Impressions of HEDD headphones for your head thread

Nothing like that, I already have speakers, P3ESR. They do sound great but almost never get used for music, media only.
All my music listening casual or critical is at my desk, that would be nearfield only and even if there's a thread about it I don't want to start experiementing to find what's may or may not work. That's not lack of self confidence, it's a reality that after 5 years of intensive swaping, experimenting and fine tuning I'm very much looking foward to the next 5-10 years of just listening, on headphones, with tubes.

The reason why I want the HEDDphone is to fill a niche planars never managed to. Bass and lots of it. Audeze, Hifiman, Abyss can just about do proper bass but mess up bigtime in other areas. HEDD is the only one with full, impactfull, botomless low end with minimal sacrifices. On this alone I want to get them, yet I've also heard some of the most beautiful natural treble around. And for less than half the price of popular flagships. What's not to like?

Speaking of bass, I remember my neighbours weren't too kind of a DIY 15' PA Audio sub, and that was in a reinforced concrete building, I'm living in a modern flat now, it's not an option. HEDD might be the only practical way to hip hop as it was intented to without being a dick to people around me. This is my situation, otherwise I'd be pap trioed by now.

 

Aren't we all.

Wouldn't a guy, who knows how to exactly get his fix and actually gets it, be a bit less delusional than the one telling others how their vision (delusion) not fitting into his own vision (delusion) are delusional?

All reproduced audio is illusion and sensations we get from that, delusions.

I am personally more disappointed by how late these sort of experiment are and how few there is.
The headphone arena has grown quite stale in the last 5 years.
Raal and HEDD deserve minor applause for coming out with something at all from their unique tech pov.

 

They'll get a golf clap in 10 years when prices are cut by ~70%. Why bother with experimenting when audiophiles happily throw thousands of dollars at vintage weaksauce Stax or made in China HiFiMan or boomy garbage hipster hifi Focals?

If people stopped singing the praises of kilobuck headphones that are compromises and sidegrades to a $200 hd650 maybe you'd have a point. In the meantime 99% of my hard earned dollars are going to my 2 channel setup and I've never enjoyed music more.

 

Is there something fundamental to the nature of two channel vs headphone setups that make the ROI for two channel necessarily much higher than for headphones?

 

This whole thread is turning out to be an argument between 2 ch vs headphone and I'm not sure why this argument started.whatever has been stated here for 2 ch, doesn't it apply for all headphone?
There are life scenarios where owing a 2 ch is simply not possible for a person. Everyone knows that a good 2 ch setup will blow a great headphone out of water but that doesn't mean that irrespective of your life scenario you go out and buy 30 kg of studio monitor

 

No doubt about it as far as I'm concerned, what comes closest to seeing a band live is a 2 channel setup, headphones don't even come close to the immersion and faithful reproduction that a 2 channel setup can bring you. Doesn't mean a good headphone setup can't sound good, but it's a different way to listen to music. This is why new stuff like the SR1A is so popular, it's the most speaker-like experience you can get from headphones.

 

What I mean is, is there some kind of technical reason why the difference between a 200 dollar headphone and 4000 dollar headphone is always negligible but the difference between 200 dollar speakers and 4000 dollar speakers can be vast?

 

I don't think so personally.

 

It's just well set up speakers always sound better then headphones, all things equal. But for lots of us, we can do a lot more listening and at more enjoyable volume on headphones than speakers so I think it makes sense to chase top of the line SQ in that case, even i it cant compare with two channel.

 

I don't disagree but I'm not arguing 2 ch vs headphones, both have their use. I just think some headphone manufacturers take people for fools by charging way too much comparatively to their manufacturing costs, even taking r&d into account.

 

There's no need to be upset, no one is making anyone buy overpriced items hifi or otherwise. This is a reality of the world we live in, don't focus on one particular thing, from the discrepency between a worker salary and CEO, what a child gets paid in Africa for mining diamonds and store price etc. Also if a BOM would be presented to these teorecial discussions it would be much appreciated, random sentences without backing are anoying.
They're available in the UK for preorder https://tinyurl.com/s5waa2n

 

Not to keep at it (continues to keep at it), but more so than speaker manufacturers?

 

More than some, less than others, but overall I would say yes, the ROI is much better with speaker upgrades than with headphones.

 

Hi guys, just found this thread after having a lot of traffic hit our site on these- they're *nearly* ready to go- we finally got given all our sales information on Friday for them so had got them listed this morning (I've since made a note that they're a pre-order to save confusion) but I am due to see our rep just after the NAMM show as he has his demo set now (a full production set)!

 

Hahahahaha of course you have Harbeths

 

While I agree with Psal that speakers are better than headphones in general, the cost discussion is irrelevant and is just meant to raise hackles.

In any case, I'm really excited to hear these, but have no plans to buy them. I've been captured by speakers and don't plan to go back to headphones anytime soon.

The HEDD sound is exceedingly pleasurable. My only issue with them is that the sweet spot is pretty small (not as small as some, but smaller than I prefer). The HEDDphones will eliminate this variable and might mean they're worth it.

 

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I can't afford 2k for speakers either, no matter how good they are.

 

These fall under the same category as the Raal headphones for me: they're different tech and I'm super curious to try them. At least these are more affordable...

 

That adjustability of the headband though. If i were interested it would probably not even fit.