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HEDD HEDDPhone Review (headphone)

tcode

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Sorry, there is no such thing as "speed." Typically this is lack of deep bass that people call "speed." Anyway, my conclusion is not far from yours in the review:
In headphones there is only one driver per chanel. It's task is to play every tone, from 20 Hz to 20 KHz, how would you call measure for transition from one tone to other?

Yea, your conclusion isn't far from my mine indeed, but reading most of other people's posts here someone would make a conclusion that this headphones are fail. Probably the people who never had a chance to put them on their heads and just blindly read your measurements. I'm not saying that they are wrong, just that there is more things happening sonically which can't be measured, but can be heard.
 

infinitesymphony

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In headphones there is only one driver per chanel. It's task is to play every tone, from 20 Hz to 20 KHz, how would you call measure for transition from one tone to other?

Yea, your conclusion isn't far from my mine indeed, but reading most of other people's posts here someone would make a conclusion that this headphones are fail. Probably the people who never had a chance to put them on their heads and just blindly read your measurements. I'm not saying that they are wrong, just that there is more things happening sonically which can't be measured, but can be heard.
Step response or impulse response might be what you want. Are those applicable to headphones? It seems like with loudspeakers those measurements are most often used to evaluate the timing between different drivers like woofer and tweeter, but with a headphone you're only dealing with one driver per side.
 
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amirm

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In headphones there is only one driver per chanel. It's task is to play every tone, from 20 Hz to 20 KHz, how would you call measure for transition from one tone to other?
A transducer operates in time domain, not frequencies. It simply sees varying amplitudes and it converts them to mechanical motion. The slowest rate of change is low frequencies and hence the reason I said if there is less of it, some people think that means the driver is "fast."
 

Francis Vaughan

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how would you call measure for transition from one tone to other?
If there is any “slowness” in such a transition the device must be resonating, and doing so with considerable Q. Such a device would be more like a bell than an audio transducer. No headphone behaves like this. Stored energy is visible in the waterfall plots or simply as peaks in the frequency response. You would be seeing mountains towering over the rest of the response.
The reality is that no reproduction device actually takes time to transit from one frequency to another. Musical instruments take time because they are designed to resonate. They have a high Q and are intrinsically full of stored energy.
The driver moves in response to the input current and that signal includes every tone and all of their harmonics and percussion and so on. They are designed with low Q and avoid any resonances.
What is slow is you ear/brain. It takes a few cycles to latch onto a tone, and the ear/brain is particularly bad at low frequencies. Try to follow the pedal bass on an organ. Typical long pedal stops are designed with lots of harmonics to make it easier to discern the notes, but pure deep bass is very hard. If you cut out the deep bass your ear/brain system can follow the changes more easily. If you like that experience, well fine. It isn’t the sound the artist intended, but it is your choice to prefer that way of hearing their work. But don’t kid yourself it is closer to the original. It isn’t.
 

pozz

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BubbaJay

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Well I've had my pair for only a few hours and I think they sound great and are as good as my Arya and other headphones. I do see why some people sell them because of the weight as they are heavy but it's not too bad for me. So far I feel like they're a cross between a planar and electrostat, also the bass is much better than I was expecting as it has a nice bit of thump to it. The detail is as good as any other headphone I've heard and even though the soundstage isn't huge they have a very nice 3D quality to them.
 

Takanaka

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Well I've had my pair for only a few hours and I think they sound great and are as good as my Arya and other headphones. I do see why some people sell them because of the weight as they are heavy but it's not too bad for me. So far I feel like they're a cross between a planar and electrostat, also the bass is much better than I was expecting as it has a nice bit of thump to it. The detail is as good as any other headphone I've heard and even though the soundstage isn't huge they have a very nice 3D quality to them.
Wow, are you me? I found a nice second hand deal so I picked them up, they’re shipping to me next week so I’m quite interested in comparing them to the Arya. I know the distortion figures are pretty worrying but seeing as it is a new kind of headphone driver and the generally really positive feedback (except for the comfort) I just had to give it a try. :)
 

BubbaJay

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Well after a few days of listening I can confirm they are an amazing sounding headphone and I don't know what's up with the distortion numbers because I don't hear any. Balanced out of my Jot2 and iFi Neo has been a great combo and after a day or 2 the weight hasn't been an issue though you do feel the difference between them and other headphones. The speed and detail retrieval are just top-notch and are up there with the best headphones I've heard and I totally see why they say these are perfect for audio engineers because they are a precise as it gets. They don't sound clinical or analytical at all though and that's what I really love about them because music still sounds smooth and very enjoyable, also watching a good action movie with them is a must.
 

Robbo99999

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Well after a few days of listening I can confirm they are an amazing sounding headphone and I don't know what's up with the distortion numbers because I don't hear any. Balanced out of my Jot2 and iFi Neo has been a great combo and after a day or 2 the weight hasn't been an issue though you do feel the difference between them and other headphones. The speed and detail retrieval are just top-notch and are up there with the best headphones I've heard and I totally see why they say these are perfect for audio engineers because they are a precise as it gets. They don't sound clinical or analytical at all though and that's what I really love about them because music still sounds smooth and very enjoyable, also watching a good action movie with them is a must.
Re distortion, it depends how loud you listen. I worked out that with my headphones I don't listen loud at all......based on max output of my DAC & unity gain on my amp and the sensitivity of my headphones and using EqualiserAPO to put in progressively larger dB negative preamps I worked out that my max peaks in RMS are 80-86dB depending on which headphone of mine I use and the inaccuracies associated with my experimentation. Yes, so Amir's distortion numbers start and 94dB and increase to 114dB, so for me only the 94dB is close to relevant when giving a low shelf bass boost, but for me certainly not relevant in the mids & treble. Given that the following is a measurement of your HEDD headphone then if I was to use your headphone I'd only be looking at the blue line, and that's probably not audible distortion, and especially given that I listen lower than that too, it's gonna come down to what your max SPL is that you listen at:
1621313579873.png
 

BubbaJay

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Yeah, I'd say I listen around the same level as you in the upper 70s to mid-80s at most so I guess that's why I don't hear any. I'd don't know anyone that would listen at 94dB or higher anyways (unless you're already going deaf) so what distortion there is really isn't a problem.
 

solderdude

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As can be seen till 114dB SPL there is no distortion till 500Hz. That's where most of the 'power' is in music.
Even when listening at peak levels (in music) at 110dB SPL the frequencies above 500Hz are most likely below 95dB SPL anyway.
When you turn it up loud (to impressive levels) you are very likely to hit peak SPLs reaching 110dB SPL (average dBA levels will be in the 80-90dBA in that case)
 
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