Hedd Tower mains

[Purité Audio]

Thanks to an ASR member’s recommendation ( I cant remember who ,but thank you, you know who you are) I am going to hear Hedd’s ‘Tower mains’ studio monitors,
http://www.hedd.audio/en/

Keith

 

[Soniclife]

With the HEDD Lineariser® VST plugin, we have created a unique solution for one of the most challenging problems in loudspeaker designing: Linear Phase Response. The Lineariser® flattens both, the phase and frequency response of your HEDD monitors in unparalleled quality and without any DSP involved!

That's some quality BS they are selling.

 

[andreasmaaan]

That's some quality BS they are selling.

Ha, the only DSP-free VST

 

[Purité Audio]

They don’t strike me as a BS company, the ‘father’ was the chief engineer at Adam, is it the plug-in you specifically object to?
Nigel Palmer ( Lowland mastering) liked them at their launch, I respect Nigel’s opinion .
I will report back.
Keith

 

[Soniclife]

They don’t strike me as a BS company, the ‘father’ was the chief engineer at Adam, is it the plug-in you specifically object to?

The plug in is a good thing, I don't get why a lot more companies don't offer similar things, the same as Audeze do for their headphones. It's an almost free enhancement for owners, that's optional.
What I object to is they are selling analogue purity as some sort of magic, whilst clearly understanding it's limitations, as evidenced by their fix. They are so committed to this story they have to try and claim that something that is pure DSP is somehow DSP free.

 

[pozz]

The plug in is a good thing, I don't get why a lot more companies don't offer similar things, the same as Audeze do for their headphones. It's an almost free enhancement for owners, that's optional.
What I object to is they are selling analogue purity as some sort of magic, whilst clearly understanding it's limitations, as evidenced by their fix. They are so committed to this story they have to try and claim that something that is pure DSP is somehow DSP free.

By DSP they mean one that's embedded in the crossover. The current ADAM monitors have embedded DSP which allows for great flexibility, but necessitates an internal AD/DA stage.

The Linearizer is a VST that goes on the master bus of your DAW, and is turned off for rendering. The idea is that the phase/amplitude characteristics of HEDD monitors are known in advance and fall within known thresholds, so corrections are added to the output signal before entering the PC media stack or going through the DA stage of your DAC. Like you said, it's a fairly elegant solution.

 

[Soniclife]

Like you said, it's a fairly elegant solution.

I don't see it as elegant in studio use, because it requires humans to remember to turn it off before rendering. It's better than nothing for home use, but not as good as offering a digital input with it active all the time.

 

[Purité Audio]

I hope to have a pair of these here soon.
Hedd Audio’s ‘main towers’.


Keith

 

[617]

Let me know how the AMT sounds. I've never seen a small AMT that performs as well as a conventional dome, and HEDD/Adam uses them exclusively.

 

[andreasmaaan]

By DSP they mean one that's embedded in the crossover. The current ADAM monitors have embedded DSP which allows for great flexibility, but necessitates an internal AD/DA stage.

Only if it's fed an analogue input signal. Most higher-end studio monitors (I don't know specifically about the Adams mind you) accept AES/EBU input, which is hands-down the most optimal solution.

 

[pozz]

Only if it's fed an analogue input signal. Most higher-end studio monitors (I don't know specifically about the Adams mind you) accept AES/EBU input, which is hands-down the most optimal solution.

Yep. They have both inputs/outputs for AES/EBU and inputs for analog—but I haven't seen them disclose the necessity of AD/DA conversion anywhere in their marketing materials.

 

[andreasmaaan]

Yep. They have both inputs/outputs for AES/EBU and inputs for analog—but I haven't seen them disclose the necessity of AD/DA conversion anywhere in their marketing materials.

If the AD converters have a good enough SNR and low enough distortion, and proper gain staging is implemented, the AD conversion will not be audible. But digital input is more elegant and (at least objectively) more optimal.

 

[pozz]

I would guess that it's the standard 96kHz sampling rate used for pro converters. Still, as with everything, greater disclosure of the process makes judgments and purchasing decisions easier to make.