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I've been seeing advertising for the Steven Slate headphones package all over my social media feeds.
It looks interesting. Supposedly, it's a modeling system that, with the Steven Slate headphones, you can emulate a wide range of listening environments from world famous studios to listening in your car..... So you can get that car test audio without the car.
I'm curious if anyone here has purchased this and if so, what you think about it.
It's a bit expensive but if it does what it claims, might in fact be a worthwhile investment in the mixing and mastering part of the process to get better results quickly.
Or..... Should one simply let AI do the mastering or continue on the same path of in-house?
Thoughts and/or experiences?
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Steven Slate doesn't make anything that isn't great.
I bought a $100 box maybe ten years ago that served as an audio interface and could model the sounds of different rooms. You plugged in your own headphones. It certainly worked, but after the novelty wore off, I found little use for it. I'll try to find the brand for comparison purposes. Perhaps Presonus? Tascam? I'll look.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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If you search the forums for "Slate" you'll find several threads with member opinions. The consensus seems to be that they work. Still a little pricey for me though...
DC Ron
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I'm curious if anyone here has purchased this and if so, what you think about it. There’ve been a few threads on this. I like them but they’re a tool like any other. I still track with my SONY MDR-7506 as I have for nearly 40 years. My SONYs have all had the ear pads replaced with sheepskin over memory foam. Not sure if they affect the acoustics but they are more comfortable and don’t shed plastic onto my ears as they age. If you search the forums for "Slate" you'll find several threads with member opinions. The consensus seems to be that they work. Still a little pricey for me though... They aren’t my only monitoring setup but I consider them worth every penny. I don’t mix on them but all mixes get checked on VSX before being sent to clients. I often hear details that had otherwise eluded me.
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I'm currently using Sony MDR-7506 headphones and Mackie MR-5 studio monitors with a Polk Audio 100w 10" sub.
I check my mixes on my decent quality ear buds that are noise canceling/reducing.... The funny thing is I hear stuff in the ear buds that I miss totally in the studio on the speakers or cans. I tend to trust the buds that were $30 on Amazon, more than anything else. Is that weird or what?
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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I'm currently using Sony MDR-7506 headphones and Mackie MR-5 studio monitors with a Polk Audio 100w 10" sub.
I check my mixes on my decent quality ear buds that are noise canceling/reducing.... The funny thing is I hear stuff in the ear buds that I miss totally in the studio on the speakers or cans. I tend to trust the buds that were $30 on Amazon, more than anything else. Is that weird or what? So many people listen to music ONLY on earbuds, and often cheap earbuds, that I think it's not a bad idea to audition tracks on earbuds. I take daily walks with $20 Amazon bluetooth earbuds and I use them a lot to make mixing adjustments. My order is (1) studio headphones, (2) studio monitors, (3) earbuds and finally (4) auto sound system. I think of this as a "triangulation method" of approaching the sound from multiple sources. If it sounds good in all of these places, it MUST be good, right? RIGHT???
DC Ron
BiaB Audiophile
Presonus Studio One
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Too many guitars (is that a thing?)
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I started mixing in the mid 60’s in a “real” studio and have continued to the present from mono reel-to-reel to sound-on-sound reel to multi-track cassette to digital recorders to DAWS.
I’ve never mixed a single song with cans. Given our genres I want to envision myself in the middle seat on the third row of a small club with excellent acoustics. That’s our soundstage. Not for everybody I completely understand but it works for what J&B want to hear.
Regarding mastering for years we’ve used mostly Ozone modules and we tweak each module to the song (sometimes we will use a reference song). I don’t give a crap about what AI algorithms think our song should sound like. We listen in a good room on our Kali Monitors. Then in the living room with Polk Audio Towers/Yamaha Sub and then in the Subaru that also has a sub. And we check it through our Apple mono HomePod speaker. Pardon the ramble. FWIW, YMMV and I’m not ant all implying we are “right” - just the way we do it.
Bud
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
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… My order is (1) studio headphones, (2) studio monitors, (3) earbuds and finally (4) auto sound system. I think of this as a "triangulation method" of approaching the sound from multiple sources. If it sounds good in all of these places, it MUST be good, right? RIGHT??? I have been using the car audio as my fourth environment in my last few songs - roughly in the same order as you Ron, but with 2) and 3) reversed. When I now go into the garage to sit quietly in my car and listen to a new song - sometimes up to 30 minutes - I now tell my wife. On the first occasion of checking in the car, my wife became concerned and poked her head through the door to the garage and enquired “Are you okay in there?” I wonder if she thought I was having an episode?  Andrew
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I just looked over the details carefully. Things look top notch, but I’m not pleased to see that an iLok account is required.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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I just looked over the details carefully. Things look top notch, but I’m not pleased to see that an iLok account is required. Like many apps these days, you do not need the dongle. You can store the licenses on your computer or even in the cloud. The iLOK account is free.
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Ok, I pulled the trigger. Thanks.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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So there appears to be mutiple options with this gear - with multiple price points. What exactly would be the best starting point at the minimum price? How does this work? 299 USD for headphones with Free Yellow Matter Studios and NRG Studios Premium VSX Rooms. Then what, you just have to continue to pay for different rooms and upgrades? https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/VSXEss--steven-slate-audio-vsx-modeling-headphones-essentials-edition
Last edited by DrDan; 09/18/25 07:55 AM.
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Well, the sale is extra emulations at the $299 price point. I started there. How high I go eventually depends on the results, but I have to say, the reviews look encouraging.
Yes, I saw a page where I could purchase individual add-ons, or upgrade to the $500 level for the overall same price as buying it outright.
Oh, and I bought it yesterday and just got a notice it already shipped.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Oh, and I bought it yesterday and just got a notice it already shipped. Be sure to post back here and let us know your unbiased opinion.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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It came today but I need time. I never did know how anyone can give an unbiased opinion, but we’ll see.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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That made my laugh, just being honest
/nice one
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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First report: they are very efficient.
I only had time to plug them in and listen with no EFX loaded. I wanted to make sure they weren’t defective.
My regular headphones have been Beyerdynamic 770s. The impedance of the new Steven Slate cans must be quite low, because with my normal volume settings for the Beyerdynamic, the Slate are loud.
Note: this isn’t good or bad; headphones come in high and low impedance and either can work fine; this is not a comment on quality.
Also, the cord is replaceable. Not a small thing after years of use.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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The Slate phones are nice on their own - I have been a user since the inception, about 5 years now. Always impressive. I had the phone replaced once (free of charge) as 100s of the earlier sets had small piece of plastic that would break. They replaced them with metal. I have used the software with HD600s as well with success, though prefer the VSX phones. The MDRs would not work well.
The VSX software and the included rooms are 100% sufficient for any mix situation, which is to say no other rooms or purchase will ever be needed. Any add-ons for purchase came after 2-3 years and attract the users who need all the latest missing silver bullet....
Like most users, it is just one of many references I use, and not always. But it is a really good one. Learning curve is small. Recommended.
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I didn’t forget about this. I’m writing for three concerts.
My problem is I make composer’s demos, so I focus on creation and notation, not mixing and production. I’m having trouble getting the room emulations to work. The first problem is the registration system, since it says I have ‘free versions’ and yet I paid a bit. I’ll figure out what I must have done wrong.
I do like the clarity and neutrality of the headphones just by themselves.
More as I know it.
ps Do NOT throw out the box.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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![[Linked Image - Only viewable when logged in]](https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=31348&filename=Screenshot 2025-09-23 at 7.07.21 PM.png) ![[Linked Image - Only viewable when logged in]](https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=31349&filename=Screenshot 2025-09-23 at 7.07.54 PM.png) In the Steven Slate Audio Center app, you'll see a number of windows for installing and activating the VSX app, the rooms and any expansions. Make sure you click on everything, install, update and activate as needed,
BIAB 2026 Audiophile Mac
24Core/60CoreGPU M2 MacStudioUltra/8TB/192GB Sequoia/Tahoe, M1 & M5 MBAir, 2012 MBP
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