Hifiearspeakers
Headphoneus Supremus
I don’t know what would define “neutral”. I prefer a dip in the presence region like what is laid out by the Harman Curve. Any elevated energy between 3-5K comes across very sibilant to my ears.
HEDD Announces HEDDphone With AMT Technology
- Thread starter bugstone
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I don’t know what would define “neutral”. I prefer a dip in the presence region like what is laid out by the Harman Curve. Any elevated energy between 3-5K comes across very sibilant to my ears.
Beagle
His body's not a canvas, and he wasn't raised by apes.
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OK gotcha. I was thinking upper mid "neutral' as being balanced evenly between the midrange and treble...no dips or peaks. I also normally prefer a bit of a slightly relaxed effect over an irritating harsh one....but not a 'suckout'.
Hifiearspeakers
Headphoneus Supremus
I’m with you. I don’t want a massive Audeze suckout.
I corrected the impedance.
Which changes the voltage and current required for a given SPL, but doesn't affect the raw amount of power needed (since the sensitivity is unchanged).
ls13coco
100+ Head-Fier
Interesting impressions.
I know the HE1000 variants have been compared a little, but has anyone experience with the Arya and had a chance with the Heddphone?
Currently the Empyrean and Arya have been my goals (1266 is a dream), with the Heddphone seeming to dethrone the spot of the Arya. Still not quite sure what to do, but I know more ears will experience the Heddphone very soon.
Cheers!
I know the HE1000 variants have been compared a little, but has anyone experience with the Arya and had a chance with the Heddphone?
Currently the Empyrean and Arya have been my goals (1266 is a dream), with the Heddphone seeming to dethrone the spot of the Arya. Still not quite sure what to do, but I know more ears will experience the Heddphone very soon.
Cheers!
Resolve
Sponsor: Headphones.com
In my opinion both HEDDphone and Arya are better than the Empyrean as far as technical performance goes - although the Empyrean crushes everything when it comes to comfort and build quality. HEDDphone and Arya are a very good comparison. To me the only real issue with the Arya is that it has a bit of a 5khz peak and a bit overemphasized at 8.5khz (as long as the unit I reviewed was representative - I never know with planars). But for the most part, I really enjoyed the Arya. They have similar depth capabilities with the HEDDphone having better lateral definition and the Arya being more focused forwards. But the HEDDphone also has a more noticeable snap and tightness to it, and if I had to give the edge, it would be to the HEDDphone for detail/textural capabilities. Still, the Arya is more comfortable because it's much lighter... so in some ways the Arya is like a HEDDphone lite... literally, just with a slight shrillness at 5khz (depending on the music you listen to).
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Not that bad for the first try!
I promise you that a lot of blood will flow here.
Only the poets understand people...
I promise you that a lot of blood will flow here.
Only the poets understand people...
Beagle
His body's not a canvas, and he wasn't raised by apes.
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For $1899, still sounding like a bargain.
HEDD sounded like it was closed in while utopia sounded open. It was one of the things that stood out within 5 seconds of the music playing
Resolve
Sponsor: Headphones.com
haha I've had the complete opposite experience. The HEDD is the most spacious sounding of everything on my desk at the moment, including the Verite. But I guess "open" and "large stage / spacious" aren't necessarily the same thing.
Strange, the Utopia had one of the most cluastrophobic soundstages I've ever heard and that is a common complaint against. If you are right in all of your impressions thus far, either you get a bunk unit or HEDD crammed excellent drivers into the one they sent Resolve and gave you the scraps.
Very interesting how different your two impressions have been.
Resolve
Sponsor: Headphones.com
There are also very understandable explanations for why people have different experiences and impressions - everything from listening environment or unit variation to source gear, even to our individual ears or the way we define our terms. The last one is probably the most common reason for differences. Even I'm guilty of talking about "upper midrange" or "lower treble" without necessarily defining the frequency response range in question. These mean different things to different people - and we can't rely strictly on instrument representation either due to differences in recordings.
I'll make sure to give HEDD another go again! Will listen to it more and see whether my opinions change
ls13coco
100+ Head-Fier
Understandable, I am going into the Empyrean on my quest of having two higher-tier headphones that are quite opposite of each other. Empy hopefully fulfilling the spot of warm, lush, thick, bassy open-back goodness.
While the other I'm hoping to achieve a detailed, clean sound with a large soundstage/great imaging.
All this is planned to go through a Cayin HA-6A and undecided SS amp, selling off all my other gear minus one headphone hopefully this year to make it happen.
That is very fair, though being used to full-faced helmets I am not too put off by weight as long as I don't get hotspots. That said, carbon fiber helmets are always nice!
Thanks for the info, last I have to ask of you fellow BC goer is, how did you find the sound stage/imaging and open/airyness of Arya versus Hedd? I've had some Hifiman products for years, but I still feel at risk of a bad one-off with some of the posts regarding the Arya, though I know every company is subject to having some products that shouldn't have squeaked through QA.
Cheers
HEDD Audio HEDDphone:
The first time I’d ever heard of the HEDDphone or HEDD Audio was around July of 2019. Some reddit post on /r/headphones linking to the announcement and talking about how it was a revolutionary new driver tech. I was skeptical at first, it seemed like a cross between a ribbon and a planar, and to say I’m not a fan of either would be an understatement. That and claims of being faster than electrostatics was a major turnoff; I hate few things more than unnaturally fast decay. So it was off my radar for quite a bit. Until one of my friends on Discord began hyping it up to me. He personally hadn’t heard it but he had contacts who had, and the descriptions of ruthless bass with a large soundstage and high technicalities turned me on to it. I remained somewhat untrusting, of course, and continued to search for other options in my quest to find a satisfactory desktop headphone setup.
It’s the 9th of November, 2019. Canjam Shanghai, which I had been anticipating for quite a while. There were going to be numerous new IEMs from manufacturers both local and abroad there, but none of it had my interest and anticipation like HEDD did. I was, quite honestly, fully expecting it to be trash. A recent show report of it being darker than the LCD2 and the speculation of AMT designs having that ever-wretched hazy planar treble had me intensely worried. I had no faith in it being good at all.
But it was. The bass on the HEDD slammed like there was no tomorrow, the layering was beyond my expectations, and the dynamics were nothing short of incredible. I was hooked. Tonal balance was merely decent, but for the quoted price of less than $2000 USD this was ridiculously good. In fact, in general it was ridiculously good. Nothing I knew of could match it short of the Utopia, which I felt fell flat in bass extension, staging, and had slightly grating upper mids.
So I waited for HEDD to come to Singapore. It felt eternal; first it was slated for a late November release, then it was pushed to December, and then January. Not only that, but I had heard reports that the planned headband that would have reduced the HEDDphone’s weight by 100g was cancelled. Things didn’t look good.
As luck would have it, third time was the charm. HEDD announced a January NAMM 2020 release and demo and review units began floating around. Finally, progress. Now all that was needed was for the Singapore demo unit to actually come in.
It is the 11th of January, 2020. I don’t feel too well so I decide to stay in for the weekend. That is, until I’m notified that the HEDDphone had finally arrived. Just my luck. So I packed up my BHA-1 in a small luggage bag and rushed down to finally hear it after 2 months of separation. And boy was it worth it.
The HEDDphone’s bass is nothing short of incredible. There are reports of the raw bass quantity being not quite enough, and I agree... but only in comparison to something like my IER-Z1R, which itself has an 8dB bass boost. By headphone standards I’d think it’s more than enough. You see, what the HEDDphone’s bass may slightly lack in raw SPL, it makes up for in tactile slam. I’m reminded of some of the best DD IEMs in how it punches with precision rather than the unfocused sounding wall-of-sound slam that planars generally have. The bass texture is also magnificent, it has no issues separating bass guitars from kickdrums in my most demanding tracks. The slight rolloff at the bottom octave on the prototype I heard in Shanghai seems to be done away with, likely thanks to the fact that the pads here are actually attached properly rather than being glued on. In an ideal world I would probably add in another 2-3dB below 100hz using hardware EQ, but I’m totally fine with this too.
The HEDD’s midrange is an oddity. I don’t quite agree with Resolve’s claims that it’s Utopia-esque, but I don’t think he’s that far off the mark either. It sounds vaguely like a SR-007 mk1 without the upper midrange suckout. Or a Utopia with a lot more lower-center midrange emphasis and no peak right at the top of the head gain. It’s a fairly unique sound, and it sounds about right to me save a slightly odd center midrange bump that’s reminiscent of some of the Stax Lambdas, albeit not quite as extreme. It’s not something I notice unless I’m actively looking for it, and it has the effect of adding some tonal oddness to some flavors of guitar and male vocals. It’s similar in my opinion to the Utopia’s honk in that I really don’t mind it all that much, but mids sticklers absolutely will.
The treble response is the other thing that the HEDDphone does really well. It’s smooth with just the right around of mid treble sparkle that gives cymbals this realistic timbre and tonality. Stick impact seems better here than on the prototype I heard. Not sure why, but it may simply be my memory being inaccurate. Treble extension is not the best, but I find it more reflective of real life cymbals over something better extended. By no means is it dark as claimed by some, if anything it’s slightly brighter than what I’d consider dead neutral, though that works to its benefit. None of the icky planar treble that I’m always complaining about is present here; it’s extremely clean and presents itself without any haziness or scratchiness. It’s also worth noting that the treble texture on the HEDDphone is very well articulated and defined. Cymbals in dense tracks have lots of differentiation between each other, and you can hear the numerous kinds of cymbals used clearly rather than them melding into a mess of homogenous sounding treble like a lot of headphones with their own unique treble sound do. As a whole, the HEDDphone nails textural reproduction on a very high level, but the treble is a real highlight.
The intangibles of the HEDD are where it gets really tricky. There are quite a few quirks to this driver and acoustic design which can be a dealbreaker, for some positively, for others negatively. Allow me to break it down in segments for easier digestion of it.
For starters, the technicalities of the HEDDphone are right up there with some of the most expensive kilobucks. In fact, i would put its layering and textural ability ahead of the likes of the Utopia or the Verite. I do not have an LCD4 nor a Susvara or Abyss on hand to compare it with, however from memory I feel like my tonal gripes with the aforementioned (excluding the Susvara) would make it difficult for me to appreciate them more than the HEDDphone. As expected of something with such good textural rendering, it also retrieves detail on an excellent level. Whether or not the raw microdetail retrieval beats the other flagship headphones remains to be seen, but so far it looks like it’s at least on an equal level.
As for dynamics and tactility, the HEDDphone might be one of the most dynamic headphones I have ever heard. It perceptually feels more dynamic than the Utopia to me (although I think they might be on par in actuality - explanation on that later), and certainly outstrips any other transducer I’ve ever heard. It is unrelentingly in your face with dynamics and does not hold back any punches. Anyone looking for a relaxing headphone should turn around and go buy something from DCA or ZMF, because this isn’t it. Tactility wise, though I’ve already described how the bass slam is more precise and focused than a planar’s slam, it’s also worth noting is that the HEDDphone has a similar lower midrange tactility to the ZMF Verite, albeit not quite as much. That’s actually one of the few things I like about the Verite so it’s nice to see.
Not only that, but the HEDDphone has one of the most visceral and grounded presentations I’ve heard in headphones. It’s similar to a fully tubed CIEM, albeit far more aggressive thanks to the raw tactility. Some describe this as “closed in”, but I’d rather opt for “extremely upfront”. To put it in another way, it’s the direct opposite of a diffuse presentation, but doesn’t lack any sort of stage width. I suspect this is what it makes it perceptually more dynamic than Utopia, even though “objectively” they may be the same. In any case, fans of the HD800 or similarly diffuse headphones will dislike the HEDDphone. It is unashamedly intense and aggressive, and anyone looking for anything less than that need not bother with it. For those of us that enjoy headphones that don’t put us to sleep however, look no further.
Something else interesting to note is the staging of the HEDDphone itself - It’s fairly wide, and has decent amounts of forward imaging. Some have noted that it images too far up on the head itself; I personally don’t notice this. However, it begins to become apparent after a while that the HEDDphone is unable to project sound beyond the confines of the cup, in regards to forward/backward/up/down staging. This can be a flaw to some, when coupled with the intense and forward presentation of the HEDDphone. Again, some may interpret it as a closed in stage, and to an extent they’re right. I don’t necessarily agree though, considering the HEDDphone is fully capable of a wide stereo image. It’s just an extremely up close one, rather than a spacious and airy one.
In summary, I think the idea behind the HEDDphone is clear: It’s a highly technical and acceptably tuned $2000 headphone that competes with kilobucks that cost double or more from other companies. Its presentation is intense and ruthless; anyone seeking a headphone that is laidback or relaxing is barking up the wrong tree. But if you want one of the most steely and unforgiving headphones that displays its ferocity not in tuning but in presentation, you’ve found your ideal headphone.
The first time I’d ever heard of the HEDDphone or HEDD Audio was around July of 2019. Some reddit post on /r/headphones linking to the announcement and talking about how it was a revolutionary new driver tech. I was skeptical at first, it seemed like a cross between a ribbon and a planar, and to say I’m not a fan of either would be an understatement. That and claims of being faster than electrostatics was a major turnoff; I hate few things more than unnaturally fast decay. So it was off my radar for quite a bit. Until one of my friends on Discord began hyping it up to me. He personally hadn’t heard it but he had contacts who had, and the descriptions of ruthless bass with a large soundstage and high technicalities turned me on to it. I remained somewhat untrusting, of course, and continued to search for other options in my quest to find a satisfactory desktop headphone setup.
It’s the 9th of November, 2019. Canjam Shanghai, which I had been anticipating for quite a while. There were going to be numerous new IEMs from manufacturers both local and abroad there, but none of it had my interest and anticipation like HEDD did. I was, quite honestly, fully expecting it to be trash. A recent show report of it being darker than the LCD2 and the speculation of AMT designs having that ever-wretched hazy planar treble had me intensely worried. I had no faith in it being good at all.
But it was. The bass on the HEDD slammed like there was no tomorrow, the layering was beyond my expectations, and the dynamics were nothing short of incredible. I was hooked. Tonal balance was merely decent, but for the quoted price of less than $2000 USD this was ridiculously good. In fact, in general it was ridiculously good. Nothing I knew of could match it short of the Utopia, which I felt fell flat in bass extension, staging, and had slightly grating upper mids.
So I waited for HEDD to come to Singapore. It felt eternal; first it was slated for a late November release, then it was pushed to December, and then January. Not only that, but I had heard reports that the planned headband that would have reduced the HEDDphone’s weight by 100g was cancelled. Things didn’t look good.
As luck would have it, third time was the charm. HEDD announced a January NAMM 2020 release and demo and review units began floating around. Finally, progress. Now all that was needed was for the Singapore demo unit to actually come in.
It is the 11th of January, 2020. I don’t feel too well so I decide to stay in for the weekend. That is, until I’m notified that the HEDDphone had finally arrived. Just my luck. So I packed up my BHA-1 in a small luggage bag and rushed down to finally hear it after 2 months of separation. And boy was it worth it.
The HEDDphone’s bass is nothing short of incredible. There are reports of the raw bass quantity being not quite enough, and I agree... but only in comparison to something like my IER-Z1R, which itself has an 8dB bass boost. By headphone standards I’d think it’s more than enough. You see, what the HEDDphone’s bass may slightly lack in raw SPL, it makes up for in tactile slam. I’m reminded of some of the best DD IEMs in how it punches with precision rather than the unfocused sounding wall-of-sound slam that planars generally have. The bass texture is also magnificent, it has no issues separating bass guitars from kickdrums in my most demanding tracks. The slight rolloff at the bottom octave on the prototype I heard in Shanghai seems to be done away with, likely thanks to the fact that the pads here are actually attached properly rather than being glued on. In an ideal world I would probably add in another 2-3dB below 100hz using hardware EQ, but I’m totally fine with this too.
The HEDD’s midrange is an oddity. I don’t quite agree with Resolve’s claims that it’s Utopia-esque, but I don’t think he’s that far off the mark either. It sounds vaguely like a SR-007 mk1 without the upper midrange suckout. Or a Utopia with a lot more lower-center midrange emphasis and no peak right at the top of the head gain. It’s a fairly unique sound, and it sounds about right to me save a slightly odd center midrange bump that’s reminiscent of some of the Stax Lambdas, albeit not quite as extreme. It’s not something I notice unless I’m actively looking for it, and it has the effect of adding some tonal oddness to some flavors of guitar and male vocals. It’s similar in my opinion to the Utopia’s honk in that I really don’t mind it all that much, but mids sticklers absolutely will.
The treble response is the other thing that the HEDDphone does really well. It’s smooth with just the right around of mid treble sparkle that gives cymbals this realistic timbre and tonality. Stick impact seems better here than on the prototype I heard. Not sure why, but it may simply be my memory being inaccurate. Treble extension is not the best, but I find it more reflective of real life cymbals over something better extended. By no means is it dark as claimed by some, if anything it’s slightly brighter than what I’d consider dead neutral, though that works to its benefit. None of the icky planar treble that I’m always complaining about is present here; it’s extremely clean and presents itself without any haziness or scratchiness. It’s also worth noting that the treble texture on the HEDDphone is very well articulated and defined. Cymbals in dense tracks have lots of differentiation between each other, and you can hear the numerous kinds of cymbals used clearly rather than them melding into a mess of homogenous sounding treble like a lot of headphones with their own unique treble sound do. As a whole, the HEDDphone nails textural reproduction on a very high level, but the treble is a real highlight.
The intangibles of the HEDD are where it gets really tricky. There are quite a few quirks to this driver and acoustic design which can be a dealbreaker, for some positively, for others negatively. Allow me to break it down in segments for easier digestion of it.
For starters, the technicalities of the HEDDphone are right up there with some of the most expensive kilobucks. In fact, i would put its layering and textural ability ahead of the likes of the Utopia or the Verite. I do not have an LCD4 nor a Susvara or Abyss on hand to compare it with, however from memory I feel like my tonal gripes with the aforementioned (excluding the Susvara) would make it difficult for me to appreciate them more than the HEDDphone. As expected of something with such good textural rendering, it also retrieves detail on an excellent level. Whether or not the raw microdetail retrieval beats the other flagship headphones remains to be seen, but so far it looks like it’s at least on an equal level.
As for dynamics and tactility, the HEDDphone might be one of the most dynamic headphones I have ever heard. It perceptually feels more dynamic than the Utopia to me (although I think they might be on par in actuality - explanation on that later), and certainly outstrips any other transducer I’ve ever heard. It is unrelentingly in your face with dynamics and does not hold back any punches. Anyone looking for a relaxing headphone should turn around and go buy something from DCA or ZMF, because this isn’t it. Tactility wise, though I’ve already described how the bass slam is more precise and focused than a planar’s slam, it’s also worth noting is that the HEDDphone has a similar lower midrange tactility to the ZMF Verite, albeit not quite as much. That’s actually one of the few things I like about the Verite so it’s nice to see.
Not only that, but the HEDDphone has one of the most visceral and grounded presentations I’ve heard in headphones. It’s similar to a fully tubed CIEM, albeit far more aggressive thanks to the raw tactility. Some describe this as “closed in”, but I’d rather opt for “extremely upfront”. To put it in another way, it’s the direct opposite of a diffuse presentation, but doesn’t lack any sort of stage width. I suspect this is what it makes it perceptually more dynamic than Utopia, even though “objectively” they may be the same. In any case, fans of the HD800 or similarly diffuse headphones will dislike the HEDDphone. It is unashamedly intense and aggressive, and anyone looking for anything less than that need not bother with it. For those of us that enjoy headphones that don’t put us to sleep however, look no further.
Something else interesting to note is the staging of the HEDDphone itself - It’s fairly wide, and has decent amounts of forward imaging. Some have noted that it images too far up on the head itself; I personally don’t notice this. However, it begins to become apparent after a while that the HEDDphone is unable to project sound beyond the confines of the cup, in regards to forward/backward/up/down staging. This can be a flaw to some, when coupled with the intense and forward presentation of the HEDDphone. Again, some may interpret it as a closed in stage, and to an extent they’re right. I don’t necessarily agree though, considering the HEDDphone is fully capable of a wide stereo image. It’s just an extremely up close one, rather than a spacious and airy one.
In summary, I think the idea behind the HEDDphone is clear: It’s a highly technical and acceptably tuned $2000 headphone that competes with kilobucks that cost double or more from other companies. Its presentation is intense and ruthless; anyone seeking a headphone that is laidback or relaxing is barking up the wrong tree. But if you want one of the most steely and unforgiving headphones that displays its ferocity not in tuning but in presentation, you’ve found your ideal headphone.
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