VSX Essentials Edition : No regrets so far…

I had plenty of skepticism about locking myself into this hardware-software system. But so far it seems like some of the best money I could've spent to improve my mixes. Previously I struggled to judge the low end from my monitors, and always found huge problems when playing back on a system with a subwoofer. These gave me an impression of the woof, without wasting time bouncing my mix back and forth to different places. It does convincingly trick my brain into thinking the sound is coming out of the monitors in front of me, and has made stereo imaging tasks easier. The mono avantone mixcube is also a useful emulation included with essentials. I had Archon studios included as part of a deal and I'm not sure I necessarily need many more rooms (although the phone and boombox emulations might be nice). If the upgrade to platinum went on sale I'd be tempted though.