I'm a sucker for new headphones, and these look like good ones. I don't see how the overall *concept* here is really new or different from using a known/measured headphone with any of the currently existing 'headphone correction' and 'speaker emulation on headphones' software. I'm curious to see if the *execution* makes the whole package more useful - my experience with Slate is that they tend to make things that I find more useable and helpful than the alternatives. Theoretically, the whole package could work better for me than others I've tried because Slate has full control over the hardware as well - I'm especially interested in the extra analog circuitry in the headphones that appears to be correcting frequency response to make them more neutral.

Also - 'closed-back, beryllium driver, some type of porting added for bass' - this exactly describes the Focal Stellia. I absolutely love Focal headphones, but those are $3k and thus out of my budget range. Steven, are you willing to comment on whether Focal has had any involvement with the design/production of the Slate VSX headphones?