I admit I hate it if companies nowadays are so negligent to forget to update their website regularly.
I spoke to HEDD's CEO Frederik Knop extensively this recent Canjam Shanghai. Here is what I found:
Damn, that’s greedy. I spoke with them at AES 2 weeks ago and they told me this model will be their only model in the foreseeable future. The marketing rep used to work at Audeze and is very aware of the pricing of today’s TOTL market. He’s probably heard enough cans to know that if this model is a success, they can jack their price wayy up for the totl model. It’s sad seeing everyone copying Fang’s business model.
I don’t find it greedy considering the HEDDphone One already is a Utopia competitor. If they can genuinely bring a marked improvement from this to the table they could easily set a new bar for performance at that price bracket. Klaus Heinz apparently has some things in the works instead of just jacking the price for fun so I trust they know what they’re doing.
Lambdastorm I'm not sure if you actually got to try the HEDDphone - and on a decent system? If yes I'm sure you can agree with me that its' performance is at least on par with the best of the Labmda series on a good system (I know it's apples/oranges comparing an electrostat to a VVT AMT headphone). IMO it punches leaps and bounds above its' fairly modest price range and if it scales as well as I suspect, there may be no major reason to even upgrade to a higher version (my hunch). I definitely think they're staying within a reasonable business model from what I can tell!
The final tuning is somewhat neutral with a center midrange emphasis. Think 007 but without the upper midrange void. Sounds incredibly realistic with brass, which is a scary good combination on classical tracks with the high dynamic range and slam. Bass may or may not be slightly rolled off at the very end, will need more listening to confirm. Treble is mid-treble focused but not piercing, though I do kinda wish it had more lower treble like the Utopia does for cymbal stick impact. Initially on Day One I thought the lower midrange was a bit off and that it would turn some people off from it, but after further listening on Day Two I think the main problem people will have is the staging quirk that I'm not sure if I've described on Head-fi yet.
That's exactly what I'm saying. There's no reason to release an upgraded model within the next two years if the production model sounds like the prototypes they brought to the show. Given how good these are they are in absolutely no rush to release anything else. A $1000 trickled-down portable model maybe, but not a $6K full-blown TOTL.
The HEDDphone’s staging is very wide, due to the pad thickness that places the driver fairly far away from your ears. Unfortunately, as a result of this too, it prevents the sound from resonating up of or out of the enclosure from the sides. This means that sounds that image inside of where the cups are on the HEDDphone tend to be stuck inside the cups and don’t resonate freely like they would on say the Utopia or the HD800. It also means holographic imaging is somewhat limited on the HEDDphone as it doesn’t have all that much room to work with.
Not exactly expecting it to be comparable to the HE-1, but what did you mean by that? Much worse in some way, or just different sonic signature?
It is hard to explain in words... HEDD does not sound like an e-stat, dynamic or planar. I listened to it with Chord Dave. It is pleasant, soft and airy sounding, not harsh... I would say it was an enjoyable listen. Definitely a good surprise at the show. Nothing like He1 lol imo. Here is a pic I took with the prototype.
