Steven Slate Audio VSX 3.0 + VSX Essentials Bundle
by Steven Slate   25th November 2022

This is a great suggestion. I will try that.
Im still in seqrch for the correct profile and frequency. I think im profile 2 @3.5kHz. But a relible way how to find that would be welcome. Brain adapts in an interesting way and can get used to different values there quickly.

I like this. I would do the same during the development when comparing against the real speakers to match the perceived distance.

Steven

This just keeps getting better and better. VSX changed mixes overnight the minute I started using after purchase back in April. This new update just feels more "real". Also love listening to lossless audio through the Zuma far fields. It's like I'm hearing how music is supposed to sound for the first time.

I picked up the Topping DX1 DAC and headphone amp. Really well built little unit, and sounds excellent. Has a low and high gain mode, with the low gain mode being enough to drive VSX loud.
Made my UA Arrow and EVO8 seem a bit dark. Bus powered, but the power draw is very reasonable. Definitely worth a look for the price (£99/$99) if you are looking something portable but don’t need preamps.

The main issue was at 835, not 280. That should be all good now. Also refined 556 which is a 280 harmonic and that may need some more tweaking. I'll test further and update.

My FiiO KA3 just arrived and the difference between it and the upgraded headphone output on the 2021 MacBook Pro 14" is very obvious. Thanks to all who recommended getting a DAC to use with VSX. My only issue with it is that it gets hot AF.

Really interested to know how this works please?

Ok it's quick and easy, it takes longer to type than to do it:

1 create an audio track with a song on it.
2 route the output of this track to a stereo aux
3 route the output of the aux to your main out for your headphones
4 put the VSX plugin on the aux
5 pan the audio track all the way to either the left or the right channel
6 play the song

You'll be hearing the sound coming from both headphones with a dominance of the sound coming from the side that you panned the track to. The other side is still getting some sound because of the binaural effect, if you bypass the plugin you only hear sound from the side you have panned the track to, and absolutely nothing from the other side.

Start with the Depth knob all the way to the left and notice that the more you turn the knob up, the more you hear the sound coming from the ear opposite to where you panned the audio track. Continue augmenting the depth until you visualize the virtual speakers at your preferred distance. In a nutshell, the more leakage you get, the further you are placing your head from the speakers. Obviously there will be a couple of feet of difference, so it's not extremely different, but different enough to be noticeable.

I'm noticing that the Zuma room is a bit more treated so the effect is a bit less evident but the other rooms work well for this method.

I hope I was clear enough! I don't own the VSX yet but it's on my list, I have tested it several times thanks to a friend, the latest update is really great, we tested it last night. Really really great. Kudos to the team!

Got my VSX Essentials today and having fun with them. I found the instructional YouTube videos on Steven's site and am checking those out. I definitely need to do the acclimation thing and figure out how to dial them in. I can tell though, that this will be a real asset in making mix adjustments.

I'm getting "VSXBLACKFRIDAY2022FREEGIFT discount code isn’t valid for the items in your cart" when trying to check out with the VSX Essentials during the FREE Audiophile Room Expansion promotion on the Slate VSX website. It's Saturday night and I'm getting this error when adding the Mike Dean Expansion to the cart and using the PROMO CODE "VSXBlackFriday2022FREEGift".

If I'm correct the promo is good for another 24 hours. Is anyone else having this issue?

You need to add the Audiophile room to your cart. The coupon will take it from $19 to free, and then you can check out.

Thanks! I guess I didn't read that clearly.

Thanks! When you add the full signal back into the ear you had no dry signal in, does the sound not just then jump forward towards you as more dry signal is added back in?

Nice

Why do you need to create and route the aux? Can't you just pan the track, with VSX on the main LR insert?

Whew! Glad I saw this tonight... just jumped on this deal. Bought a couple more expansions earlier today and didn't know about the coupon so I guess I had to get another! I'm hooked! This is really good! Of course, I probably blew it getting "Essentials." I liked this so much that with all the expansions I bought piecemeal, would have been smarter to by the "Platinum Edition."

I really wish I could hear this magical 3D effect!

In my ears the depth knob dries the signal on 'Low' and then introduces a bt of reverb-ish depth around 9 o'clock, then all the way up to 'Full' it doesn't sound any different to me. Sounds great ... but a a typical all-round headphone sound, rather than the illusion of being in front of the speakers.

Just me being weird I guess

Trying out the suggestion by @ baslotto but on my Cubase control room all I hear is what I presume to be the Impulse Responses only - probably setting it up wrong ... I'll keep at it.

Ehhh I used to have access to NRG, Howie Weinberg, Audiophile and now I've lost them since updating??

I understand there's new rooms (Mike Dean, Zuma) and that I should have to pay for them but it appears with the new dual pricing structure I've been downgraded?

Apologies if this has been explained already but I can't see anything about this in the update email I received.

Oh wait user error, license back to normal now. Looking forward to putting V3 through its paces...

to have the realistic 3D stereo effect, an excellent if not perfect calibration between the three fundamental parameters Profile, Depth and Eq is essential

once you find the right combination it seems to be in the studio and at that point VSX becomes a wonderful product, otherwise it remains just a headphone that changes colors but without offering much more than a headphone sound (but it remains a good tool for mixing)

I think Steven Slate Audio has done the most on their side, but then there remains a decisive final part that is in the hands of the user, this I understand with my experience of VSX from a year that I have been using it

the part that Steven unfortunately can't do is the one related to the personal calibration of the user, because each user has different ears, different distances, etc.

Steven gave the tools to do the calibration, but he can never do it for you

this is the part that is up to the user to do accurately

but if it's not done accurately, then VSX may seem to perform poorly and not as promised or hoped

I would suggest Steven to invest more in helping the user learn how to do a perfect headphone calibration

the serious problem in my opinion is that to do a serious personal calibration it is necessary to have trained ears, and here no one can help the user, because it is the user himself who must do this part and no one else can do it for him

so I think the best solution is personal listening refinement, and having well done instructions from Steven and his team to learn how to calibrate the headphones on a personal level via the software

if you skip this step VSX will sound like headphones, a little colored, a little reverberated, but not much more, they are still very useful and effective, but not at the optimal level

it's like doing a good mix, you have to be aware of the phase, on all frequencies, listen very carefully to how the speakers sound, on the whole frequency spectrum, they must sound as if you have them in front of you, for me it was useful to listen one speaker at a time (left or right, or mono, as already suggested by another person) must not sound reverberated or too dry or with strange and exaggerated equalizations, with the Depth parameter it is sufficient to move it even by one movement too much or too much little that the whole illusion can be ruined... same thing with the parameters of the equalizer

VSX is not a toy in which you play at random with the calibration parameters... which you modify to make it sound emotionally good... you need to have an analytical approach, the speakers must not give particular emotions, but must be calibrated according to extreme realism , not emotional

it is important to invest a lot of time for calibration

I think it's an exceptional and revolutionary product, for me it's already the 1073 of headphones... and it's just the beginning... I don't know if Steven has realized what he has in his hands as a product... the story will make him better understood

and version 3.03 is a masterpiece of evolution compared to version 2

another point I'd like to suggest to Steven is the one related to the amplification of the headphones... it's a fundamental link that should be standardized as much as possible, because I see a lot of effort in calibrating the responses of the various versions of the headphones, but the fundamental conjunction that can alter everything and which consists of the headphone amplifier that each user has, with all its differences in quality and frequency response, and the converter before the headphone amplifier

the more accurate the whole chain is, the better the result will be (as always)

A big thank you to Steven for this great product

This seems to be still where I am at four months or so into using VSX.

I'll keep at it, and maybe the mystic binaural effect will kick in at some stage, but I haven't even heard a snippet of what it *should* sound like so far.

There's a line in the V2 thread where someone (SS?) warns about one of the car emulations sounding like it is coming from behind you, where I first though Hmmm ... I must be missing something here

very cool idea. been experimenting with this. Has anyone noticed that the speakers always seem higher than they are in the pics? It varies speaker to speaker to me on how high the illusion is, but it doesn't seem to be based on location. For instance Mike dean NS10s seem to be sitting at the right height to me but Sonoma near fields seem to be quite high compared to the photo. actually mike deans are the "lowest" sitting of all the speakers by a long shot to me.

For me anyways speakers never feel in front always up a decent amount and aiming down (which in most cases is correct positioning), especially in this experiment. anyways cool stuff. Thanks for sharing.

EDIT: also "interesting" thing I noticed panning things left and right. My left ear seems to interpret the speakers as slightly higher. It is a wider ear canal so probably something to do with that. I Also suspect a bit of hearing loss there which probably is adding to that.

First I blamed Patchwork… but same behavior for me in Reaper (v6.69, Windows 10 Pro). When I open a session, the depth is back to minimum. I saved a preset for VSX in Reaper, but no difference. And no numeric values on the knob, so recalling is kind of a PITA.

The sound is great though. Fantastic update
But would be great if the depth knob‘s position recall would get some attention again

Using an aux track is only one way to do it, but if you do what you suggest, you'll just be panning the OUTPUT of the VSX plugin, which defeats the point. You need to hard pan the signal going INTO VSX.

DAWs with monitoring effects can get around this by placing the monitoring chain AFTER the master/main audio track (2buss).

hey baslotto this is such a useful and easy hack to dial in the depth/crosstalk. thank you for sharing that -- +1 for including it in the user guide. turning slowly at first, and then giving a good flick on my mx master 3 on a good reference track -- London Grammar's hey now -- sparse but dripping wet soundfield and deep synth bass has been on heavy rotation here. Unsurprisingly, given the size of my prodigious melon, I was closer to 4 oclock on the dial

The trouble I’m having is that I immediately get the binaural effect every single time with Stevens cube. (I have the same speaker so it’s very easy to imagine as I look at mine).

And then if I flick to a few other monitors the binaural effect remains BUT not for all monitors. So then I begin to doubt it and the constant going in circles tweaking of depth and eq.

There is always a feeling of can I get them sounding even more realistic, and every now and again I think I’ve got it but then my brains starts to doubt it. It’s very frustrating

I do also wonder if the mistake I’m making is trying match (with the profile, eq and depth) the sound of the ref track coming out of the vsx monitors with the same tracks sound coming out of my monitors. When of course owning some adam s3as and in a fairly crap room, none of the vsx monitors should sound exactly the same. That said, I own an Avantone cube so that should sound pretty damn close (maybe that why that one seems to work every time for me).

I also wonder, if maybe I’ve had the bang on settings before but kept tweaking myself out of them. I wish there was a nice set way of knowing you have it set up correctly but I understand why that’s not possible.

I might be misunderstanding. I wasn't suggesting panning the main LR output, but the stereo track, which does feed straight into the main LR / VSX.

Its not happening here (Reaper/Win10)

Are you using Reaper's Monitor FX chain?

No, just a regular insert in the master bus

Slight offtopic, but Is there a specific reason for that? I find the Monitor FX chain to be more comfortable to use anyway.
It is separate from any session, so all settings will remain when loading a new project.
Also you have the huge benefit that your master level and meter is not affected by the plugin. But each to his own.