I have in the past dealt with lots of different distributors based in the UK and have spent fortunes with all of them. One company that I never shopped with before and I don’t know why was SX Pro. Until recently that is.
I had a fault with one of my mastering units. I started calling around to try and find a solution. That’s when I contacted Jason at SX Pro. He didn’t have the parts I needed in stock but instead of just saying no we haven’t got that, he said give me 5 I’ll call you back with a solution. 5 minutes later I receive a call with a solution. Long story short we got the issue sorted that day. Bear in mind I didn’t even buy the unit that was at fault from SX Pro, but they went out their way to find a solution and offer advice.
So now I’m thinking OK these guys deserve some business from me. I call Jason the next day and spend 10 minutes going through EQ recommendations. I ended up settling with the Maselec MEA-2 as you just can’t go wrong with Maselec gear. High end audio gear, I’m used to waiting 4 weeks for, so I was prepared to wait. Jason called Leif directly for a lead time and to my astonishment I was told 2 day, which if I’m honest I didn’t believe. Proved me wrong though didn’t he. 2 days later I get a phone call. Paul your MEA-2 is in, want me to drop it down to you so you have it today. I though well yes please that would be amazing. I hate having to wait for gear to arrive. To top it off he also said I have this new Whitestone P331 unit that you just have to hear, I will bring it along you can hold on to it for a couple weeks see if you like it. I said great bring it down we will check it out.
Within 2 hours Jason was at the door, mask on holding my Maselec MEA-2 and brand new not a demo unit of a Whitestone P331. We set the Maselec up and everything is perfect. We set the Whitestone up and Oh My God the sound this thing achieved was out of this world. I am not over exaggerating but myself and Nick stood there open mouthed when switching bypass in and out. Jason stuck about talking for a while about the industry and answered every question we had regarding SX Pro and the gear they can supply. We put the order in for the Whitestone P331 the following day. What was great is that Jason had brought a brand new unit to us to demo. So we didn’t have to wait for it to arrive. He was so confident in the product he knew how much of a difference it would make to our mastering chain and that we would ultimately want the unit. The thought of having to give it back was not something I wanted to think about.
Whilst Jason was here with us we discussed mastering consoles and various different options. We asked if when he get back to the office he could send us over quotes for each mastering console and we can go through the options. Within an hour we had an email with everything we asked for. We ordered a SPL Hermes mastering console.
We were so impressed with the level of customer service we were receiving from Jason we put an order in for a SPL De-esser, SPL Transient Designer 4, 2x Empirical Labs Derrr-essers and a BAE 500 series rack. I asked what the lead time was on 2 Elysia Nvelope transient designers. There was a shipment arriving this week and if we wanted them they were ours. Brilliant add 2 of them to the order.
Now I didn’t think their customer service could get any better. Turns out it can. Jason called a few days later to tell me that all but the Empirical Labs Derrr-essers had arrived and that Dale was going to come down drop them off. I was like OK great. This personal touch is going a long way. He said Dale’s going to bring those speakers we were talking about down for you to try out. I said cool by all means I will check them out. I’m not really in the market to buy speakers but of course I am open to listening to them.
Dale turns up, again mask on brings all the gear inside the studios. We instantly start to check out the Ex Machina Pulsar monitors. They were the demo pair so had a couple of scuffs on but functioned as new. We plugged them in temporarily on the desk out of position just to listen to quickly, like I said we weren’t in the market to buy an £8,000 pair of monitors right now. They were impressive and sounded amazing. But you can’t really tell what a pair of monitors sound like until you start working with them in a real world situation and mastering on them. Dale gets this and suggested we keep the demo pair until he needs to go do another demo. Said it could be a week, it could be a few weeks. But when I need them I’ll give you plenty of warning and come collect them. We thought brilliant, now we can really test them against our ATC monitors and directly compare them. Well Oh My God these monitors are good. I’m so glad he left them with us, to think we could have passed up the opportunity to have a pair.
The next morning I text Dale and said I want 2 pairs. How quick can you get them? within 3 days he was back at studio with 4 boxes each containing an Ex Machina Pulsar monitor. We swapped the demo pair out for the new pair and installed 1 pair into our mixing room and another pair into our mastering room.
A couple days later we discovered a small fault in one of the products we bought. Totally unrelated to SX Pro and completely out their hands, these things happen. I called Dale to explain the fault, we troubleshooted a few things with no joy. That’s when he said don’t worry I have a brand new one in stock. I’ll be with you in a couple hours. I said it’s cool why not wait till my Empirical Labs derr-essserrs come in and come down then kill two birds with one stone. He said no it’s cool I’ll be there in a couple hours. Came by within 2 hours switched it over and all working perfect again.
Now I’ve worked with a lot of suppliers in the past, many of which I call my friends. But this level of customer service was incredible. I get that I spent £30k on equipment with them but I was getting this level of service before I even spent a penny. I have no doubts that the guys at SX Pro would move mountains for anyone spending big or small. I have spoken with a number of music industry friends about SX Pro and everyone says the same thing, Dale and Jason are legends who understand the clients and truly care about what they are selling. Salesmen can be very sell sell sell at times. Anyone that’s ever bought a used car will know this. These guys are different class. When the COVID-19 pandemic is over we will be going out for dinner because that is how proper business is done.
And that there is my first experience with SX Pro and by no means my last.
