[Khronos]

Don't usually cross-post, but I'll make an exception from the Canjam London thread for this exciting headphone after seeing the request for impressions here.


My favorite Headphone at the show that is in my pricerange, the Heinz Electrodynamic Designs, HeDDphone




Had an interesting chat with Stephan Ruhl, Sales Manager Europe, and he let me unplug their Tablets and connect my iBasso to their Hugo2, which is similar to how I would use it if/when purchased.





Fast fulll bass, lively mid-range, and crisp treble, what more could you want? Ok, maybe not for those preferring a rolled-off warmer sound, but for me it brought life to music and is a really promising headphone. Although heavy in hand, it seemed lighter on head than I was expecting.


Only problem I see, and that's only now looking at the photograph of me listening ..... the headband seems to have worn off the top of my hair (only joking)

So... this or the Aperio?

 

[MadDane]

Watching this thread with great interest.

 

[AndrewH13]

So... this or the Aperio?

I hurriedly listened to two headphones in the Warwick booth, not for me, very smooth, but may have been the amp. Many higher-priced amps and headphones leave me lacking any excitement. (The only higher-priced Headphone that I liked better, and really liked, was the Stax 009S with Blue Hawaii but sadly, out of my price-range).

 

[mixman]

HEDDAudio told me October 2019

Then maybe I can make this a BF purchase. Hopefully these turn out to be a viable competitor in the market. Trying not to spend all my money first though. Right now I am doing a similar comparison to the one you did a while ago. More in the Verite thread.

 

[Monsterzero]

Right now I am doing a similar comparison to the one you did a while ago. More in the Verite thread.

Verite vs. Stellia? Verite vs. Empyrean?

 

[Platinum777]

Is it possible to get the frequency and phase response to see how they perform? very interesting idea , i v Heard their speakers and they sound pretty good.

 

[DecentLevi]

I am so pleased with the developments of the previous page! We finally have some more decent photos, impressions, release date (October-ish), price (reportedly US $1,700), and among other suggestions which I hope HEDD Audio is reading, there seems to be a consensus that we prefer a neutral or fairly flat sound signature. A natural tuning is the most practical, because those desiring more of a warm or bright sound can adjust by EQ or even perhaps earpad and cable rolling as well.

They were prototypes from varying stages, but I think they were also trying to find out what sounds signature people would prefer.
Neutral would be my reference, though.

It was also quite useful to learn the reason behind the reported differences among display models of the HEDDphone was intentional to get user feedback, rather than from lapses in consistency. This does however bring an idea: Maybe they should allow us to choose our own sound signature? Release several models tuned differently and allow us to choose a warm, U-shaped or neutral version based on measured FR graph?

 

[AndrewH13]

I am so pleased with the developments of the previous page! We finally have some more decent photos, impressions, release date (October-ish), price (reportedly US $1,700), and among other suggestions which I hope HEDD Audio is reading, there seems to be a consensus that we prefer a neutral or fairly flat sound signature. A natural tuning is the most practical, because those desiring more of a warm or bright sound can adjust by EQ or even perhaps earpad and cable rolling as well.


It was also quite useful to learn the reason behind the reported differences among display models of the HEDDphone was intentional to get user feedback, rather than from lapses in consistency. This does however bring an idea: Maybe they should allow us to choose our own sound signature? Release several models tuned differently and allow us to choose a warm, U-shaped or neutral version based on measured FR graph?

They only specifically mentioned to me that the three samples differed in weight. I would have thought they would have mentioned differing signatures if they wanted opinions? They said production will start fairly low key, I think about 50 a month. German business with seven people, great that smaller firms can be up against the giants especially when Germany has Breyer and Sennheiser!

 

[Bertel]

Given the company‘s history in professional audio with a monitoring DNA for mixing and recording, I would expect (and hope for) a neutral approach. Kind of the Benchmark way. Which by the way would be my preferred pairing, HEDDphone with HPA4 or AHB2.

 

[m17xr2b]

HEDDphone with big and hot tube amps is where I'm going.

 

[whirlwind]

What is the impedance on these headphones ?

 

[DecentLevi]

They only specifically mentioned to me that the three samples differed in weight. I would have thought they would have mentioned differing signatures if they wanted opinions? They said production will start fairly low key, I think about 50 a month. German business with seven people, great that smaller firms can be up against the giants especially when Germany has Breyer and Sennheiser!

I'm very much under the impression that the three models had varying sound signature. The long quote quote on the previous page from @slapo may have obscured the following part from his impressions last weekend:

The HEDDphone was interesting. I only got to try two of the three prototypes. One of them was just too bright and sharp, the other one had a really nice treble, but a touch too much bass and there wasn't something quite right with the mids. Gregory Porter (and most of the others I listened to there) sounded both a little thin yet with a strange veil. It was really odd. A shame I didn't get to try the third one. The tech seems to have quite a bit of potential, though. The speed of transients was good but didn't seem to be above a fast planar magnetic headphone.

Also the fact that many seem to report a dark signature which was quite a contrast to the transparent signature of the one I tried, adding weight to the differences. I do remember reading somewhere recently that something about the height and width of the folded diaphragm effects the frequency balance of these things so essentially they can fine tune the sound within the driver itself.

What is the impedance on these headphones ?

It's 38 ohms and 90 dB SPL for 1 mW (from their site), so I wonder what kind of amping would pair well? I'd hope it doesn't need 5 watts?

 

[whirlwind]

Thanks for the info

 

[AndrewH13]

I'm very much under the impression that the three models had varying sound signature. The long quote quote on the previous page from @slapo may have obscured the following part from his impressions last weekend:

The HEDDphone was interesting. I only got to try two of the three prototypes. One of them was just too bright and sharp, the other one had a really nice treble, but a touch too much bass and there wasn't something quite right with the mids. Gregory Porter (and most of the others I listened to there) sounded both a little thin yet with a strange veil. It was really odd. A shame I didn't get to try the third one. The tech seems to have quite a bit of potential, though. The speed of transients was good but didn't seem to be above a fast planar magnetic headphone.

Also the fact that many seem to report a dark signature which was quite a contrast to the transparent signature of the one I tried, adding weight to the differences. I do remember reading somewhere recently that something about the height and width of the folded diaphragm effects the frequency balance of these things so essentially they can fine tune the sound within the driver itself.


It's 38 ohms and 90 dB SPL for 1 mW (from their site), so I wonder what kind of amping would pair well? I'd hope it doesn't need 5 watts?

I tried two samples, the first into their other small but more powerful amp than the Chord, while waiting to play musical chairs and switch my DAP into a Hugo2 that I'm familiar with. Both sounded neutral to me, I would have hated a dark signature. Certainly no major difference.

 

[x RELIC x]

It's 38 ohms and 90 dB SPL for 1 mW (from their site), so I wonder what kind of amping would pair well? I'd hope it doesn't need 5 watts?

Depends on how loud one listens and the mastering level of the track being played. Based on the HEDDphone specs the following is a ballpark for required power output:



Unless one listens at a deafening 120dB (even if just peaks) there’s a wide range of gear that will drive it. That said, there’s so much more to quality amping than just the max power output spec.

This looks like an interesting headphone and I hope to read more impressions after they finalize the design and hopefully they can reduce the weight.