@ Steven Slate That's super cool.

Hey that's a new hardware this year from Slate,from a diff team and company.

Where are new VMR plugins from Slate Digital ?? :'-(

Guys. VSX is self-contained. Slate bridged the gap with hardware/software. Use can correction for cans that need it.

Also, be prepared for the detailed low end response of these headphones. Patent pending technology that will make you 'hear' sub 100hz like never before with headphones. I use the virtual electric car and club to test/check low end translation and it is undefeated IRL.

This is the area I'm most interested in; low end clarity and extension.

My expectations are high, I hope this hype is real :D

Order placed. Will report back with my thoughts. Very excited!

The Headphones are super flat and do sound good to me without VSX. They don't weigh much either but are very robust.

When you hear the low frequencies the VSX solution can produce, you will be absolutely gobsmacked. I can actually feel the subs!

No. It's super flat headphone driven by modelling software which captures the room, speakers and the overall environment to give you that 3D perspective of being in the room. There are some popular headphone emulations.

Please can you add debit cards to the split payments!! if you can
Best

Being a fan of your music I would be surprised if VSX does not 'wow' you!

That being said, I don't have a treated room/pro monitors/sub/or ultra expensive headphones. But I'd suspect even for those that do VSX will be a must have (even if just to save a trip to the dreaded car test!).

Plus...you can't take all that great gear with you. VSX fits nicely inside your laptop case.

Looking forward to hearing what you think!

Yup switching that in and out is amazing. The stock HD Linear sounds good. When you add the low end on the various models that excel at it it's very cool how hear how headphones transform so much, yet sound so good (and natural).

This product really exceeded my expectations. You get a good balance of rooms that sound really great but also ones that will make you work hard (but get a better mix of course). And for doing club stuff being able to preview how it will translate in that environment is so helpful.

Thank you!!!


Without the software it's a bit boring because the circuitry intentionally neutralizes the upper mids, but some people seem to like it. But with the HD Linear model, it's gorgeous sounding. Flat, detailed, clean, punchy, great lows!


Thanks bose! Hope you love it!


My other company Slate Digital will have new VMR analog modeled plugins very soon actually!


Yes!!!

The APS (Acoustic Ported Subsonics) are quite stunning! Credit where it's due, Paul Wolff, our chief hardware designer, came up with this crazy idea to harness the air pressure to turbo charge the cushions. It actually feels like you are in the room with a subwoofer on the big sub models!

Cheers,
Steven

Appreciate it - thank you.

Kii Three firmware was updated recently to include internal EQ/filters for correction. I'm testing them without the Trinnov ST2 and liking what I'm hearing. The low end (up to 200hz) is +/-2.5dB though (+/-1dB above 800Hz), not perfect, so if these can replace the need for the ST2 to check lows, well, that's incredible.

If these were released yesterday the orders could have gone through and we'd (UK) have had them for the weekend. It's going to be a long wait

Oh man! Kii Three + Trinnov sounds amazing. The Trinnov is the most impressive piece of audio technology I've seen in a long time. You are gonna have fun with that system! Congrats!

Cheers,
Steven

You have an amazing setup my friend. I was (and still am) a bit jealous...but VSX makes me slightly less jealous

A slightly paranoid question, but does this new technology have any implications in terms of increased risk of hearing damage vs conventional headphones at the same perceived volume?

The video on the proprietary 'bpm' stuff doesn't speak with much depth on how this is supposed to sound 'the same' to every user. Since accurate binaural modeling tends to take into account the individual user's physical makeup -- Without inputting personal HRTF measurements of my head size, distance between ears, etc, I'm skeptical that the sound delivered to my ears would sound the same to someone with a different shaped or sized head.

Can you elaborate on how this is supposedly achieved?

Here is where the nifty 'DEPTH' knob in VSX comes into play.

A flat response does the opposite. The issues are when there's imbalance, i.e. not enough lows, so someone (a bass junkie for example) cranks up the volume only to have their ears blasted by too much high end.

When there's balance, you don't need to raise the volume to hear what's missing.

Ordered. I run a Trinnov as well and it's been an amazing upgrade, but there are still some issues that are just due to the room. So I still do headphone checks. Also, I'm spending more and more time away from the studio and I've yet to find a headphone solution that I truly enjoy and trust. I'm definitely excited to check these out. What is the level of isolation with them? As much as I like open back cans (currently have 650s and LCD-1's, had LCD-X) I like being able to work in semi noisy environments like a coffee shop, or even at home, without bothering anybody or being distracted to much by external noise. Comfort is a huge factor as well.

Hey everyone

I also have been part of the Beta-Testing Team and am very impressed by the product itself and the passion and perfectionism i witnessed from Steven and his whole team during this process. These guys have been renlentless! Continuos and tireless tweaking until the product was there were they wanted it. Congrats!!

As for the product itself, I totally agree with the other Beta testers on this thread: It sounds excellent and the mixes translate very well to the 'outside world'.

To me the main advantage compared to other somewhat similar systems out there, is the fact that this is a specifically and purposefully designed hardware/software HYBRID. This ensures that everything on the listeners side sounds exactly the way it was intended by the programmers - so the emulation of a particular room translates perfectly to your pair of headphones. There are many selling points to this product but for me one of the main advantages over somewhat similar systems by other manufacturers is that it takes out the guesswork/insecurites on the side of the user (are my headphones right for this? Should I use Sonarworks after the emulation? etc.). Although the tech behind it is very complex, for the user it's incredibly simple to use: install the software, plug in the headphones and mix away.

How is its lows compared to a LCD-X?

Sounds exciting! is it possible to use the modeling software outside a DAW for easy-listening on Spotify and other websites?

Hi Gabriel, a lot of testers used programs like MenuBus to intercept the audio between the computer and the interface, and put VSX in there to monitor all audio through the modeling.

It's really fun to listen to the top 40 hip hop tracks in the VSX Club, but beware that if your significant other catches you furiously dancing by yourself, it will be embarrassing.

Cheers,
Steven

I like and use Waves Abby road studio; seems like Slate "borrowed" the idea and ran with it.

Although I love the Waves solution can headphones really emulate things in the lower range of the frequency spectrum accurately?

Love to hear what studio designers and large and small monitor manufacturers have to say because if Waves and now Slate's solution is an indication of what's actually possible in terms of emulating physical spaces different sonic blueprints accurately; this could actually be the beginning of a paradigm shift (I actually think this is more than hype based on what I'm hearing with Waves).

A lot of respectable slutz seem to be jumping on this bandwagon.

I've might have to be good and ask santa to put this in the sock for me.

Getting great reviews and I'm almost ready to pull the trigger, however it sounds like they're not going to be very useful without the modeling plugin (people are all raving about the HD linear model). Am I correct in understanding that I can only use the these headphones to their intended potential when monitoring through my daw with the plugin on my mix bus? Is there standalone software or some kind of driver support if I want to plug into my laptop and listen via apple music, spotify, youtube etc.?
I currently monitor from my console and have a bunch of external sources hooked up... would you say that the VSX is less than ideal for my use case and is more for someone doing everything in in the box?
Thanks!

edit: Sorry, I see that Gabriel asked nearly the same thing at the same time as me. I like being able to take my headphones everywhere so that I can plug in and essentially have "monitors" that I know and trust regardless of the source material, equipment, monitors or room acoustics. That portability aspect seems to be missing here if they are chained to my DAW and protools workstation.

Is there a money back guarantee?

So if I buy the headphones, I can just install the plugin and run them straight away...

I need these!

Run the software inside of soundsource (similar to menubus that Steven mentioned). You can run all of your OS X audio through soundsource.

Hi, what I would do in your case is send one of your main aux mixes to a DAW system with a nice 2 channel interface and use this as a dedicated alt reference system. You can put the plugin in an application like MenuBus which will allow you to monitor iTunes, Spotify, Youtube, etc.

Cheers,
Steven

I doubt that would be the case, when it comes to modelling software/etc, the first step is to design a product that is as linear as possible...you start with the best bassline reference you can design...from there the modelling technology is applied...so in this case the actual headphones would translate to being as perfectly flat and linear as possible.

Some headphones add/detract from the soundstage by nature of design, these are most likely as sonically flat as possible for the price range (and frankly beyond that who can hear anyway?)...so you would be able to use them on probably any interface and situation as a really linear set of phones...

Which would actually be a good thing to do...every set of headphones has a natural "learning curve" associated with how they impact the sound...the flatter the less learning required.

I wonder how these would relate to different designs, such as an open back mixing set...

I typically use some pretty wonky Sennheisers for my rough mix...then go to my room monitors then put on a set of Grado RS1's (originals) which are open back and gradually turn up the room monitors until the sound stage centers somewhat...

The Grados are exceptional for long sessions...and there are things on the edges they pick up that none of my other reference systems notice...

One thing I will add the DAC you are using has a HUGE impact here...the DAC on my Apollo Twin is not as "clean" as I prefer...pretty sure the BurrBrown is chosen for a "analog feel" there...

The sound stage of the ESS Sabre 9018s DAC pretty much blows away anything else I have ever used (Its in the Apogee Symphony system, BUT you can pick it up cheap in a S.L.S.M. idea thumb drive headphone player...you might be shocked at how good that thing sounds)