[mixman]

Interesting. They are supposed to have a resolution close to the Utopia.

Not the pair I have. The resolution is closer to Arya. I am hoping break in does the trick, I am doing that as I type this, but so far no luck.

 

[heliosphann]

Interesting. They are supposed to have a resolution close to the Utopia.

To me they have every bit of resolution as the LCD-4 and Utopia. And even more than my Verite Open.

 

[PeteSTRADAMUS]

To me they have every bit of resolution as the LCD-4 and Utopia. And even more than my Verite Open.

That means there must be something wrong with some of these units that shipped out. Happens to all products. From memory I remember it having super-resolution.

 

[mixman]

That means there must be something wrong with some of these units that shipped out. Happens to all products. From memory I remember it having super-resolution.

Hopefully we are not talking about Audeze like sample to sample variation in different HEDD batches.

I would love for these to work out, since these were the absolute least expensive of the HP’s I bought recently and everyone likes a bargain.

 

[joseph69]

I don't want to rain on anybody's parade, but it looks like I must have just gotten a defective HEDDphone (from the latest production batch). Right out of the box without break in they should sound at least very good, but these have been a major disappointment. The sound is veiled, muddy. No transient attack, guitar plucks and other leading edges are smeared out.
Needless to say these are being returned.

Unfortunately my experience was the same (2nd batch) and needless to say, they were returned

Interesting. They are supposed to have a resolution close to the Utopia.

Not the pair I had, that's for sure.

 

[PointyFox]

From what I have found they need power to sound really good. Not sure how much power you WA6 puts out, but I had to crank my THX for the HEDD to sound its best, but I have to admit I do agree with some of your complaints and have noticed my HEDD are also not great resolution wise either, definitely not as good as my HEK SE or Verite. Mine are also from the latest batch. If there are any issues with this last batch I would like to know.

I never understand what people mean by "they need power to sound good". I'd assume this means that they don't sound good unless played loudly. If an amp didn't have enough power to drive them to decent volume, that would be pretty obvious and there would be few headphone amps unable to drive most headphones, especially in the price bracket we tend to look at on here.

 

[mixman]

I never understand what people mean by "they need power to sound good". I'd assume this means that they don't sound good unless played loudly. If an amp didn't have enough power to drive them to decent volume, that would be pretty obvious and there would be few headphone amps unable to drive most headphones, especially in the price bracket we tend to look at on here.

Yes unfortuntely they do not sound as good at low volumes as the rest of my cans. So am talking about a change in which their character seems to change.....more treble, better dynamics, also more so than other hard to drive cans I have had here too.

 

[PeteSTRADAMUS]

Yes unfortuntely they do not sound as good at low volumes as the rest of my cans. So am talking about a change in which their character seems to change.....more treble, better dynamics, also more so than other hard to drive cans I have had here too.

Maybe there is something wrong with your pair. I heard the hekse on the Benchmark stack and I was more impressed by the Hedd. A lot more in fact. The hekse was okay. It’s just no Susvara to me.

 

[Uebelkraehe]

I don't understand the recent negative comments either. They seem to describe a completely different headphone. Mine's from the first batch and the only real complaint i have is in regards to the almost too short headband. They sound great when supported by an adequate chain and there is certainly no lack of resolution. Something has to be wrong there.

 

[Fegefeuer]

What's an adequate chain? And what's your reference for resolution? A resolution close to the Arya as stated by the @mixman does not equate "lack of resolution". It's a reference point. Have you listened to the Arya? I doubt people consider the Arya as a headphone that is wrong in any way. (except for its 5k peak which could have been handled better by Hifiman).

I'm not defending the Arya, I just don't think shooting down the criticism in that way helps others. People need reference points and see where you are coming from.

 

[Uebelkraehe]

I'm shooting down nobody, they are hearing what they are hearing and i certainly didn't want to imply that something is wrong with them.

If this about the Heddphone not reaching Utopia levels of resolution that might well be and i can't contradict it, but describing them as 'muddy' just seems to be very off to me compared to everything i have listened extensively to so far. The Heddphone in my experience at least easily thumbs the likes of Quad ERA-1, Focal Clear and Sony IER-Z1R. And an 'adequate chain' does at least comprise huge amounts of juice in this case, as the Heddphone not only needs a lot of it to reach adequate loudness but also likes to have quite a bit of surplus to reveal their full dynamics. And they will faithfully reproduce the signature of your chain, as my experience with the combination of the SP200 and D5 being uncomfortably dry clearly demonstrated.

Edit: Changed "problem with your chain" to "signature of your chain" as i don't want somebody to try to verbally lynch me for implying their chain might be the problem.

 

[471724]

I'm shooting down nobody, they are hearing what they are hearing and i certainly didn't want to imply that something is wrong with them.

If this about the Heddphone not reaching Utopia levels of resolution that might well be and i can't contradict it, but describing them as 'muddy' just seems to be very off to me compared to everything i have listened extensively to so far. The Heddphone in my experience at least easily thumbs the likes of Quad ERA-1, Focal Clear and Sony IER-Z1R. And an 'adequate chain' does at least comprise huge amounts of juice in this case, as the Heddphone not only needs a lot of it to reach adequate loudness but also likes to have quite a bit of surplus to reveal their full dynamics. And they will faithfully reproduce the signature of your chain, as my experience with the combination of the SP200 and D5 being uncomfortably dry clearly demonstrated.

Edit: Changed "problem with your chain" to "signature of your chain" as i don't want somebody to try to verbally lynch me for implying their chain might be the problem.

I stand by my evaluation. My pair of HEDDphones probably is defective, since I can't reasonably discount all the many very positive evaluations that have accumulated from this site and many very good reviews. It has nothing to do with inadequate drive power. One of my sources is an Astell & Kern Kann Cube DAP, with huge amounts of power on tap. Medium gain selection (which I mostly use) produces 8VRMS in balanced, with a lot more available in high gain setting. And my Woo WA-6SE tube amp produces 1900 MW max single ended. Power made no difference with the smearing problem. This was apparent at all volume levels. It's irrelevant, since clarity and resolution were evaluated in part with relatively quiet music like solo guitar and harpsichord in addition to loud jazz, orchestral and organ.

The biggest question to me is whether this is a one-off manufacturing defect or if it affects the whole of current production due to a very mistaken change in materials and/or manufacturing methods.

 

[mixman]

I just have to say the HEDD I have here do not compare favorably to most of the TOTL HP's I have heard. One way or another I have heard most. What i am hearing is a good headphone that compares well in the sub $2K category but does not compare well with many HP's above that.

I do wonder if along with the extra length headband, HEDD also made a quiet change to the sonic specs also?

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

I just have to say the HEDD I have here do not compare favorably to most of the TOTL HP's I have heard. One way or another I have heard most. What i am hearing is a good headphone that compares well in the sub $2K category but does not compare well with many HP's above that.

I do wonder if along with the extra length headband, HEDD also made a quiet change to the sonic specs also?

Now I really want to hear yours to see how it sounds compared to the one I used to have.

 

[jaaibananzu]

Hmmm, yes, seem to be quite some different descriptions of the heddphone.
I understand tonereefs side, the subjective and what he is looking for in a headphone, also his ears are not that good and the amp pairing could not be optimal, but at the end, some of the descriptions describe simply another headphone - not the one I've heard myself (I heard 3 different ones) and others described now for over 120 pages or on other websites or reviews.
Since I thouroughly heard the heddphone couple of times back almost 2 months ago and also finished my lengthy review of it, with almost all the high-end/enthusiast/flagships (except the verite, abyss, final audio and audio technica) , some things are way off.

Discarding als subjectivity, bias etc. when listening to them and writing, there is no veil and muddy, transients are well done and hella fast, no smearing whatsoever.
About transducer resolution and perceived detail, I tried to explain my understanding of it here https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hed...-amt-technology.906270/page-110#post-15542105
Paired with an optimal amp/dac the transducer resolution of the heddphone is at least on par with an lcd-4, Utopia/Stellia or HD 800S.
And since the sound signature and tonality is not dark or uneven, there is even slightly up to a bit more perceived detail in the higher frequencies.
Kinda does not make sense to me an older and inexpensive model got more resolution and perceived detail as the newest and expensive flagship of Audeze.
Especially in classic music, this got excellent perceived detail, an LCD-4 can't give. Same with texture

tonereef, no
I quoted what you have written before "The 009s are probably closer, though to my ears they're a bit lacking energy in the lower mids/upper bass .."
I listened and wrote about the Sr-009S.
Oh, I was using this website reference https://www.headphonezone.in/blogs/audiophile-guide/mid-range-high-range-frequencies
Then the mid-mids it be!

" but the perceived distance to the music seems sometimes to be related to the the kind of music "
Yes, I meant that. Different transducers, especially different tuning of the frequency response leads to this.
It's the amp pairing or your ears at this stage I guess. I simply describe and compare the heddphone to all the others flagships and other headphones I listened and wrote about, not just one specific; so maybe I forgot to explain this

Yes unfortuntely they do not sound as good at low volumes as the rest of my cans.

Is also quite the opposite of what I heard. The dynamics are above lcd-3/4 and other planars I heard.
Especially when listened to the hifiman ananda, Arya and HE1000SE, I noticed that the hifimans are really behind when it comes to dynamics.
A 1500 € focal clear is doing better with dynamics than the HE1000SE. Listening to complex music with lots of quiet and loud elements, voiced and electic guitars, it was one of the first things I noticed. I had to volume up gradually listening to the hifimans; due to this there just was constant fatigue to my ears.