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HEDD Type 20 MK2 Monitor Review

Rate this studio monitor:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 5 1.9%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 22 8.5%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 150 57.7%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 83 31.9%

  • Total voters
    260

sarumbear

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HEDD Type 20 MK2 Listening Tests & Equalization
I started listening with the port closed as that was where I left off in measurements. My first female track sounded stunningly good! Not only was the tonality on the mark, it has a level of detail and presence which was a delight. I switched the linearizer on and off and the latter effect definitely diminished with it off.
What is the measured effect of that “linearizer?”
 

3125b

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looking at those numbers (KH310s peak 390W vs Type 20s 900W), I expected the Type 20 to be able to go much much louder than the KH310 without distortion.
Well, power is only a part of the puzzle. Midrange and tweeter are too dissimilar to compare directly without any further data, however given that the HEDD has almost 20% greater volume and is ported the woofer performance does seem disappointing indeed.

Doing some estimating based on pictures by measuring pixels (breakthru scientific methods those are) the Neumann KH310 woofer has an outer surround diameter of about 188mm whereas the HEDD has about 148mm. That equals an area of 278cm² for the Neumann and 172mm² for the HEDD.
Now the results make a little more sense - the woofer on the HEDD is 7" if you include the very wide edge of the cage.
Performance isn't great even then, it still gets shown up big time by the 6.5" midwoofer on the KH150 that has numerous disadvantages working against it in that comparison.
 

dfuller

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What is the measured effect of that “linearizer?”
AFAIK, it unwraps the phase response of the speaker so it effectively doesn't have group delay or phase rotation. Not entirely sure how that works, but...

Well, power is only a part of the puzzle. Midrange and tweeter are too dissimilar to compare directly without any further data, however given that the HEDD has almost 20% greater volume and is ported the woofer performance does seem disappointing indeed.

Doing some estimating based on pictures by measuring pixels (breakthru scientific methods those are) the Neumann KH310 woofer has an outer surround diameter of about 188mm whereas the HEDD has about 148mm. That equals an area of 278cm² for the Neumann and 172mm² for the HEDD.
Now the results make a little more sense - the woofer on the HEDD is 7" if you include the very wide edge of the cage.
Performance isn't great even then, it still gets shown up big time by the 6.5" midwoofer on the KH150 that has numerous disadvantages working against it in that comparison.
Yep, Neumann stuck a big driver in a small box. You'll notice of course that the HD of both of them goes through the roof down low, so that's less than amazing - but for the Neumann, where there's no port, it does make sense. For the Hedd, I have to wonder about driver quality.
 
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hmt

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Especially the high distortion at 96 db in the midrange is imo concerning. The KH310 is much better here and also the KH150 despite being a 2 way design.
 

dfuller

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Not audibly distorting seems like something to expect from a modern studio monitor in this price class. So I was surprised at the recommendation.
In fairness: These are meant for use nearfield. I would not expect to need them to get particularly loud - remember, 96dB is for one speaker. I don't expect to listen that loud.
 

Digby

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@amirm something interesting I noticed in your review. You say that distortion makes the speaker difficult to listen to at louder volumes, yet with the Behringer B2030p:


we see higher levels of distortion, but you say the B2030p can 'play quite loud without bottoming out. With a single speaker playing, I had no issue enjoying music at levels that I desired.'

What is your answer to this perceived difference, is it that the distortion on Behringer is at 200-500hz and the Hedd is higher up the spectrum or something else?
 
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jamescarter1982

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Of course. Strangely, if you set the CoP control to closed, you get the distortion at higher playback levels. But if you leave it in the open setting, it can play much louder.
you think if there was a high pass for using with a sub the speaker would still struggle at high volumes ?
 

Spkrdctr

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After reading the review, I was one of the "poor" ratings. For the price it is very limited in volume. Just too much money for what you get. But then I'm a tightwad.......
 

kopczas

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So if there is no internet connection they quit working altogether or is it actually useable offline then?
As far as I know, after Sonarwork`s curve is saved into speaker memory, Ethernet connection is no longer necessary. So yes, it works offline.
 

enricoclaudio

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Thanks @amirm for another great review. This one, while performing on the OK side, it’s a hard pass for me because you can’t rotate the tweeter to place it vertically like you can do with the Adam A8H. Not to mention that seems a bit overpriced compared with offerings from Neumann and Genelec.
 

dananski

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Cool, thanks for another great review Amir, and this saves me from trying to send one of the MK1s thousands of miles myself.

It turns out pretty much as I had expected. I've been using the MK1 of these for coming up to 5 years now. The MK1 is essentially the same except no port-closing thing, DSP is done in software, and the amplification is way more than it needs.
The HEDD Type 20s size and design looks not too far off from the KH310 (Type20: Woofer 7", Midrange: 4", Tweeter: AMT Tweeter) but it's stated power is 300W/driver. That is 900W! Looking at these numbers (KH310s peak 390W vs Type 20s 900W), I expected the Type 20 to be able to go much much louder than the KH310s without any audible distortion.
It's just that they wanted to get an mk1 out and figured 'let's just throw in this 3x300W IcePower backplate, it'll be more than enough'. By the time you hit max input at medium gain, the low end gets audibly distorted, but that's way louder that you typically want - I couldn't turn it up that high at the desk, I've only done it when sat the other end of the room, and even then it hurts after a short while. The new amplification solution should be much more appropriate, with plenty of power and at the same time should have less floor noise, which is worthwhile with sensitive AMTs in particular.

What is the measured effect of that “linearizer?”
AFAIK, it unwraps the phase response of the speaker so it effectively doesn't have group delay or phase rotation. Not entirely sure how that works, but...
It does sort out phase response - quite an interesting effect once you notice it: if you listen to some heavily produced recording has been adjusted in the DAW to have everything perfectly beat-aligned, it really sounds like it.

In addition, it does also 'linearize' the frequency response. Since with the MK1 I use a VST Linearizer to do the same adjustment on the same speaker but through software, I can feed some noise through it to show the kind of frequency response adjustment you can expect it to be doing:
HEDD Lineariser FR - T20-A-500.png

This is the >5ms latency DSP correction that I think corresponds to what they do in the MK2 when you turn it on. Of course I don't have a closed port one to show and there might be some other minor differences in the MK2. Note that with 5ms latency you can't correct below 500Hz. The software Linearizer lets me cover the full range but with a 100ms delay - I switch off the Linearizer completely when using the speakers for live monitoring as I'm playing an instrument in. There's a choice in the software for HEDD alignment, which is the same but less bass reduction from 100Hz down.

My first female track sounded stunningly good! Not only was the tonality on the mark, it has a level of detail and presence which was a delight. I switched the linearizer on and off and the latter effect definitely diminished with it off.
I think that makes sense as there are substantial tweaks in the clarity region in the above graph. I find guitar tones are strongly affected too.
 

dfuller

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Thinking about this for the moment: The waveguide looks a lot like the JBL type horn, but sized down. It does not surprise me, then, that it's more effective than the one Adam uses on the A series.


Compare this one:
index.php

with the Adam A8H:
Screen Shot 2023-01-29 at 10.49.49 AM.png

Thanks @amirm for another great review. This one, while performing on the OK side, it’s a hard pass for me because you can’t rotate the tweeter to place it vertically like you can do with the Adam A8H. Not to mention that seems a bit overpriced compared with offerings from Neumann and Genelec.
That ultimately makes no difference, because the bit that matters most is the relative alignment of mid and tweeter, not the tweeter direction.
 

ROOSKIE

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Made for listening in a studio, 8 hours a day at around 85 dB max. Nothing wrong with this.
The speaker is very well engineered within the bass range SPL limitations & I agree there is nothing wrong with this -----> as long is the company is forthright about it.
Yet, they spec it as being able to out SPL many competitors options available.

"Maximum SPL
120 dB SPL (sound pressure level) per pair at 1m"

This speaker simply can not meet that spec in the bass range (&especially not when sealed) and I am suspicious whether that the tweeter can play at such levels as well.

Anyway, I can think of any 7"woofers that can reproduce 120db as a pair in a 'full range' scenario. Maybe the Dayton Epique's could with 14mm xmax.

That mid runs essentially from 300 Hz to 3 kHz. I am surprised at how unhappy it gets, with broad distortion in the 500 to 800 and 2 - 3 kHz range.
Who cares about Harmonic Distortion at these levels.
Above 100hrz
3rd order stays below 1%@96db
2nd order stays below 2%@96db and only rises there a small amount.

@86db where the speaker is seemingly designed to play the HD levels are generally below 0.5%.

This speaker has low enough HD.
Be cool to see IMD and compression tests on these.

I also wonder if the woofer amp is just short on power at times here as well.
 

ROOSKIE

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@dananski "I couldn't turn it up that high at the desk, I've only done it when sat the other end of the room, and even then it hurts after a short while."
In my experience when a good sounding speakers 'hurts' it is well past it's limits and is distorting and compressing and emitting loads of non linear distortions.

When a good sounding speaker can handle high SPL and is not producing HD,IMD,compression ECT -----> then there is no hurt, only good and you need an SPL meter to ensure you don't go to loud for to long.
This is a defining moment in a speakers life for me as many speakers simply don't sound good at 90db or more and others are godlike.
 

ROOSKIE

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@amirm something interesting I noticed in your review. You say that distortion makes the speaker difficult to listen to at louder volumes, yet with the Behringer B2030p:


we see higher levels of distortion, but you say the B2030p can 'play quite loud without bottoming out. With a single speaker playing, I had no issue enjoying music at levels that I desired.'

What is your answer to this perceived difference, is it that the distortion on Behringer is at 200-500hz and the Hedd is higher up the spectrum or something else?
HD is a somewhat pointless test of distortion beyond looking for obvious flaws. It is produced for so many different reasons and doesn't always indicate limits or audibility.
I have experinced this many times as I often measure it for fun because it is easy to measure and I like to measure stuff.
Many times a speaker with slightly higher HD will actually sound very clean.
 
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Somafunk

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Very pleased to see the Hedd 20 reviewed and meet with approval. When a mate was setting up the acoustic/eq in my room he brought along a pair of Hedd 20 mk2 that were due to go into another home studio and let me listen to them for a day and I was astounded as to the difference between my KRK G4 Rokit 7/KRK sub (which I thought were brilliant before listening to the Hedds), there was so much “more” detail with the Hedds, my KRK’s just sounded thick n’ flabby but I couldn’t afford such an expense at the time so on his advice I settled on Dynaudio LYD 48’s and saved my pennies to then buy the Dynaudio 18s sub, very happy with them and it’d be nice to see them tested by Amir at some point.

https://flic.kr/p/2mNGE4t
 

Digby

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HD is a near pointless test of distortion. It is produced for so many different reasons and doesn't always indicate limits or audibility.
I have experinced this many times as I often measure it for fun because it is easy to measure and I like to measure stuff.
Many times a speaker with slightly higher HD will actually sound very clean.
I think Geddes said something similar. There must be some kind of rhyme or reason as to why one speaker, with seemingly higher distortion, sounds perceptibly less distorted than another with what, on the surface, looks like lower distortion measurements. Any insights?

It is all well and good having measurements, but if we can't properly extrapolate from them, then people might end up with the wrong idea.
 
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