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I'd love to own a HEDD, a FATSO, the OXFORD EQ & COMP plugins etc. that everyone is saying are all essential for those of us working in the digital domain. Of course, all that presupposes the mucho bucks that exist only in my fantasies. BUT... I did notice a used original vintage HEDD on sale recently for less than half the price of a new one. I do know it's 24 bit, but not much else about it. Anyone know what the differences are between the latest version and the original one? In your collective worthy opinions, is it worth it to buy the old cheap one, or would I be much better served saving my pennies and waiting until I could afford a new one? :)

Comments

Guest Thu, 11/15/2001 - 13:24

Hmmm

tough one..

The new ones are 96k AND have a a tape simulation knob in addition to the Pentode and Diode knobs.

I have the old model, I bought it second hand and it has been excellent. I think the analog section needs attention so I need to send it in for repair. I am struggling with having it fixed (air freight - repair charges) & keeping it or having it fixed and getting the 96k model...(with that tape knob that I am keen to have)

I would say if you weren't in a screaming hurry to go 96k and if it were under $1,800 JUMP AT IT.

Now what do I do? I can tell you, it is very hard for us to let it go, we are addicted to it on the mix as a hardware AES insert.

erockerboy Fri, 11/16/2001 - 17:47

Hey Jules, how are you clocking your rig? I also have an AD8000SE + HEDD combo, and find myself flipflopping on which box sounds better as the wordclock master. Lately I've been using the HEDD as the master clock most of the time, and only switching to the Apogee when I'm doing multi-channel (i.e. more than 2 trks) tracking. What's your flavor??

Guest Fri, 11/16/2001 - 18:12

Well, to audition the available clocks we fed an externally clockable CD player

Nanosyncs
Hedd (24 bit version)
Apogee SE

First off the all the ext clocks made the CD player sound better.

I found the Apogee revealed a clearer kick with perhaps a reduced volume in the mids.. (a situation that suits my taste) than the Hedd. The Nanosyncs came in just behind the Hedd.. but remains the hub of my digital world and provides video blackburst etc..and distribution..

The difference between the Apogee & the Hedd was VERY VERY subtle and the trial was considerably hampered by the time it took for the CD to re-clock each time we swapped over... The Nanos 3rd place was also hard to determine.. (BTW the Nanos effect on digidesign 888/24's is a stunning improvement!)

John Atack - auditions clock sources PER SONG! to see which he prefers! Sheesh!
:)

erockerboy Fri, 11/16/2001 - 23:25

John Atack - auditions clock sources PER SONG! to see which he prefers! Sheesh!

Aaaaghhhh!!! As sick as it is, I completely understand this poor man's obsession. Wouldja believe I actually prefer the converters on my grungy old first-generation 888 for certain things??!? (And yes, I HAVE spent some time comparing many different converter/clock combo's!)

Nonetheless, most of the time I would much rather be making music than endlessly comparing wordclock sources! In general I tend to be a 'set it and forget it' type of guy. Once I get a setup that works, I'll usually just go with it until I find a compelling reason to change things...

I liked the sound of the HEDD and was using it as the main converter and wordclock master for most things. Unfortunately it is only a 2 channel box, hence the AD8K which I really like as well. Originally I had bought an Aardsync along with the Apogee, which then served as the masterclock for my entire setup for awhile, mostly because I hated switching WC sources all the time. I did A/B the Apogee vs. the Aardsync as wordclock master, and personally found the Apogee's clock to sound slightly better than the Aardsync's in most applications. We are talking about a very, very marginal difference here, however. As far as Apogee vs. HEDD the jury is still out. I like the 'squash' facilities on the HEDD a lot and have been using it as the master mostly for simplicity's sake. One of these days when I get some free time (ha!), I will try a little shootout between HEDD, Apogee, Aardsync and the new Lucid clock, using a few different sound sources. Frankly a lot of this wordclock stuff seems unbelievably anal once you get past a certain point.

But hey, that's me... unbelievably anal. :D

So that's the state of the art for me at the moment. Would love to hear about the experiences of others... and will certainly keep you posted as I experiment further!

-e

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