Steven Slate Audio VSX

Sound Analysis.

Slate VSX in stock form (physical headphone tuning) without calibration or room modelling has a nice, slightly warm leaning signature with very good technical performance for its asking price – especially imaging, detail retrieval and left to right separation. The headphone in itself makes for a very capable monitoring and referencing headphone, better than a lot of the popular monitoring headphones in the market, but this is not really where its real value lies. It’s the VSX Software that further transforms it into a very precise reference headphone and a multi-room, multi-environment reference system.When you switch it on the first time, I wouldn’t be surprised if you absent mindedly go for the volume knob to control the volume of your monitors, without realising that it’s actually the VSX playing the Near Field monitors in the headphone. I sure was fooled a couple of times and am always impressed with how close it is able to get to the real thing, even with all the limitations of headphone design. VSX software does crosstalk modelling so well that you stop hearing the songs as strictly LCR like in regular headphones and start feeling like the sound is coming at you from in front of you rather than it being in your head, like it generally is with most headphones and IEMs. The different models sound quite different and you perceive significant differences in imaging as well as width and depth of soundstage between the different Near Field, Mid Field and Far Field speakers like it is in real life.

With just VSX headphone calibration on (bypass mode on), you already hear the VSX turn into a very nice, neutral, reference class headphone. Then once you enable the room modelling, you get to hear how all those popular, world class speakers sound in world class rooms. But remember, you don’t just hear those speakers in isolation but how they actually sound in those particular studio rooms. When you switch between Bypass ON and OFF, you get to switch between the ‘in-your-head’ sound of the headphone and then hear it move the sound in front of you with crosstalk/binaural acoustics modelling.

You can also hear the slight difference in sound when listening to the same set of monitors in different rooms, like it can be done with the Yamaha NS10s in NRG Studios versus Mike Dean’s Studio. The NS10s in NRG Studio have a sub-woofer while the ones in Mike Dean’s studio don’t. So you hear the upper-midrange remaining mostly the same, with the sub-woofer switching ON and OFF between both rooms and a slight difference in the lower-midrange and treble of both speakers. The latter difference can be attributed to placement differences, unit variation between the two pairs, one of the speaker being significantly older (as NS10s can be) or the effect of the sound of the room on the speakers. I’d like to believe it’s a combination of all four. The thing is that I can hear it being the same speaker because of its tonal and timbral properties, having used it a zillion times across my career, but how it sounds slightly different in the two rooms is so fascinating as you can hear the room and placement influencing the sound of the same speaker, with just a flick of a button. Just FYI, I do prefer it with the sub-woofer in the NRG Studios room, like I always have in real life because it can otherwise feel a bit too dry, which it totally does in Mike Dean’s Studio room. That amount of accuracy is wonderful to hear and come across in modelling.

Another thing VSX is able to do with the room modelling is reduce fatigue. Headphones with their direct sound can start fatiguing your ears quicker than speakers, however good they maybe, as it has to do with the directivity of sound. There is a reason you can listen to speakers in a room much longer than headphones on your ears. I feel VSX and its binaural psychoacoustics algorithms help make longer sessions easier by keeping the ear freshness last a bit longer than it generally does with regular headphones.

Is it a gimmick? Limitations of room modelling in headphones.

In short, no. It is a well defined scientific process and quite an innovative one. But the thing is that even with welcome breakthrough equipment like Slate VSX, room modelling in headphones still has its limitations, and those limitations are more of headphone design – how a headphone works and transmits sound, than anything else. Let’s break it down for easy understanding.

Even though it gives you a fairly good recreation of hearing speakers in a room, it can’t do the physicality of sound – the feeling of loud speakers playing loudly in a good room, where you not only hear the sound but also feel the energy of sound, especially bass rumble.
It does good staging because of crosstalk modelling, better than most headphones, especially closed back headphones, but its staging boundaries has its restrictions because at the end of the day, the sound is still coming from two speakers fixed right outside your ear and not speakers 4-20 feet in front of you like in real life. One can only do so much with that design using algorithms.
All those rooms in VSX don’t sound as big as they do in their real life. I’ve been in NRG in real life and that room sounds spectacular. When you switch the mains on, it sounds massive. Again, this has to do with the physicality of sound but big spacious studio rooms generally sound big and vibrant because of the energy transmitted by the speakers. Even the Near Field monitors sound bigger in real life than they do in headphones with room modelling.

But regardless, even with these limitations, what room modelling softwares are able to is nothing short of spectacular and highly useful not just for professionals producing and mixing music but also all audiophiles who don’t have access to such wonderful sounding rooms in real life.

Slate Audio VSX vs Waves NX.

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Slideshow of all Studio Rooms Waves Nx models.

Waves NX is another popular headphone calibration and room modelling software, made by the extremely popular pro-audio company – Waves Audio. Even though, it does things quite like the VSX, there are a couple of fundamental differences between them –

Waves NX is not a systemwide software like the Slate VSX and can only be used in DAWs (recording softwares) or using another 3rd party systemwide software like Soundsource.
Waves NX doesn’t come bundled with a physical headphone and instead has calibration files for most of the popular headphones in the market.
Waves NX has an option of head tracking via the webcam or the physical head tracker device they sell separately. Head tracking allows the software to give you a more realistic illusion of listening to speakers as the crosstalk increases/decreases between left and right ears as you move your head left or right. Of course the head tracker is much more accurate than the webcam as the webcam tracking has very minute, but noticeable latency.
Each Waves Nx studio room is a different plugin which you can buy separately or in a bundle. Even the Waves Nx Virtual Studio Collection bundle is not a single plugin but 3 different plugins combined in a pack. So, switching between listening rooms isn’t as easy as in Slate VSX.

Now which out of them is a more authentic recreation of that particular room can only be known if one A/B compares listening in that room and then the software back to back. Extremely authentic or not, they both really do give you a feel of real speakers in a good room with good room modelling and crosstalk between them.

Waves NX’s ability to work with most of the popular headphones along with the asking price of $69 for the Waves Nx Virtual Studio Collection (that includes Chris Lord Alge’s Studio, Ocean Way Nashville and Germano Studios New York) and $50 for Abbey Road Studio 3 not do make it very versatile and quite an attractive proposition ($119 for all room models) but what it doesn’t account for is tuning unit variation between different units of the same headphone when it applies the headphone calibration. The included calibration presets are a measurement of one unit or could even be an average of a couple of units Waves got their hands on but that may or may not translate 100% to your unit if your unit has significant unit variation from the unit they measured. This is where Slate’s proprietary headphone wins as it is able to calibrate your particular unit using the serial number mentioned on the unit. It again does batch calibration than solo unit calibration but the probability of that being more accurate to every unit in the batch is MUCH higher than a measurement of a single unit or an average of a couple of units from random batches over the years.

Besides that, Slate VSX Platinum Edition costs $500 but provides way more listening environments (15 rooms and 6 headphone models vs 4 studio rooms in Waves Nx) along with the physical VSX headphone that is a very good headphone to start with by itself and is probably much better tuned and can be calibrated to work with the software much better than the headphone you currently have.

How can Audiophiles better from all of this?

Most headphone enthusiasts I see both in the pro-audio and audiophile world are generally chasing accurate tuning and good technical performance, especially an out of head soundstage. This is where the VSX delivers better than most headphones I’ve tried, especially closed backs, and even compared to most open backs. Sennheiser HD800/S and Meze Elite are able to do good staging but are nowhere close to reference accurate and are WAY more expensive. Other sub-$1000 open backs which manage a wide soundstage, generally don’t have as deep an out of head soundstage.
None of the headphones can otherwise do the natural crosstalk that stereo speakers in a room have. VSX does the natural crosstalk of the flat speakers in a good room quite well, as best as the tech allows.
You get to hear some of the best high end speakers placed in some of the nicest sounding studios in the world, some of which might have created your favourite music. You get it all at the comfort of your home, with a click of a button.
Better overall tuning and technical performance than most headphones around its asking price and much more.
Best closed back reference system in the market.

Conclusion.

Slate VSX managed to impress me greatly. Not only is it a great reference system for producers and mixers to monitor and mix on, it makes for a great reference listening setup that just sounds wonderful and is extremely easy to use because of its systemwide software. This is a headphone system to show every professional as well as a headphone enthusiast about what is possible when you combine good hardware engineering with even better software engineering. It gives you 15 of some of the world’s best environments to reference and hear your mixes on – a breakthrough technology which is not only fascinating but manages to work quite well too, of course with limitations of what is possible in headphone design. Sure you have other similar headphone calibration and room modelling plugins in the market like the Waves NX, but neither do they come with proprietary, properly calibrated headphones made specifically for their software nor do they have a systemwide app implementation.

I not only saw VSX making my production work life much easier and the whole production process much quicker but also make for a great tiny little package for on the go use as well as casual music listening sessions too. It takes the guesswork out of the process because of its reference accuracy and condenses the whole desktop studio monitor setup in a tiny carry bag, making me feel and hear like I’m mixing on monitors even when sitting in a hotel room several miles away from my studio. The only major gripe I have with the VSX is its cable, which is more microphonic than I’m okay with, and I hope the team thinks of using more premium appointments like braided litz cables for the stock cable as well as wooden cups, suspended leather headpad design, metal yoke and the likes for their next update of the VSX setup.

Well, if you’re a producer, audio engineer, recording artist, a simple recording hobbyist or an audiophile headphone enthusiast, I highly recommend you check the VSX out. Considering the prices boutique headphone companies demand these days, $300 for Essentials Edition and $500 for the Platinum Edition is more than fine for what the system can do. I’d personally recommend going for the Platinum Edition. I’m sure you’ll be highly impressed either way!

Gear used for testing and review.

Desktop Setup – Apple Mac Studio M2 Max with UAD Apollo Twin interface and DROP THX AAA 789 Headphone Amp.
Laptop – Apple 16″ Macbook Pro with iFi xDSD Gryphon DAC/Amp.