I ordered a pair from Bloom today and should have them Thursday and I very much looking forward to hearing just how detailed they really are. Glad I got the Jot2 a little while back because the Heddphone likes power and the Jot2 has plenty of that.
Man, this is such a great sounding headphone and I love it. Are they heavy, absolutely, but not so much so that you canât get used to them. Iâll deal with extra weight from a headphone that sounds as good as these do. I mean as far as SQ goes the Heddphone competes with some of the best on the market that cost $3000 or more and $1900 new they arenât cheap either but you can find open box sets (which is what I did) for around $1500 or so and used ones on the 2nd hand market for even cheaper. If the weight isnât a problem these are definitely end-game headphones and for me, thatâs exactly what they are.
When I want to listen to piano, I most always reach for the HeddsâŠits that accurate and the âivoryâ keys indeed come across very tonally accurateâŠKeiko Matsuiâs Dreamwalk CD, Billy Barber are spectacular CDâs with the HeddsâŠ
Use an amp with some power, 1-3 watts for sureâŠ
Alex
Funny for the past few days the Hedds have not sounded up to âparââŠa bit out of âwhackâ grainy and the phase was off somewhat.
I tried my other cans and they were âokââŠhmmmm.
I was using my HPA-1 into a tube amp with 4 out 6CA7âsâŠsame thing this am Hedds âsuckedâ!!!
How could this even be possible??
Well I glanced at the tube amp and saw one of the output channels tube was not âglowingâ!! Hmmm.
Electro Harmonix 6CA7âŠdark and cold to the touch!
Checked the bias with a voltmeterâŠwaaaay offâŠshut amp down. Remove âdarkâ tube.
Replaced with a spare 6CA7!
VoilaâŠInstant Hedd âLoveâ againâŠ
AH!
Its the small thingsâŠ
All is good once again in âHeddâ landâŠlet the music play
:>)
Alex
Glad you got it all worked out and that there wasnât anything wrong with the Heddphone.
I saw the ASR review on the Heddphone and they showed crazy distortion on them but only at like 100dB or more which I canât think of anyone that listen to a HP that loud unless they want to go def so I donât see how that even matters. All I know is Iâve never heard any distortion and theyâve always sounded very clean and clear, easily one of the cleanest sounding headphones Iâve ever owned.
ASR is not in my vocabularyâŠ
:>)
Alex
INTRODUCTION
Itâs been some time since I was able to do a review. I moved! And moving is exhausting. But, the HiFiGuides community had my back as always and had plenty of gear stacked up for me to check out once I got settled. One piece of that gear is the Hedd Heddphone. The Heddphone is an exciting product because it brings a new driver technology to the headphone market, namely AMT drivers. Before Heddphone, AMT drivers had been mostly relegated to high-frequency reproduction in speakers. I know that as of this writing in late June 2021 the Heddphone isnât the newest kid on the block, but itâs still one of the only AMT-based headphones out there (Goldplanar GL850 being the only other one that I know of), which makes it exciting to check out! Letâs dive inâŠ
TL;DR
Sonically the Heddphone is an intriguing entry into the headphone world with its AMT drivers. Those drivers bring lots of detail and good timbre. Heddphone pulls off excellent detail retrieval without sounding forward or aggressive in its presentation, as well. The tuning of the Heddphone is likely best suited for mellow, acoustic music, with piano music being a real strength. It has a very pleasant, polite presentation that does little wrong, but isnât very dynamic and does little to excite. Still, the future could be fun with AMT driver headphones. The physical comfort is poor, though, and will likely be a dealbreaker for many.
KNOW YOUR REVIEWER
My preferred genres are rock/metal and classical/orchestral music. Iâm getting to know jazz more and enjoying quite a bit. I also listen to some EDM and hip-hop. My hearing quirks include a high sensitivity to midrange frequencies from just under 1KHz to around 3Khz, give or take. My ears are thus quick to perceive âshoutinessâ in headphones in particular. I describe âshoutinessâ as an emphasis on the âouâ sound of âshout.â Itâs a forwardness in the neighborhood of 1KHz and/or on the first one or two harmonics above it (when I make the sound âooooowwwwwâ into a spectrum analyzer the dominant frequency on the vowel sound is around 930Hz, which also means harmonic spikes occur again at around 1860Hz and 2790Hz). In the extreme, it can have the tonal effect of sounding like a vocalist is speaking or singing through a toilet paper tube or cupping their hands over their mouth. It can also give instruments like piano, but especially brass instruments, an added âhonkâ to their sound. I also get distracted by sibilance, or sharp âsâ and âtâ sounds that can make ssssingers sssssound like theyâre forssssssing esssss ssssssounds aggresssssssively. Sibilance does not physically hurt my ears nearly as quickly as shout, though. Itâs distracting because itâs annoying and unnatural. Finally, in a new clause in this section, Iâm discovering that I have a preference for more subtle detail. I like good detail retrieval and hearing what a recording has to offer, but I prefer that presentation to what many would consider relaxed and subtle rather than aggressive of detail-forward. To my ear, more subtle detail-retrieval sounds more realistic and natural than aggressive, detail-forwardness. There is a balance here, though, because detail retrieval can get too relaxed and that can sound unnatural, as well. Readers should keep these hearing quirks and preferences in mind as they read my descriptions of sound.
FEATURES & BUILD
Iâm not going to go into much depth on the driver tech as thatâs been done already in many places around the internet. Those drivers are housed in a mostly rectangular, open-back earcup. The Heddphone is big and heavy. The earcups and pads have a lot of depth to them, and they stick way out off the sides of the head. They are open-back so there isnât much isolation. On the other hand, they are not as leaky as something like HiFiManâs egg-shaped series of headphones. Still, donât plan to use them in a cubicle because everyone will still hear your music.
Cable entry is dual-entry with mini 4-pin XLR connectors in the same style as ZMF or Audeze headphones. The cable entry points are flush mounted so it should be very easy to buy aftermarket cables.
I have to talk about the comfort. ItâsâŠless than stellar. Thatâs a nice way of saying that for my head the comfort â specifically lack thereof â is a dealbreaker. This review was difficult because wearing the Heddphone for more than 4 or 5 songs at a time became really uncomfortable. Itâs not so much the weight. Heavy headphones usually donât bother me. Itâs the clamp force, the way the pads rest on the side of the head, and how warm they get for me. Comfort is very much a YMMV type of thing. It may work for you, but it doesnât for me and Iâve heard several other audiophiles say similarly. I advise purchasing Heddphone from somewhere where you can easily return them if the comfort is also a miss for you. I understand that there is a second revision out there (quite sure I have V1) that offers a headband extension to alleviate some of that. I donât need to extend headphone headbands very much so Iâm sot sure if that would help me. Either way, readers should know that such a thing exists too and that I was not able to evaluate it.
Finally for features and build, POWAH! The Heddphone is not an easy drive. Itâs rated at 42⊠impedance and 87dB/mW sensitivity. Youâll need an amp with some juice to get it to sound its best.
SOUND
Test Gear
I mostly ran Heddphone off a chain of Singxer SU-2 DDC â Berkeley Audio Designs Alpha Series 2 DAC â Violectric HPA-V281 headphone amp. I also spent some time with a Cayin N6ii DAP â Schiit Bifrost 2 DAC â Monolith Liquid Platinum amp with Amperex PQ Gold Pin 6922 tubes.
Sound Signature
Heddphone strikes me as having an overall neutral-bright signature. To my ear the treble has just a bit of emphasis to it. Itâs reminiscent of the Beyerdynamic DT880 in this regard, though not quite to that magnitude. The bass is extended but lean. The mids are smooth yet well-detailed. The overall presentation is quite inoffensive. The treble is crisp and clear but almost never introduces any sibilance beyond whatâs in the recording. The mids are smooth, present, detailed, and I canât recall a single instance where I thought it sounded shouty when it shouldnât have. Overall, the sound just doesnât really do anything obviously wrong, and itâs fairly forgiving of electronics and recordings once properly powered.
As mentioned, the bass has good extension and also brings with it some decent detail and texture. It is lean and lacks slam, though. The bass that is there is good. I have nothing to complain about in regards to what is there. Personally, I would like more bass presence and more slam. Bassheads should probably spend their money elsewhere.
The midrange and treble are both excellent. They are smooth while being detailed, and crisp and clear without being sharp, shrill, or shouty. Detail retrieval was excellent. Room reverb, drum ghost notes, any kind of tuning dissonance, all resolved well. Heddphone does this resolving without it ever feeling forced, too-forward, or analytical. It retains a pleasant smoothness and musicality with that high level of detail retrieval.
The timbre is also quite good. In general, voices and instruments sound much like they are supposed to sound. In the price range the timbre from Hedd is among the best Iâve heard.
Macrodynamics
This is where the Hedd doesnât necessarily fall short, but isnât for everyone. The sound isnât the most dynamic or lively. There is a pleasantness and politeness to it â still detailed! â that translates to not much in the way of impact, slam, or physicality. The bass-lean-ness means there isnât much in the way of rumble, either. For me, this meant there wasnât much involvement with music like rock, metal, hip-hop, or EDM that benefits from some punch or slam. Heddphone also wasnât particularly engaging to me on music that isnât punchy but has lots of rumble â think of things like Hans Zimmerâs OSTs here. However, for piano music, or mellow acoustic music Heddphone is fantastic. There the timbre and the detail retrieval become the focus and the physical too-polite-ness fades away.
COMPARISON WITH OTHER HEADPHONES
From a comfort standpointâŠthere isnât much comparison. Heddphone is the most physically uncomfortable full-size headphone Iâve used to this point. Iâm having trouble coming up with a close second, to be honest.
Sonically the Heddphone feels rather appropriately priced at around $1900. Its timbre is very good â perhaps only being edged out in this price range by the ZMF line. I didnât get quite the timbral magic out of Heddphone that I experienced with the ZMF Eikon, but it wasnât far behind either. The detail retrieval also seems appropriate, being around, and perhaps just a hair ahead of, the HiFiMan Arya. Iâm going from memory on that though as itâs been awhile since Iâve heard the Arya. Still, from memory, the two are close. I think Heddphone is more forgiving of poor recordings than Arya even though it maintains that excellent detail retrieval. Arya has a bit more punch in the low-end however. For me the tricky part with Heddphone at its new price is that the HiFiMan HE1000V2 can be found new for as low as $2200 at times, and when itâs used itâs frequently around $1500. To my ear that is a significant technical step up almost across the board for a similar price, plus its much more comfortable. The only advantage I can give to Hedd there is that itâs still more forgiving than the HE1000V2, especially in regard to sibilance. The HE1000V2 doesnât hit very hard either, but it hits harder than Heddphone.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Heddphone is a good all-around sounding headphone if youâre ok with lean bass and not much slam. The timbre and detail are very good. Piano music and other mellow acoustic music sound excellent on the Heddphone. However, I didnât find myself reaching for it very often. First, itâs not very comfortable and I know when I put it on that it wonât be on for long. Second, itâs not the best sonic fit for my preferred music genres. I mostly listen to music that benefits from more bass presence and more physicality than Heddphone brings to the table. Even so, there are enough good qualities here to give me hope that a future AMT-based headphone could be very intriguing for me. If Hedd can fix the comfort issues and offer a more bass-present signature with a more dynamic presentation, Iâd be very interested.
Thanks for reading, all. Enjoy the music! 
Nice write upâŠ
I dont have any issues with the weightâŠand the fit is very good for me and I have the latest generation headband with the extra extensions.
I can understand your comments on the bassâŠsome folks add a .5 to 1.5 db boost down low. For me its fine as is.
Wonder if you have listened much to some really âgoodâ well recorded classical music?
The Hedd boys have designed its sound signature based on thousands of hours of classical performances, live.
IMO they really excel hereâŠand I am not a classical type of listener much.
Also I find they really need an amp that can drive them as wellâŠâwellââŠie at least a full watt or better yet 3 watts +âŠ
Alex
Just took off my D8000 pros and threw on the Hedds, listening to Roberta Flack, First Time I Ever Saw Your Face, and voila âdeepâ sonorous bassâŠreally nice. with HPA-1 and a B2.
Thanks! I have several good quality classical recordings, and of course access to all I could ever want through Qobuz. I find the same issue there as I sorta like my classical music big and loud, too, haha. I lean more toward Beethovenâs 5th, 1812 Overture, The Planets suite, etc. where things tend to get big, loud, and bombastic too. I also like pipe organ - Peter Hurfordâs rendition of Tocatta & Fugue in D Minor is stellar. With works like that the Heddâs bass lean-ness makes them less engaging.
Still, with a little tweaking the AMT driver design could be a lot of fun in future models.
I know this is a HEDD threadâŠbut listen to this:
I was sent this from a friend who has D8000 Proâs and other TOTL cans.
When I listened to this with my new D8000 Pros. I was floored at how good this came acrossâŠI have not listened to this with the Hedds but will tomorrow for sure.
I will test with the Hedds, D8000 Pros, Empys and Focal Clear Pro MGs and let you know what I think. The baseline with the D8000âs is my â10â ATM.
Alex
I am selling my HeddsâŠif interested PM me.
Alex
Our latest video discussing the @heddaudio HEDDphone is live on TSAVâs YouTube Channel now!
In this video, I share my impressions on the HEDDphone from Heinz Electrodynamic Designs, otherwise known as HEDD.
This video will focus on the build quality, design, and subjective sound impressions about the HEDDphone. Subscribe today for more videos on other personal audio products I also compare them from a sound perspective to two similarly priced headphones the Sennheiser HD800s and the Focal Clear MG. We will also discuss some synergistic amp pairings for the HEDD such as the Chord TT2, Yulong DA1 with Power supply, @ampsandsound Agartha, and the McIntosh MHA200. We hope you enjoy it, and please share the video with friends.
Very well polished reviewâŠgreat pix.
But your late to the party!
Great canâŠ
Hey guys! TSAV is blowing out all inventory left of the HEDDphone If you have been thinking about picking up a pair, they are new in the box and 42% off, or $800 off normal retail!