Review: HEDD Type 07 Studio Monitors

When it was announced that physicist Klaus Heinz would be moving from the company he founded, ADAM Audio, to the newly formed Heinz Electrodynamic Designs, the studio world took notice. Heinz was most certainly renowned for his work at ADAM, with the A7 quickly becoming a staple in studios everywhere. I had a chance to catch up with Heinz at NAMM and after a quick run through of what he had up his sleeve with HEDD, I was instantly convinced we had to get our hands on a pair of Type 07 monitors, HEDD’s newest flagship speaker, for review at Ask.Audio.

HEDD Type 07

The HEDD Sound

I’ll let the cat out of the bag quickly with these speakers - the Type07s blew me the hell away. I’d long suspected that I had fallen into a bit of a ‘comfortable rut’ with my trusty Mackie 824s, but I didn’t know the depths my lethargy had sunk until I got my hands (and ears) on the HEDD Type 07s. The details in the bass frequencies alone were simply staggering. In a totally ‘un-scientific’ test, I immediately noticed that I was able to detect far more subtle differences when working on my bass amp simulation plugins than before. 

Another characteristic of the Type 07s that jumped out at me is the dispersion field. These monitors are really incredibly ‘open’ sounding, and the sound was far less ‘localized’ than my previous monitors. It felt that my entire mix was somewhat emanating from the entire console area in front of me, rather than from 2 discrete points on either side of my computer monitor.

While the Type07s have plenty of power to spare, I also found that the ‘normal’ volume that I was listening at was far more balanced and felt extremely easy on my ears. I noticed far less listening fatigue in longer mixing sessions, and I felt that I could have mixed for hours more (something my clients will appreciate, but my wife will truly despise).

Connections of the Future

One of the keystone features of the HEDD Type07 monitors is the input stage. There is a gain control, as well as recessed high and low shelf EQ. The recessed feature is nice, little annoys me more than accidentally losing an hour of calibration with the brush of an arm while plugging in a microphone. There is an RCA unbalanced input, as well as an XLR input - and I should note that they are both dead quiet. I found myself checking several times that the TYPE07s were even on - the operating noise is that low, even with your ear right up against the chassis.

The HEDD Bridge System

The input stage contains a rectangular expansion port called the HEDD bridge, and here’s where it gets really interesting. You can expand the input functionality of the monitors to include digital inputs of all kinds. USB input is possible, AES/EBU is available, and even…wait for it... DANTE and RAVENNA!!! That’s right, you can connect these monitors to an ethernet audio system and send digital audio over ethernet. There is even a wireless option on the way! The option cards range from $230 to around $400 depending on the complexity of the card. These are the only monitors I’ve seen personally that can connect in so many ways, and I just love it.

Around the back 

Conclusion

The HEDD Type07 is now the monitor to beat in the ‘sub $1k’ price category. I simply adored the sound of the Type07 and am very excited to see the functionality get expanded in the coming years with the various bridge modules. The aesthetic is simple and quite pleasing, the sound is spectacular, and the value is excellent. If this is the level of quality we can expect from HEDD in the future, I’m personally looking forward to whatever they’ve got in the pipeline!