightly questionable on some).

To anybody reading this and considering mid tier quality headphones: I can very heartily recommend these. The only caveat is that if your head size is smaller than average, you may have to do some modifications to get them to sit the way you want them to sit on your head. According to Slate, these should sit rather low on your head, like resting on top of your earlobes but personally I find that unnecessary. I don't usually like it when headphones touch the ears so I've setup mine on minimum extension and that just about clears the top of my ears and the frequency response is excellent. In general these seem to be pretty damn forgiving in terms of response, no matter how they sit on your head.

With the original VSX I couldn't have my glasses on normally without it affecting the frequency response drastically (as they are closed back and tightly sealed) but on these I notice virtually no difference in response even with my glasses on.

Anyhow, just wanted to bump this a bit because at the price they are going for, these are very competitive and excellent headphones in this 1000 dollar price bracket and definitely outperform quite a few competitors. They are very neutral/natural sounding headphones, no wild bumps in highs or lows.. maybe a tad on the warmer side (slight broad emphasis in the 200 to 1kHz range) which is very much to my personal liking, especially in this modern age when everything is so damn scooped and brittle. Though to be fair, these will result in even more such mixes being created in the world!

Still, excellent headphones. I'd give these 4.5 / 5 stars. Half a point deducted from the cable that feels a little on the flimsy side of things. It feels a bit like it could break at the connections part if abused. Otherwise an excellent, very non-microphonic cable. Perfect length too for my needs. Not too short, not too long.

[zerocrossing]

Placed my preorder for my Immersion One headphone upgrade yesterday. ETA from Sweetwater says January.

I'm thinking of upgrading form the closed back version. How are you liking them?

[Scotty]

Does anyone know if the headphone cable is socketed and/or replaceable?

[cryophonik]

Placed my preorder for my Immersion One headphone upgrade yesterday. ETA from Sweetwater says January.

I'm thinking of upgrading form the closed back version. How are you liking them?

I might not be the best person to answer this question, but I'll try to give you as unbiased a response as possible. First, the IM1s are a big improvement in fit, comfort, and sound over the OG closed backs, but I only use them as a secondary reference (same goes for my OG closed backs). If they were my main mixing headphones, I'd say that they are easily worth the price of upgrade. That said, I would never use them as my go-to headphones because I'm just so used to my K701s after a decade of use, but I think the combination of my 701s (and 702s, which I also own) with my Apollo and SonarWorks for Apollo are better in every category - tonal balance, detail, soundstage, fit/comfort, weight, etc. Putting on the IM1s immediately after my 701s sounds like I turned up the distortion a notch, decreased the stereo width, and put some cotton in my ear canals - I mean that simply as a relative description, not a knock on the IM1s. But, taking the IM1s off and putting on my 701s is like, woah, OK now I can hear exactly where every little detail is placed in the room and frequencies that I wasn't noticing with the IM1s. Like I said, I am admittedly very biased because I've learned the sound of my 701s inside and out and I can hear every little detail in them, whereas the IM1s sound a little more dull, flat, and smeared by comparison.

Finally, I'm probably in the minority here, since everyone else seems to think the IM1s are the pinnacle of mixing headphones. Again, I do think they are worth the upgrade cost. The IM1s are way more comfortable than the OGs, better constructed, and don't sound anywhere near as boxy as the OGs - they feel and sound more luxurious for lack of a better term, I guess, than the OGs. Hope that's somewhat helpful.

[zerocrossing]

Placed my preorder for my Immersion One headphone upgrade yesterday. ETA from Sweetwater says January.

I'm thinking of upgrading form the closed back version. How are you liking them?

I might not be the best person to answer this question, but I'll try to give you as unbiased a response as possible. First, the IM1s are a big improvement in fit, comfort, and sound over the OG closed backs, but I only use them as a secondary reference (same goes for my OG closed backs). If they were my main mixing headphones, I'd say that they are easily worth the price of upgrade. That said, I would never use them as my go-to headphones because I'm just so used to my K701s after a decade of use, but I think the combination of my 701s (and 702s, which I also own) with my Apollo and SonarWorks for Apollo are better in every category - tonal balance, detail, soundstage, fit/comfort, weight, etc. Putting on the IM1s immediately after my 701s sounds like I turned up the distortion a notch, decreased the stereo width, and put some cotton in my ear canals - I mean that simply as a relative description, not a knock on the IM1s. But, taking the IM1s off and putting on my 701s is like, woah, OK now I can hear exactly where every little detail is placed in the room and frequencies that I wasn't noticing with the IM1s. Like I said, I am admittedly very biased because I've learned the sound of my 701s inside and out and I can hear every little detail in them, whereas the IM1s sound a little more dull, flat, and smeared by comparison.

Finally, I'm probably in the minority here, since everyone else seems to think the IM1s are the pinnacle of mixing headphones. Again, I do think they are worth the upgrade cost. The IM1s are way more comfortable than the OGs, better constructed, and don't sound anywhere near as boxy as the OGs - they feel and sound more luxurious for lack of a better term, I guess, than the OGs. Hope that's somewhat helpful.

That is very helpful! I really appreciate the feedback. I own the AKG 702s and Beyerdynamic DT1990 Pros that I like a lot. I use the 1990s when I want something flattering, but before the VSX I’d switch to the 702s for mixing and then begin the arduous process of taking my mix around to various different platforms to see how it translates. Now I’m using the VSX to virtually do that, and it seems to be working better for me.

One of my biggest problems is with me, though. My brain has a tendency to autocorrect my mixes. I accidentally uploaded a video with a crappy rough mix because I didn’t notice it, despite listening to it during the video editing process a whole bunch of times. It wasn’t until someone, rather rudely, trashed my mix that I went back to the Premiere project and realized that I had imported the wrong file. So what I need is a sort of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind procedure to erase the track from my memory so I can access it with a critical ear.

[bmanic]

Very interesting thoughts on IM1 versus the K701. I still have my original made in Austria versions in the cupboard. Had grand plans to fix the headband on those as they are awesome headphones (though the whole AKG 7xx line has way too little bass.. and they don't take bass boosted EQ very well either).

I've owned a total of 6 different pairs of high-end AKG headphones over the decades and most of them have been decent, some even excellent (most notably the 701 version.. didn't like 702 at all, especially the made in china ones).

My advice to anybody looking for headphones is always the same:

1) Comfort comes first. Never, ever, ever, ever!! compromise on this. Don't listen to audiofools. Go with your gut.
2) Comfort comes first. f**k "sound quality" and "bla bla bla" by anonymous internet people (like me).
3) .. you guessed it. Comfort comes first.

That's about it. It's difficult to "go wrong" in today's market of headphones provided that you have a few hundred bucks to spend. Also, never underestimate how well the brain can adapt and accept the _objective_ fact that headphones are ultra-nearfield monitors, thus they are subject to each individuals anatomy (head shape, ear shape, inner ear shape etc). Monitoring in general is in my opinion, which has slowly changed over the years, completely subjective. The best monitors or headphones are those that just work. When you can mix confidently with your system, no matter what it is, that's the best system. Period.


Having said all that. Immersion One are the best headphones I've owned so far. I'm getting the best results and they just suit me perfectly. I'm super happy about that! But a little worried what I'll do once these break. I've already bought replacement pads and cables just to keep me going, hopefully for decades. But ultimately these will be worn down at some point and the whole damn learning thing will start all over again. I'm not looking forward to that at all. Even buying a new pair doesn't necessarily guarantee that I'll get the same exact headphone. This pair I have, a very early one on the serial number, is excellent. L/R correlation is stupidly good. Overall frequency response and transient response is stupidly good. I have no idea if the ramping up of the mass production still produces such good headphone batches in a few years time. It wouldn't be the first time headphone models change (good example being the AKG K701 which dramatically changed in voicing/tonality over it's life span).

[cryophonik]

Interestingly and totally coincidentally, I just received an email from Slate about some problems with the calibration in my serial number's production run. TBH, in the back of my mind I have always wondered if maybe something was wrong with mine because they are not the mindblowingly amazing headphones that other people claim they are.

Dear VSX Immersion One User,
Nothing is more important to us than delivering the absolute best possible experience with your VSX system, so I wanted to share a small update we recently discovered.

Each production batch of Immersion One drivers is carefully measured and calibrated to match our reference standard. During a recent review, we learned that the IM11 driver batch was actually produced across two separate production runs. As a result, roughly half of the IM11 units benefit from a slightly different calibration profile

There's an update to the software with a new calibration profile, so I'm going to check that out this evening and report back.

[cryophonik]

I've owned a total of 6 different pairs of high-end AKG headphones over the decades and most of them have been decent, some even excellent (most notably the 701 version.. didn't like 702 at all, especially the made in china ones).

Yeah, and I think the 70X's are an acquired taste. They are undoubtedly on the bright and open side and have a pretty wide soundstage compared to comparable headphones from BD, Sennheiser, Sony, etc. The Soundworks for Apollo headphone correction reigns this in quite a bit and makes them a bit more equal (I also have BD DT880 Pros and a few others).

Interesting note about the Chinese 702s. Mine are an older Austrian-made pair that I bought last year secondhand, but were basically new/still packaged. I can barely hear any difference between them and my 701s in normal situations and, when I apply their respective SoundWorks calibration profiles in my Apollo headphone outputs, I can't really hear any meaningful difference at all.

[bmanic]

Yeah, whatever you do, don't try the 701 or 702 China versions. Or maybe they've gotten better? No idea. AKG as a brand is not the same as it used to be either. I think the 701 or 702 was the last headphone before the complete reshuffle of the company (moved to California, basically owned by Samsung).

Austrian Audio is where all the original engineers now live. Though I haven't had a chance to try their headphones yet.. but their microphones are absolutely amazing.

[bmanic]

Interestingly and totally coincidentally, I just received an email from Slate about some problems with the calibration in my serial number's production run. TBH, in the back of my mind I have always wondered if maybe something was wrong with mine because they are not the mindblowingly amazing headphones that other people claim they are.

Dear VSX Immersion One User,
Nothing is more important to us than delivering the absolute best possible experience with your VSX system, so I wanted to share a small update we recently discovered.

Each production batch of Immersion One drivers is carefully measured and calibrated to match our reference standard. During a recent review, we learned that the IM11 driver batch was actually produced across two separate production runs. As a result, roughly half of the IM11 units benefit from a slightly different calibration profile

There's an update to the software with a new calibration profile, so I'm going to check that out this evening and report back.

Hmm.. I suspect it's just a quite minor tweak, like a single decibel or so.. over a broad range. No, if you are a big fan of the AKG 701 sound, these will still sound very different.

Have you tried the oratory1990 calibrations for Immersion One? There was this nifty tool posted a while back.

https://gearspace.com/board/music-compu ... esets.html

With that you can copy the PDF calibration directly with simple drag and drop onto the tool which then pops out a FF Pro-Q4 preset. I tried it with my IM1 headphones but it felt too heavy handed of a calibration.. besides I have my own custom made one. But maybe it's worth testing?

[APERTURE]

Vsx 7.0 is out!

[cryophonik]

https://stevenslateaudio.com/en/vsx/upgrade