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Slate VSX - BUYER BEWARE - Hardware issues.

tebling said:
But a few minutes after that I had an order confirmation for a replacement pair, so at least they're quick to remedy the easy way, if not with a properly engineered solution.
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It seems it is cheaper to send replacements than it is for them to fix the design. One must wonder how much do these headphones actually cost to produce.
 
Tralen said:
It seems it is cheaper to send replacements than it is for them to fix the design. One must wonder how much do these headphones actually cost to produce.
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Daniel James said:
Literally utter bollocks. Almost verbatim what they messaged me after my 3rd 4th and 5th pairs. Make out like its rare and you were just unlucky. It wears thin a few pairs later.

They have had a lot of practice it seems.



Its that number printed on the inside of the headband above your right ear cup. the first two numbers it starts with will tell you which series you have. 19xx seems fine. 20xx, 21xx,22xx are known to be generally faulty. 23xxx was promised as different material blend that has proven not to break but we are now starting to see those fail too. I think there is a 24xxx series too but I haven't seen any yet.

-DJ
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Thanks Daniel

EDIT: I sure as hell hope the headphones (23 series) hold up because they are absolutely fantastic to mix on. A couple hours in, and wow, already what a difference. I did listen to commercial releases I am very familiar with for a while as they suggested, then checked some mixes of my own. Pretty great
 
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Just broke my second pair of 2100, which are being replaced by Slate. I watched the video of the 2300 and have a comment for engineering geeks :). My two cents. At the point of breakage of the plastic sheath (which is always the same location) the maximum shear stress is T=3V/2A, where V is the shear force caused by the user when they spread the ear cups to don the headphones and A is the cross-sectional area at that point. The demo is done with the headband fully extracted which increases A. A is in the denominator of the equation which means the max shear stress is reduced. Also, he is not fixing the much stiffer upper band. When you fix the stiffer upper band and have the headband fully retracted, the area A decreases and the shear stress increases to 3x the shear force. The rectangular plastic is also curved to provide a restoring force that is used to keep the headphones pressed against the ear when on the head and also adds to the shear force. Changing the formula of the plastic cannot fix this problem. Rather it is a fundamental design flaw in the headband. The plastic cannot resist the shear force. You cannot make the plastic deformable or you will lose the restoring force. You cannot add reinforcement (like metal) to the plastic because it would cause a fundamental redesign of the headband. I think Slate knows this and currently redesigning the headband.
 
Because of @Daniel James (many thanks, mate!) I returned mine within the first couple of days.
In addition, I wasn't that impressed with the mixing environment.
Still using Sound ID Reference which, for me, works great!
 
From Steven: “Point Blank: You never have to worry about VSX. If they break, you'll get a replacement. Next production run will be metal extension band. That's it, end of story, keep mixing and don't worry about the hardware, let us take care of it as we should.”
 
Just received my 5th pair last week. :rolleyes:
But yes, the good news is that Slate have 'fired' their old production partners and the next version will have a metal instead of a plastic extension band, which will hopefully put an end to all of this.
 
Sorry for the bump but my 2300 series just broke after owning them for 11 months. Slate customer service responded right away and is sending me a replacement. It is annoying to have to wait a week for delivery though. I have become reliant on these for my work flow so I am a bit lost without them!
 
noiseinmymind said:
Sorry for the bump but my 2300 series just broke after owning them for 11 months. Slate customer service responded right away and is sending me a replacement. It is annoying to have to wait a week for delivery though. I have become reliant on these for my work flow so I am a bit lost without them!
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The issue are, how often will it break and how often will you get a free replacement?
A few years ago my Focal Spirit Pro broke after about a year, It was replaced for free. It broke again about a year after but it wasn't under warranty anymore.
Focal claimed to have fixed the issue with newer models, but I haven't tried ever since.
To be fair an expensive Sony wireless headset also broke after a few months. So I'm always going back to Audio-Technica Mh.
 
cedricm said:
The issue are, how often will it break and how often will you get a free replacement?
A few years ago my Focal Spirit Pro broke after about a year, It was replaced for free. It broke again about a year after but it wasn't under warranty anymore.
Focal claimed to have fixed the issue with newer models, but I haven't tried ever since.
To be fair an expensive Sony wireless headset also broke after a few months. So I'm always going back to Audio-Technica Mh.
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So far, they've changed mine 5 times.
 
cedricm said:
The issue are, how often will it break and how often will you get a free replacement?
A few years ago my Focal Spirit Pro broke after about a year, It was replaced for free. It broke again about a year after but it wasn't under warranty anymore.
Focal claimed to have fixed the issue with newer models, but I haven't tried ever since.
To be fair an expensive Sony wireless headset also broke after a few months. So I'm always going back to Audio-Technica Mh.
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That's what I am worried about. If this becomes a regular occurrence it may not be worth the hassle with lost work time etc. My hd650's have been kicking around for over 13 years and I have never had a single problem with them. At $500 a pair this should be permanently fixed at this point, no excuses. If they can't fix them, then they should not be selling them on the market!
 
noiseinmymind said:
That's what I am worried about. If this becomes a regular occurrence it may not be worth the hassle with lost work time etc. My hd650's have been kicking around for over 13 years and I have never had a single problem with them. At $500 a pair this should be permanently fixed at this point, no excuses. If they can't fix them, then they should not be selling them on the market!
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I believe the new run has been re-engineered to fix the breaking issue. I have one of the Founder editions and they’re still going strong.
 
noiseinmymind said:
That's what I am worried about. If this becomes a regular occurrence it may not be worth the hassle with lost work time etc. My hd650's have been kicking around for over 13 years and I have never had a single problem with them. At $500 a pair this should be permanently fixed at this point, no excuses. If they can't fix them, then they should not be selling them on the market!
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Yeah but 650s suck in comparison.;)
 
I received my VSX headphone replacements today. Upon inspection I noticed the padding on the head band and ear pads was substantially less than on my old 2300 series. They aren't as comfortable as my old 2300 series too. This is a bit disappointing considering the price of these headphones. I did notice they have metal bands, but are still merged against plastic ones. Hopefully this will fix the problem...
 
noiseinmymind said:
I received my VSX headphone replacements today. Upon inspection I noticed the padding on the head band and ear pads was substantially less than on my old 2300 series. They aren't as comfortable as my old 2300 series too. This is a bit disappointing considering the price of these headphones. I did notice they have metal bands, but are still merged against plastic ones. Hopefully this will fix the problem...
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I've noticed the same... And there are still plastic parts that don't look that robust to me. I can't be dependent on something that breaks so often. I've since moved to a DT 900 Pro X using the dSoniq correction. My mixes translate equally well.
 
Akarin said:
I've noticed the same... And there are still plastic parts that don't look that robust to me. I can't be dependent on something that breaks so often. I've since moved to a DT 900 Pro X using the dSoniq correction. My mixes translate equally well.
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Not to derail from this thread, but I'm using my headphones with Waves Nx plugins setup with my head measurement and headphone profile for the EQ correction (the list of profiles was just greatly increased: 270 models from 45 manufacturers).
I'm quite satisfied.
 
cedricm said:
Not to derail from this thread, but I'm using my headphones with Waves Nx plugins setup with my head measurement and headphone profile for the EQ correction (the list of profiles was just greatly increased: 270 models from 45 manufacturers).
I'm quite satisfied.
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I used waves nx with sonarworks for a bit. It worked fine but I find my results are better with the VSX phones. These new VSX phones are just not as comfortable and it looks like you can remove the headband either. I'm still on the fence if I can get any serious work done with such an uncomfortable set...
 
I'm looking into these. I understand the hardware is more solid now and there's been an update for the software to 4.0. Anybody have any thoughts?
 
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