*PLEASE READ CAREFULLY* Please be a decent human being and keep your sexist/racist thoughts and conspiracy theories to yourself. External links are also a no-no. Comments that *advance* the conversation are most welcome.
I watch audio gear reviews for information but also for entertainment. The same way I will watch top gear testing the latest Ferrari. Certainly will not be buying but still, is nice to watch. As such I have to comment on John’s work and the quality of the videos which goes beyond one person talking to a camera. Well done and you certainly entertain me.
I have had the HEDD 07 mk 1 for a number of years and the non-fatiguing aspect of these is excellent. I just recently got acoustic panels and and if I could do it over, I would start with cheaper speakers and put most of my money and efforts into acoustic treament, then for the better speakers. What a world of difference. Don't buy expensive speakers without a good room!
Beautiful system - in fact, as a professional composer(National Geographic/Life Below Zero currently), this is my exact system. The DAC built in to the HEDDs is exceptional, so much so that I’m running AES out from my Prism Lyra straight to the HEDDs and preferring it. Thank you for the thoughtful review, I have also used the LS50s, as I feel these, as well as the HEDDs are the true crossover speakers between the audiophile and pro audio world.
For home audio I cannot think of any affordable streamers or CD transports with AES digital outputs, how does one utilise the built in dac in the type 7 under normal circumstances? Are you aware of any devices that can accept SPDIF or optical inputs and convert them to AES out?
@@gerhardreinecke3945 check out minidsp shd studio. Less than 1000 USD and it looks like it has all you ask for. Aes, volumio, Dirac live. I have not tried it, but it looks perfect on paper.
@@morespinach9832 I would listen to both, as it’s so much taste. (I own both) From my composer/engineer’s perspective : the HEDDs are more precise, as that ribbon goes into the stratosphere - I can hear qualities and textures inside the sounds and precision of spaces and eq to ridiculous amounts. In practical terms, this means that if I add a reverb to a sound, I can hear very accurately say what 80% or 82% reverb sounds like, or adjust the stereo width by single digits and hear the panning perfectly. This is rare. Also the qualities of different distortions become apparent, so I can make those choices with much more ease. The LS50s have a bit more beautiful lower midrange, and to the audiophile, may have a more pleasant or laidback curve. (I own the mark 1, LS50W) Freestanding in a room, they are excellent at projecting a wide sweet spot, just excellent. Low end on both is similar. Depends on application, but you couldn’t go wrong with either, they both compete very well with much more expensive systems. What is easy to forget is that they systems literally blow away pro stuff from 10 years ago, for 1/5 the price
Would you be kind and pls elaborate the prism Lyra doesn’t have for for the digital aes in the hedds, how did u connect them? Also what are the benefits of this instead of the analog input path? Thanks for your info
Your videos are a must watch... Best on youtube for HiFi. Great presentation style and insightful information. I use your reviews to create my hifi shortlists Hifi is back I think, just like the 70s and 80s! My Musical Fidelity P270 amplifier still going strong and destroys every other amp in sight... Even now.
Firstly, big kudos for stating no difference between professional and hifi! Gutsy man, Apple cart rolling 🤣 Anything with an AMT tweater grabs my attention. These look really interesting.
I have not tested the hedd’s but it would be a drastically different sound given these are studio monitors. Wharfedale’s are warm and mellow. Hope to hear these one day
@@cobraflunkie Respectfully, saying that one pair of speakers are studio monitors and others are hifi speakers says very little, if nothing, about their sound characteristics.
Hedd are a really fascinating company, and they're really carving a niche for themselves with this innovative approach towards exacting standards but pragmatic. This port solution? Brilliant: simple but precise. Same with the sub timing based on the speaker plane: simple but precise. Combined with their headphone work, I'm fast becoming a fan of this company...
John, An informative review with an unbiased overview of pro-audio vs. consumer audio. There is an opinion out there that there is an advantage to keeping it simple with analog only within the active loudspeaker. It would be interesting for you to try the PSI a17m & a21m, Neumann KH310 & KH120/750 sub as well as the PMC Result 6 monitors. I am a long term Rogers LS3/5a, Quad ESL and Klipshorn user but I find these contemporary active monitors to be very interesting. The amplification application is matched and they are well thought out. Thank you for having an open mind to the active loudspeaker design. This review opens up possibilities of a sophisticated system with a minimalistic approach. Best regards, John Shepherd
So interesting on the flex and thoughtfulness of the design and such a good choice. Thanks for reviewing audio that applies to those of us in urban spaces or who listen in smaller settings……and for triggering top shelf Bowie and Alessandro Cortini for this summertime Friday night vibe.
As someone who owns a miniDSP 2x4HD, driving a 2.2 system, to me it is unbelievable, that it took so long for a manufacturer to build active speakers, that are properly phase-linearized and that offers the option to correctly integrate a Sub. This is so much easier to do for the manufacturer as a "preset" of the built-in DSP, but to this point the user who wanted to have this done properly was forced to look into DSP and measuring software like REW + mesurement microphones and super DYI software like Rephase. Real proper time alignment between SUBs and Speakers (not what most AVRs do) and a linear phase, bring so much more to the sound quality than any fancy super expensive tech, that is usually sold to the user to "improve sound quality". I'd even say it should be the basics in each system, but almost nobody talks about it, as there is no big driving market force behind it. The "convenient truth", that again, is still missing in this review: You absolutely have to DSP your frequency response, at least below the rooms schroedinger frequency. There is no other way to produce a good bass response in most listening rooms. You WILL HAVE peaks due to room modes that can be in the ballpark of +/- 12db. Therefore it would have been really interesting to know, if the internal DSP of the speakers can be accessed in any way from outside to integrate room correction filters
I'm a big fan of another German Studio Monitor that is in a similar price range. The Eve SC207. There's something particularly magic about the 207. I prefer it to the 208 and the 205. I also prefer it to the 3 way speakers that Eve Audio make. The sound stage on those things is something special. Nice review on the Hedd Speakers John :)
Thank you Mr Darko for all that you do, really enjoy your vids, please could I be cheeky and ask, would you ever consider reviewing a Rega amp, poss Osiris
Dear John, Thanks for the great review and comparison with the KEF. I'v been waiting for months for this this type of review as I am hoping to pair the Type20 Mk2 or if possible the Type30 Mk2 with the Brooklyn Bridge II Roon which is due for release shortly. I'm in Perth, West Australia and both the Hedd and Mytek are handled by the same reseller so I'm hopping to audition the pair in the next couple of months. From your comments so far, I think I'l be in for a treat. Best wishes and say safe Joe C
Thanks for the Hedds up! Visually they have a domestic friendly aesthetic. What you say about the ‘subway system’, with properly implemented filtering, certainly resonates with me. I messed about for ages with sub placement until settling on a single plane as the optimum solution. I use the Neumann 310’s for monitoring fed via a neumann sub. The system is very listenable and ‘musical’, meaning that it opens up recordings like a can opener! Basically, I don’t want to hear what isn’t there. Neutrality is a blessing. Pro ears tend to put clarity before everything else. That works for me too.
Since you have started to review speaker brands with their easily integrated corresponding subs now, kef and hedd. Could you try and review a set of dynaudio speakers with their sub 6?
I moved to powered/monitor only mains on all of my speaker systems a few years back for just this reason...to be able to make the sub and monitors an effective 3-way. You can do full balanced from source to speaker this way. This approach has excellent bang for the buck, detail, punch, everything you want. The challenge is that your pool of powered speakers is dwarfed by the passive speaker market. But I think in time, the merits of this approach will catch on. Much how I wouldn't buy a passive sub, I won't buy passive speakers (any more).
I don't really like the solutions piggy bagged HiFi where you have to tweak with the buttons and such. If I want to do DSP, I like to keep my speakers and subs simple and pure, and do DSP with a server in another room where I have no limits and then stream 2.2. DSP gets old reeaaly fast.
Once again an excellent personal review. Thank you. I also very much loved your examples of gear to combine the speakers (in this case) to a full working system.
Thank god this comment section is up! I really want to thank you for your video on setting up HiFi for beginners. Many years ago I struggled to understand how it all works. I think it's also very hard for some beginners to know how to hook up subs when there is no pass through. Just in case you do see the comments.
Let me guess that the full "time-aligned" system implementation makes complex piano music sound simply amazing. It seems the recording/broadcasting/hi-fi world has ignored group delay and other time and phase considerations because we found them difficult to understand and potentially cramped our style when it came to eq and other processing tricks we enjoyed playing. Great video, great points. Thanks for ensuring the genius in these speakers didn't get lost from "the folks."
Loooooove the Hedd type 07mk2 paired with the sub 08. Sealed trifecta. Using them both studio recording & audiophile listening. Bass is perfect. …just perfect. All of it. Using both analog inputs and AES.
Nice review, time alignment within speaker systems makes a difference, ask any pro audio person who sets up a PA systems properly, without proper time alignment the whole thing goes to shit. There’s been a number of companies going back the 1970s who offered port plugs for their speakers,Back in the day we just use a pair of old socks rolled up
I do want to say that as a studio (and live concert) audio engineer who knows the HEDD product as more a ‘pro’ use vs home use (whatever that means), adding the amount of DSP (ie lag) you have described takes this product out of consideration for 99% of all studio applications. Audio recording specifically, but also mixing and mastering, has very little tolerance for lag between source and playback, and all gear is designed to reduce where possible, and sometimes at great cost. There are areas in the audio chain where lag is inevitable but the trade off worth it, but on balance it would be further upstream from the speakers. Designing a loudspeaker that intentionally introduces lag just to hear the audio at its best is simply a nonstarter in a studio environment for that reason. Just wanted to make this point of clarification because at the top of the video you mentioned there being little difference between home and studio monitoring. This is mostly true, but though I think some of the DSP-based loudspeaker systems we are seeing on the market these days have opportunity for incredibly precise home audio, most of them WIDEN the gap between the home and studio loudspeaker markets, vs close it. It’s also worth noting that that DSP based time alignment systems have been in regular use and used successfully in high end live concert PA systems for a very long time. You didn’t say this of course, but it is a slight fallacy that DSP time alignment in speaker systems are a recent invention. In reality this is high end consumer audio (finally) taking notice of the phenomenal work being done in the pro audio world, adapting for home use to good effect, but (slightly) missing the point. The end result is that consumer audiophile companies might be thinking out of the box in their own little bubble, but wearing someone else’s jacket and tie to the party; problem is the jacket is on inside out and the tie is done up incorrectly LOL
So you're telling us it is no problem for the mixing engineer with the delay in the live PA. Whereas it is in the studio for the same guy? Maybe you should rethink.
I'm still rocking the tensor delta designed by Klaus. Good to see so many use pro audio speakers for HiFi needs. I have been on Adam Audio boat for my HiFi needs and can't imagine life without ribbons.
MiniDsp shd studio has only digital out, aes, volume control and Dirac live. Maybe a prefect match? Could also work with Dutch and Dutch 8c, dynaudio pro core and other active speakers with digital aes input. Anyone with experience with such a setup?
...and it has a streamer built in... I'm using mine with one dac for over 80hz and one for below 80hz, the MiniDSP acting as digital xover and volumen controll... and Dirac of course. The MiniDSP SHD Studio can delay sub and side system individualy for perfect integration and much more.... May I suggest you revisit the SHD, John :-)
Unfortunately, we are affected by various component bottlenecks at the moment, the Type 05 will not be available for a few more months! Wish we had better news for you.
Good question that we get a lot lately: From our experience with HEDD customers, I would say that engineers / producers working on / listening to a wide variety of styles usually go for the dedicated 3-Way system that is Type 20. It is the more universal speaker with its dedicated midrange. If you are into electronic music, Dub, HipHop and / or prefer things to be loud at times, T07/B08 or 12 will offer that extra breath and physicality. Hope this helps, Freddy // HEDD
Excellent review! I personally have a strong affinity for most of what HEDD, ADAM, and EVE release. I've tried the prior version of the Type 07 but not the MK 2. But these are tempting me to try them. I heard these take a long while (10 seconds) to come off standby when fed a source. Is this true?
That is about true, but you can disable the Standby when updating the firmware. A lot of our customers are working TV, Film, Dolby Atmos, they need the monitors to be on point at all times.
the more i see about linearisation.....the more i know how good my decision with a KEF speaker years ago was with the KEF IQ90s and its UniQ drivers. I will avoid wireless speakers as long as possible. I dont even have a power plug everywhere my speakers would be and i dont care if i have to use a power cord or a audio cable from the AVR, BOTH IS WIRED! Why is this also such a thing using a Sub for Music? I use for music only 2.0, my sub is also anyways cut at 40Hz, its there to FEEL the bass, the IQ90s throw out enough bass. Even the "small" IQ50s i had in the beginning as Front were already great. And the IQ30s i have are also small but go pretty deep down.
Not sure if its been mentioned but you can use SPDIF (RCA/BNC) and convert it to AES/EBU as its basically the same thing only SPDIF is a lower voltage! Neutrik sell a RCA/Coax to 3 pin XLR balancing transformer for this purpose. The problem more so is finding then a DAC/Streamer that does digital volume control, there are a few however! and one is the Bluesound Node 2i
How is it that the HEDD sub set up couldn't be easier. "Super simple" is how you described it. When the KEF sub took a week and a half setting up, finding its position through trial-and-error, effort and work.
Hi John. Very nice review as usual. A few questions: 1. Is it possible to run two of the HEDD subs with those two mains? If it is possible, do you think there would be an advantage to doing so? (I realize this may be educated speculation since you had only one HEDD sub). 2. We are seeing more of these active DSP speakers +/- sub systems, which is very intriguing. I wonder using your granted distant musical memory how you think the HEDD system would compare against the Buchardt standmount system? Thanks.
Hello John, a bit of advise or suggestion if you like. I'm recently looking into Q Acoustics Concept 300 bookshelves. Currently Using FyneAudio F502 Towers. Paired with Primaluna Power amp and Parasound Halo P6 PreAmp And Marantz AVR. My system does double duty. Stereo and Movies. Oh and there is a Paradigm sub in the system as well. You think going from FyneAudio F502 towers to Concept 300 Bookshelves which you reviewed is a good decision? My room is not too big. 18 feet by 15 feet. Any help or suggestions will be highly appreciated. Anyone else also can chime in with some advice. That'll be great.
Notsure I can agree with blithe statement no delta between pro and home audio speakers per se. Most (many ? The best?) studio monitors don’t have the dispersion; they are near field devices for the most part-there is a World rio difference between good near field and good stereo set up/sound. Thy tend to be very flat, detailed as well.
Great job on reviewing Pro Audio gear. How about a review of some cheaper Pro Audio gear in a HiFi setting? Like the Adam A7V Studio speakers? I guess you could add a lesser pre-amp / DAC, and an appropriate sub, and get a system closer to the £1500 mark, maybe even down as low as the £1000 mark, like you did not too long ago with building a system for £1k (albeit this wouldn;t likely include a TT).
Has anyone measured the delay imparted by the linearizer? Does it differ between analogue and digital inputs? Am currently eyeing up the Type 20 mk II and will be listening to them next week!
Glad you have comments back on ! I wad sad John when you turned them off ! But Darko ! I got my first entry level tube integrated amp and ohh my ! Thanks for the video !
Even as a toddler I was awestruck by dad's console model wire recorder (which was used for his gospel group's rehearsals in our living room). Many hours spent on the floor looking up at the thing, mesmerized. To hear you describe the technical attributes of this system brings back some of that awe and fascination. Really nice way to spend a bit of the morning on my couch here in Giessen, a long way from Montgomery, Alabama. Thanks!
Excellent review! I was wondering what type of amp they use. Darko Audio: "its a class D". Then I was wondering if that means they hiss. Darko Audio: "They do hiss." I think you do your job really really well :)
Ehhh why does it have analogue inputs, when it converts everything to digital anyways? Might as well start with digital. Digital (source) to analogue (preamp) to digital to analogue (woofer) to digital to analogue (main speakers). Btw, nice turntable! 👍 How about reviewing that one?
How can you be sure that the improvements in mid range presence, dynamics and pop you think you're hearing aren't the result of removing the pot plant from behind the right speaker?
Good review as always, trust is very difficult to have, but your way of reviewing is very trustworthy, even when you may say a bit too often that it is only your view, great stuff, good to see someone going over that very short bridge into pro gear, I’ve been using a RME Babyface as my daily driver since it came out and have been told too many times that it’s no good for general music listening because it’s „pro“ gear, well, I’ve been enjoying listening to music and trusting it for my measurement programs for, must be over twenty years now and still my first one and flawless and supported and updated regularly, and will continue to do so until it dies, absolutely no signs of that though, and by daily I mean everyday between 8 and 24 hours, how many audiophile pieces can you say that about?
Interesting active speakers but I’d think it’s not for everyone and perhaps may be best suited for a studio monitoring system - just my thoughts really.
i think you would like the Dynaudio BM5MKIII studio monitors very much they have 3D sound and for the price I think you cant get better speakers cheers
Interesting to see this type of speaker for general listening! . I use Neumann KH310s for. mixing and mastering, there almost too flat for what I enjoy for Feel like some more Vibey sneakers in the studio would work nicely along side my usual set up but still provide a level of accuracy necessary! defiantly will get a listen to these when I get a chance at that price seams great!
That's a common misunderstanding. A speaker don't have to be bright to be detailed and also bright speakers are not necessarily revealing more details.
Thanks for this review! I was wondering if you could also review the new versions of the Dynaudio Emit 20 (bookshelf) or 30 (floor stand) ? I would love to have you opinion on these two ! Thanks 😊
I was interested to hear that the Type-7 speakers are based on studio monitors. I'd have thought that monitors would have a minimum of integral circuitry, so the recording engineer and producer know that the sound they hear in the studio reflects the console settings and not speaker processing. Any comments?
Thanks for the video, I understand why class D was used of coarse but most all reviewers jump away from them. You did not and spoke well of this. I don’t recall you having done a class D amp review will have to search that. I was thinking that class D might well balance the sound from my other components. Thanks again
John can we be clear when you talk about “time alignment “ are you talking “time coincident” or “time coherent” as unfortunately many reviewers use this vague term “time alignment” for either coincident or coherent , and they are not the same thing, many thanks
I use the port bungs in my LS50 Meta as the midrange and treble integrates much better and the soundstage is just right with the bungs. I’m not bothered about losing some bass as most musical enjoyment for me is in the midrange.
I repeated the intro ad 4 or 5 times and then hit the like button. Let me watch the clip now :) And after having watched the complete video, I added two more likes from my other google accounts.
you hsould really have a tracklist of the music you used. sometimes i go to your channel for that as i cant afford most of the stuff here lol except prolly for the modi 3 and d10s
If it were a 1kHz Crossover frequency, you need to shift by 0.0005 seconds to achieve phase matching. For things to be noticeable out of sync you need a few milliseconds. If there is a noticeable delay, I am not entirely sure why it exists. Also, 1kHz is a low tuned crossover, could also be 2kHz. with even less shift.
The Lineariser is not a crossover correction! Even a single driver on its own has non-linear phase. The HEDD Lineariser corrects all of that - for every frequency individually.
Is there some kind of high pass filter that can be used with a pair of passive standpoint speakers for better integration with a sub that has a low pass filter? I have a bad bass room node and think I might be able to better control it if I could filter out the lows of my main speakers. Any thoughts? other than getting these speakers? Any reason these HEDD speakers wouldn't work as well with a sub from REL with a low pass filter:?
I use these Hedd's with a svs sb2000, works great. That svs also has a dsp high pass and low pass filter. Just loop your preamp through the sub, back to the main amp section and into your passive speakers. Not all subs have this option though.
Panasonic ub9000 has excellent dac but no preamp & has upnp support for streaming. Infact Panasonic has more detail retrieval than my Hegel hd30 although soundstage on hegel is much wider & more smoother sounding. I rate the Panasonic dac better than Cambridge 752bd dac. I use it with my LG CX OLED & Adam tensor delta speakers. I also have chord quest and neither qutest or Hegel blow away the Panasonic dac but are slightly better with wider soundstage with Hegel hd30 has the widest & smoothest sound but qutest has filters if you want to get smoother sound out of it.
Neither. How I understand it, drivers reproduce lows slower than they reproduce highs because the diaphragm has a longer way to travel. If you want the impulse to match, you have to change the vibration pattern. That's what the Lineariser does. Darko made it sound like it only delays the woofer (and sub) but it's far more complicated and is also dependent on many factors.
I've been using the Type 07 MK2 for a while at home for entertainment. I would say your comment is about right. I have them hooked up to the RME ADI-2 DAC and fortunately, I have a lot of headroom. So I can use Closed and Low Frequency Extension. That's -3dB down to 30 Hz.
Great video as always, love this channel! Any suggestions for a wireless Bluetooth record player that I could pair up with my KEF LS50 W2 speakers, wiring to the speakers is an issue so wireless is my only option?
*PLEASE READ CAREFULLY* Please be a decent human being and keep your sexist/racist thoughts and conspiracy theories to yourself. External links are also a no-no. Comments that *advance* the conversation are most welcome.
I watch audio gear reviews for information but also for entertainment. The same way I will watch top gear testing the latest Ferrari. Certainly will not be buying but still, is nice to watch. As such I have to comment on John’s work and the quality of the videos which goes beyond one person talking to a camera. Well done and you certainly entertain me.
Although John is the face and name, Olaf is the true hero. He isn't paid enough. Love, Mom.
I have had the HEDD 07 mk 1 for a number of years and the non-fatiguing aspect of these is excellent. I just recently got acoustic panels and and if I could do it over, I would start with cheaper speakers and put most of my money and efforts into acoustic treament, then for the better speakers. What a world of difference. Don't buy expensive speakers without a good room!
"Don't buy expensive speakers without a good room!"
BANG ON!
Beautiful system - in fact, as a professional composer(National Geographic/Life Below Zero currently), this is my exact system. The DAC built in to the HEDDs is exceptional, so much so that I’m running AES out from my Prism Lyra straight to the HEDDs and preferring it.
Thank you for the thoughtful review, I have also used the LS50s, as I feel these, as well as the HEDDs are the true crossover speakers between the audiophile and pro audio world.
For home audio I cannot think of any affordable streamers or CD transports with AES digital outputs, how does one utilise the built in dac in the type 7 under normal circumstances? Are you aware of any devices that can accept SPDIF or optical inputs and convert them to AES out?
@@gerhardreinecke3945 check out minidsp shd studio. Less than 1000 USD and it looks like it has all you ask for. Aes, volumio, Dirac live. I have not tried it, but it looks perfect on paper.
@@morespinach9832 I would listen to both, as it’s so much taste. (I own both)
From my composer/engineer’s perspective : the HEDDs are more precise, as that ribbon goes into the stratosphere - I can hear qualities and textures inside the sounds and precision of spaces and eq to ridiculous amounts. In practical terms, this means that if I add a reverb to a sound, I can hear very accurately say what 80% or 82% reverb sounds like, or adjust the stereo width by single digits and hear the panning perfectly. This is rare. Also the qualities of different distortions become apparent, so I can make those choices with much more ease.
The LS50s have a bit more beautiful lower midrange, and to the audiophile, may have a more pleasant or laidback curve. (I own the mark 1, LS50W) Freestanding in a room, they are excellent at projecting a wide sweet spot, just excellent. Low end on both is similar.
Depends on application, but you couldn’t go wrong with either, they both compete very well with much more expensive systems.
What is easy to forget is that they systems literally blow away pro stuff from 10 years ago, for 1/5 the price
Would you be kind and pls elaborate the prism Lyra doesn’t have for for the digital aes in the hedds, how did u connect them? Also what are the benefits of this instead of the analog input path? Thanks for your info
Is the latency imparted by the linearizer using AES quite minimal? Is it low enough to leave on the whole time?
Your videos are a must watch... Best on youtube for HiFi.
Great presentation style and insightful information.
I use your reviews to create my hifi shortlists
Hifi is back I think, just like the 70s and 80s!
My Musical Fidelity P270 amplifier still going strong and destroys every other amp in sight... Even now.
Firstly, big kudos for stating no difference between professional and hifi! Gutsy man, Apple cart rolling 🤣 Anything with an AMT tweater grabs my attention. These look really interesting.
Warfedale is very into AMT nowerdays, perhaps nice to compare a bit?! Kind regards Y
I have not tested the hedd’s but it would be a drastically different sound given these are studio monitors. Wharfedale’s are warm and mellow. Hope to hear these one day
Trying to keep the price in the real world Wharfedale is a must listen.
@@cobraflunkie Respectfully, saying that one pair of speakers are studio monitors and others are hifi speakers says very little, if nothing, about their sound characteristics.
Hedd are a really fascinating company, and they're really carving a niche for themselves with this innovative approach towards exacting standards but pragmatic.
This port solution? Brilliant: simple but precise. Same with the sub timing based on the speaker plane: simple but precise.
Combined with their headphone work, I'm fast becoming a fan of this company...
Thank you for the video, I have had the Type 07 for a good month now and am delighted every day.
John,
An informative review with an unbiased overview of pro-audio vs. consumer audio. There is an opinion out there that there is an advantage to keeping it simple with analog only within the active loudspeaker. It would be interesting for you to try the PSI a17m & a21m, Neumann KH310 & KH120/750 sub as well as the PMC Result 6 monitors. I am a long term Rogers LS3/5a, Quad ESL and Klipshorn user but I find these contemporary active monitors to be very interesting. The amplification application is matched and they are well thought out. Thank you for having an open mind to the active loudspeaker design. This review opens up possibilities of a sophisticated system with a minimalistic approach.
Best regards,
John Shepherd
Listening to the music in this through headphones is magical.
So interesting on the flex and thoughtfulness of the design and such a good choice. Thanks for reviewing audio that applies to those of us in urban spaces or who listen in smaller settings……and for triggering top shelf Bowie and Alessandro Cortini for this summertime Friday night vibe.
As someone who owns a miniDSP 2x4HD, driving a 2.2 system, to me it is unbelievable, that it took so long for a manufacturer to build active speakers, that are properly phase-linearized and that offers the option to correctly integrate a Sub.
This is so much easier to do for the manufacturer as a "preset" of the built-in DSP, but to this point the user who wanted to have this done properly was forced to look into DSP and measuring software like REW + mesurement microphones and super DYI software like Rephase.
Real proper time alignment between SUBs and Speakers (not what most AVRs do) and a linear phase, bring so much more to the sound quality than any fancy super expensive tech, that is usually sold to the user to "improve sound quality". I'd even say it should be the basics in each system, but almost nobody talks about it, as there is no big driving market force behind it.
The "convenient truth", that again, is still missing in this review: You absolutely have to DSP your frequency response, at least below the rooms schroedinger frequency. There is no other way to produce a good bass response in most listening rooms. You WILL HAVE peaks due to room modes that can be in the ballpark of +/- 12db.
Therefore it would have been really interesting to know, if the internal DSP of the speakers can be accessed in any way from outside to integrate room correction filters
I too was just listening to Alessandro Cortini's latest album and I have YOU and this TUBE channel to thank for that. Thank you.
I'm a big fan of another German Studio Monitor that is in a similar price range. The Eve SC207. There's something particularly magic about the 207. I prefer it to the 208 and the 205. I also prefer it to the 3 way speakers that Eve Audio make. The sound stage on those things is something special. Nice review on the Hedd Speakers John :)
Thank you Mr Darko for all that you do, really enjoy your vids, please could I be cheeky and ask, would you ever consider reviewing a Rega amp, poss Osiris
Way too much faffing..
Would a Hedd type 05 + sub work in a living space of 4.5m x 3m with a 2.6m ceiling or the 07 the better option in an apartment?
Dear John,
Thanks for the great review and comparison with the KEF.
I'v been waiting for months for this this type of review as I am hoping to pair the Type20 Mk2 or if possible the Type30 Mk2 with the Brooklyn Bridge II Roon which is due for release shortly. I'm in Perth, West Australia and both the Hedd and Mytek are handled by the same reseller so I'm hopping to audition the pair in the next couple of months. From your comments so far, I think I'l be in for a treat.
Best wishes and say safe
Joe C
Thanks for the Hedds up! Visually they have a domestic friendly aesthetic. What you say about the ‘subway system’, with properly implemented filtering, certainly resonates with me. I messed about for ages with sub placement until settling on a single plane as the optimum solution. I use the Neumann 310’s for monitoring fed via a neumann sub. The system is very listenable and ‘musical’, meaning that it opens up recordings like a can opener! Basically, I don’t want to hear what isn’t there. Neutrality is a blessing. Pro ears tend to put clarity before everything else. That works for me too.
Gday it's Shane from Australia. Nice In depth review l got a real feeling for what this system can do. Well done 🎧👍🙂
I’d love the 07 MK2 w/ sub08 compared to the type 20s. Or at the very least your thoughts on it.
Since you have started to review speaker brands with their easily integrated corresponding subs now, kef and hedd. Could you try and review a set of dynaudio speakers with their sub 6?
I'd love to see you review Dynaudio speakers if you get the chance!
@@morespinach9832 which of the two do you prefer?
Thanks for reviewing the Euro based companies which the US boys do not seem to bother with.
Another worth your time is Lejonklou, Fredrik. Swedish.
I moved to powered/monitor only mains on all of my speaker systems a few years back for just this reason...to be able to make the sub and monitors an effective 3-way. You can do full balanced from source to speaker this way. This approach has excellent bang for the buck, detail, punch, everything you want. The challenge is that your pool of powered speakers is dwarfed by the passive speaker market. But I think in time, the merits of this approach will catch on. Much how I wouldn't buy a passive sub, I won't buy passive speakers (any more).
I don't really like the solutions piggy bagged HiFi where you have to tweak with the buttons and such. If I want to do DSP, I like to keep my speakers and subs simple and pure, and do DSP with a server in another room where I have no limits and then stream 2.2. DSP gets old reeaaly fast.
Once again an excellent personal review. Thank you. I also very much loved your examples of gear to combine the speakers (in this case) to a full working system.
Thank god this comment section is up! I really want to thank you for your video on setting up HiFi for beginners. Many years ago I struggled to understand how it all works. I think it's also very hard for some beginners to know how to hook up subs when there is no pass through. Just in case you do see the comments.
Let me guess that the full "time-aligned" system implementation makes complex piano music sound simply amazing. It seems the recording/broadcasting/hi-fi world has ignored group delay and other time and phase considerations because we found them difficult to understand and potentially cramped our style when it came to eq and other processing tricks we enjoyed playing. Great video, great points. Thanks for ensuring the genius in these speakers didn't get lost from "the folks."
How would you compare it to the HEDD Type 20s that you reviewed previously?
Loooooove the Hedd type 07mk2 paired with the sub 08. Sealed trifecta. Using them both studio recording & audiophile listening. Bass is perfect. …just perfect. All of it. Using both analog inputs and AES.
How does the analog and AES input compare?
I am debating your setup or the Type 20 mk2’s. Did you consider those?
Nice review, time alignment within speaker systems makes a difference, ask any pro audio person who sets up a PA systems properly, without proper time alignment the whole thing goes to shit. There’s been a number of companies going back the 1970s who offered port plugs for their speakers,Back in the day we just use a pair of old socks rolled up
I don't know who was mastering for Ryko at this time, but I find most of too bright. The sign of a poor matering speaker system??
Very informative review and loved the comparison aspect of the video. And the music selection was superb!!! Keep them coming.
I do want to say that as a studio (and live concert) audio engineer who knows the HEDD product as more a ‘pro’ use vs home use (whatever that means), adding the amount of DSP (ie lag) you have described takes this product out of consideration for 99% of all studio applications. Audio recording specifically, but also mixing and mastering, has very little tolerance for lag between source and playback, and all gear is designed to reduce where possible, and sometimes at great cost.
There are areas in the audio chain where lag is inevitable but the trade off worth it, but on balance it would be further upstream from the speakers. Designing a loudspeaker that intentionally introduces lag just to hear the audio at its best is simply a nonstarter in a studio environment for that reason.
Just wanted to make this point of clarification because at the top of the video you mentioned there being little difference between home and studio monitoring. This is mostly true, but though I think some of the DSP-based loudspeaker systems we are seeing on the market these days have opportunity for incredibly precise home audio, most of them WIDEN the gap between the home and studio loudspeaker markets, vs close it.
It’s also worth noting that that DSP based time alignment systems have been in regular use and used successfully in high end live concert PA systems for a very long time. You didn’t say this of course, but it is a slight fallacy that DSP time alignment in speaker systems are a recent invention. In reality this is high end consumer audio (finally) taking notice of the phenomenal work being done in the pro audio world, adapting for home use to good effect, but (slightly) missing the point. The end result is that consumer audiophile companies might be thinking out of the box in their own little bubble, but wearing someone else’s jacket and tie to the party; problem is the jacket is on inside out and the tie is done up incorrectly LOL
You can't mix and master with a 14ms lag? I think your finger lags more when you want to press the play button.
So you're telling us it is no problem for the mixing engineer with the delay in the live PA. Whereas it is in the studio for the same guy? Maybe you should rethink.
I'm still rocking the tensor delta designed by Klaus. Good to see so many use pro audio speakers for HiFi needs. I have been on Adam Audio boat for my HiFi needs and can't imagine life without ribbons.
Thank you! Klaus is almost 75 and certainly still on fire ;)
The HEDD can't be both more relaxed AND more dynamic. Hmm..
big horns are more relaxed and more dynamic - no?
MiniDsp shd studio has only digital out, aes, volume control and Dirac live. Maybe a prefect match? Could also work with Dutch and Dutch 8c, dynaudio pro core and other active speakers with digital aes input. Anyone with experience with such a setup?
...and it has a streamer built in... I'm using mine with one dac for over 80hz and one for below 80hz, the MiniDSP acting as digital xover and volumen controll... and Dirac of course. The MiniDSP SHD Studio can delay sub and side system individualy for perfect integration and much more.... May I suggest you revisit the SHD, John :-)
Nice !! Interesting speaker
I bought the Hedd Type 20s after watching your video on them. Best audio decision I've made till date.
Darko how can I get them? I am chasing 05 mk2 and there is no stock since months.... :(
Unfortunately, we are affected by various component bottlenecks at the moment, the Type 05 will not be available for a few more months! Wish we had better news for you.
The sub delay switch is a pretty cool feature!
Oh, didn’t know you are based in Berlin ;)
What do you think of these compared to the Type 20? I was thinking of getting the Type 07 + Bass 08 or the Type 20
Good question that we get a lot lately: From our experience with HEDD customers, I would say that engineers / producers working on / listening to a wide variety of styles usually go for the dedicated 3-Way system that is Type 20. It is the more universal speaker with its dedicated midrange. If you are into electronic music, Dub, HipHop and / or prefer things to be loud at times, T07/B08 or 12 will offer that extra breath and physicality. Hope this helps, Freddy // HEDD
The other difference is that the 20ies have a dedicated mid driver. Unfortunately haven't heard neither of them until day.
Excellent review! I personally have a strong affinity for most of what HEDD, ADAM, and EVE release. I've tried the prior version of the Type 07 but not the MK 2. But these are tempting me to try them. I heard these take a long while (10 seconds) to come off standby when fed a source. Is this true?
That is about true, but you can disable the Standby when updating the firmware. A lot of our customers are working TV, Film, Dolby Atmos, they need the monitors to be on point at all times.
@@HEDDAudioGmbH hedd type 07 mkii has a hiss sound or a self noise is these is true ?
How was the effect of the linearizer? Well worth the feature?
Remember, what the dormouse said...
the more i see about linearisation.....the more i know how good my decision with a KEF speaker years ago was with the KEF IQ90s and its UniQ drivers.
I will avoid wireless speakers as long as possible. I dont even have a power plug everywhere my speakers would be and i dont care if i have to use a power cord or a audio cable from the AVR, BOTH IS WIRED!
Why is this also such a thing using a Sub for Music? I use for music only 2.0, my sub is also anyways cut at 40Hz, its there to FEEL the bass, the IQ90s throw out enough bass. Even the "small" IQ50s i had in the beginning as Front were already great. And the IQ30s i have are also small but go pretty deep down.
Psi audio and amphions please
Not sure if its been mentioned but you can use SPDIF (RCA/BNC) and convert it to AES/EBU as its basically the same thing only SPDIF is a lower voltage! Neutrik sell a RCA/Coax to 3 pin XLR balancing transformer for this purpose.
The problem more so is finding then a DAC/Streamer that does digital volume control, there are a few however! and one is the Bluesound Node 2i
How is it that the HEDD sub set up couldn't be easier. "Super simple" is how you described it. When the KEF sub took a week and a half setting up, finding its position through trial-and-error, effort and work.
Hi John. Very nice review as usual. A few questions: 1. Is it possible to run two of the HEDD subs with those two mains? If it is possible, do you think there would be an advantage to doing so? (I realize this may be educated speculation since you had only one HEDD sub). 2. We are seeing more of these active DSP speakers +/- sub systems, which is very intriguing. I wonder using your granted distant musical memory how you think the HEDD system would compare against the Buchardt standmount system? Thanks.
Hello John, a bit of advise or suggestion if you like. I'm recently looking into Q Acoustics Concept 300 bookshelves. Currently Using FyneAudio F502 Towers. Paired with Primaluna Power amp and Parasound Halo P6 PreAmp And Marantz AVR. My system does double duty. Stereo and Movies. Oh and there is a Paradigm sub in the system as well. You think going from FyneAudio F502 towers to Concept 300 Bookshelves which you reviewed is a good decision? My room is not too big. 18 feet by 15 feet. Any help or suggestions will be highly appreciated. Anyone else also can chime in with some advice. That'll be great.
Notsure I can agree with blithe statement no delta between pro and home audio speakers per se. Most (many ? The best?) studio monitors don’t have the dispersion; they are near field devices for the most part-there is a World rio difference between good near field and good stereo set up/sound. Thy tend to be very flat, detailed as well.
Great job on reviewing Pro Audio gear. How about a review of some cheaper Pro Audio gear in a HiFi setting? Like the Adam A7V Studio speakers? I guess you could add a lesser pre-amp / DAC, and an appropriate sub, and get a system closer to the £1500 mark, maybe even down as low as the £1000 mark, like you did not too long ago with building a system for £1k (albeit this wouldn;t likely include a TT).
Has anyone measured the delay imparted by the linearizer? Does it differ between analogue and digital inputs? Am currently eyeing up the Type 20 mk II and will be listening to them next week!
Glad you have comments back on !
I wad sad John when you turned them off ! But Darko ! I got my first entry level tube integrated amp and ohh my ! Thanks for the video !
Even as a toddler I was awestruck by dad's console model wire recorder (which was used for his gospel group's rehearsals in our living room). Many hours spent on the floor looking up at the thing, mesmerized. To hear you describe the technical attributes of this system brings back some of that awe and fascination. Really nice way to spend a bit of the morning on my couch here in Giessen, a long way from Montgomery, Alabama. Thanks!
Excellent review! I was wondering what type of amp they use. Darko Audio: "its a class D". Then I was wondering if that means they hiss. Darko Audio: "They do hiss."
I think you do your job really really well :)
hi... off topic soz...
any thoughts or knowledge on the new youtube 5.1 audio?
this is for anyone to answer..... cheers
awesome review! using a7x's now. pretty cool but planning to upgrade to smth like type 07 or even type 20
Ehhh why does it have analogue inputs, when it converts everything to digital anyways?
Might as well start with digital.
Digital (source) to analogue (preamp) to digital to analogue (woofer) to digital to analogue (main speakers).
Btw, nice turntable! 👍
How about reviewing that one?
Hi John, please consider to review floorstanders. Audio Physic for example, they're German too ;)
How can you be sure that the improvements in mid range presence, dynamics and pop you think you're hearing aren't the result of removing the pot plant from behind the right speaker?
Good review as always, trust is very difficult to have, but your way of reviewing is very trustworthy, even when you may say a bit too often that it is only your view, great stuff, good to see someone going over that very short bridge into pro gear, I’ve been using a RME Babyface as my daily driver since it came out and have been told too many times that it’s no good for general music listening because it’s „pro“ gear, well, I’ve been enjoying listening to music and trusting it for my measurement programs for, must be over twenty years now and still my first one and flawless and supported and updated regularly, and will continue to do so until it dies, absolutely no signs of that though, and by daily I mean everyday between 8 and 24 hours, how many audiophile pieces can you say that about?
Interesting active speakers but I’d think it’s not for everyone and perhaps may be best suited for a studio monitoring system - just my thoughts really.
i think you would like the Dynaudio BM5MKIII studio monitors very much they have 3D sound and for the price I think you cant get better speakers cheers
Super, very useful video about the speakers I want in my studio / 2 channel room. Clarity yet laid back for long sessions? Yes please!
RME ADI-2 Pro FS R Black Edition. And it have a remote control as well :)
Interesting to see this type of speaker for general listening! . I use Neumann KH310s for. mixing and mastering, there almost too flat for what I enjoy for Feel like some more Vibey sneakers in the studio would work nicely along side my usual set up but still provide a level of accuracy necessary! defiantly will get a listen to these when I get a chance at that price seams great!
Thank you, truly world Class.
Another great video!
Would you consider reviewing Edifier speakers, "A" series or "S" series?
Not expensive but often very praised.
if you use them in studios and they filter or don't show the screeching high frequencies how would they edit/master them out if they don't hear them
This is a very good question. You can absolutely hear that the master is bright. It just doesn't take your head off in telling you that.
That's a common misunderstanding. A speaker don't have to be bright to be detailed and also bright speakers are not necessarily revealing more details.
Hmm… wonder how would it sound pairing the Hedd sub with KEF wireless 2. Looking forward to it happening!!
Could I add my Naim Atom Uniti Headphone edition work with these?
Nice videos btw
Tq Darko for this review. Its comforting & satisfying to hear about euro made components for a change..good work👍👍👍
Thanks for this review! I was wondering if you could also review the new versions of the Dynaudio Emit 20 (bookshelf) or 30 (floor stand) ? I would love to have you opinion on these two ! Thanks 😊
I was interested to hear that the Type-7 speakers are based on studio monitors. I'd have thought that monitors would have a minimum of integral circuitry, so the recording engineer and producer know that the sound they hear in the studio reflects the console settings and not speaker processing. Any comments?
Thanks for the video, I understand why class D was used of coarse but most all reviewers jump away from them. You did not and spoke well of this. I don’t recall you having done a class D amp review will have to search that. I was thinking that class D might well balance the sound from my other components. Thanks again
Thank you John great review I actually am very interested to get these for my Home Recording Studio!
John can we be clear when you talk about “time alignment “ are you talking “time coincident” or “time coherent” as unfortunately many reviewers use this vague term “time alignment” for either coincident or coherent , and they are not the same thing, many thanks
Burning question: What's the difference between Dark Design and Light Design T-shirts in your store? Different sets of colors?
I use the port bungs in my LS50 Meta as the midrange and treble integrates much better and the soundstage is just right with the bungs. I’m not bothered about losing some bass as most musical enjoyment for me is in the midrange.
I repeated the intro ad 4 or 5 times and then hit the like button. Let me watch the clip now :)
And after having watched the complete video, I added two more likes from my other google accounts.
your description of these speakers remind me a lot of my Kanto TUKs (of course at a much more affordable price haha)
Sir how much nagra setup cost with phono and a cdc cd player & Also with reel to reel will you tell me u.s.a dollar price
you hsould really have a tracklist of the music you used. sometimes i go to your channel for that as i cant afford most of the stuff here lol except prolly for the modi 3 and d10s
Aren't pro audio monitors more point source?
Or have I been misinformed?
Hi Darko did you every talk about the Neumann KH80s?
I wish i get these of type 20 II. I really like it and a team. Phase linearity is a really big thing.
If it were a 1kHz Crossover frequency, you need to shift by 0.0005 seconds to achieve phase matching. For things to be noticeable out of sync you need a few milliseconds. If there is a noticeable delay, I am not entirely sure why it exists. Also, 1kHz is a low tuned crossover, could also be 2kHz. with even less shift.
The Lineariser is not a crossover correction! Even a single driver on its own has non-linear phase. The HEDD Lineariser corrects all of that - for every frequency individually.
Another great video, I genuinely enjoyed.
Will you ever review Focal Kanta or Sopra bookshelves, with Be twitters? That would pull many interests.
Possibly!
Is there some kind of high pass filter that can be used with a pair of passive standpoint speakers for better integration with a sub that has a low pass filter? I have a bad bass room node and think I might be able to better control it if I could filter out the lows of my main speakers. Any thoughts? other than getting these speakers? Any reason these HEDD speakers wouldn't work as well with a sub from REL with a low pass filter:?
I use these Hedd's with a svs sb2000, works great. That svs also has a dsp high pass and low pass filter. Just loop your preamp through the sub, back to the main amp section and into your passive speakers. Not all subs have this option though.
so do you mix with the lineariser on?
Can you please do a video on integrating blu ray video playback into a 2 channel system? Are there any decent DACs with an HDMI input?
Panasonic ub9000 has excellent dac but no preamp & has upnp support for streaming. Infact Panasonic has more detail retrieval than my Hegel hd30 although soundstage on hegel is much wider & more smoother sounding. I rate the Panasonic dac better than Cambridge 752bd dac. I use it with my LG CX OLED & Adam tensor delta speakers. I also have chord quest and neither qutest or Hegel blow away the Panasonic dac but are slightly better with wider soundstage with Hegel hd30 has the widest & smoothest sound but qutest has filters if you want to get smoother sound out of it.
A bit confused at 10:20 "lower frequencies are ...slower" ? Is the designer referring to DSP or crossover phase delay?
Neither. How I understand it, drivers reproduce lows slower than they reproduce highs because the diaphragm has a longer way to travel. If you want the impulse to match, you have to change the vibration pattern. That's what the Lineariser does. Darko made it sound like it only delays the woofer (and sub) but it's far more complicated and is also dependent on many factors.
Are those Atacama nexus Stands! Got a pair
So that was 1,600 Euros? Not bad. Is a ported speaker's bass likely to reach a bit lower but at the cost of clarity?
I've been using the Type 07 MK2 for a while at home for entertainment. I would say your comment is about right. I have them hooked up to the RME ADI-2 DAC and fortunately, I have a lot of headroom. So I can use Closed and Low Frequency Extension. That's -3dB down to 30 Hz.
Great video as always, love this channel!
Any suggestions for a wireless Bluetooth record player that I could pair up with my KEF LS50 W2 speakers, wiring to the speakers is an issue so wireless is my only option?
The only Bluetooth record player I can think of is the Cambridge Audio Alva TT that comes with a decent MC cart.