Thanks!
More even in the upper region, more quantity in the lower region and same mid region as HD600!
Looks like a winner. I am pretty sure quality of this new driver will surpass the HD600.
Let’s see/hear what is going on in the “musicality” department of the new D1.
After I watched the review from Resolve, I would say that D1 is the definition of a “studio near field monitor” headphone.
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Measurements look great. Weight is disappointing vs hd6xx. Praise for serviceability is a bit iffy given how small and new of a company HEDD is. $800 is a bit much for something that’s just slightly better than a 25+ year old sennheiser while weighing about 40% more.
I might take a look at it once it’s available on the secondary market.
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After I watched the review from Resolve, I would say that D1 is the definition of a “studio near field monitor” headphone.
Honestly yeah, I feel there wasn’t enough time to go into it in my review so I just mention it at the very end, but this is also probably the best “mixing headphone” I could reasonably recommend (if the end-user really doesn’t want to EQ, that is).
Thankfully I’m pretty weight tolerant so I find it quite a bit comfier than HD 6X0, which has too shallow of pads, a stiff but smaller surface area headpad, and insufficient earcup rotation for my head.
Re: serviceability… perhaps it is that the bar is in hell. But also, HEDD isn’t that small. I’m reasonably confident that the same company that offers a 5-year warranty on their headphones (and has for a while, iirc) will be able to support this one… though they may end up selling more of these than they initially expected 
$800 seems about right given the difference I’m hearing and the fact that it’s more comfortable/premium feeling. Much worse headphones cost much, much more after all 
I am missing a bit the advantages of TPCD drivers vs conventional dynamic drivers.
Yes, it is an exceptional well tuned headphone, but wouldn’t this be also possible with a paper cone driver?
Were does the TPCD driver excels in perceived sound quality (and not in marketing speech) over the other dynamic drivers?
Advantages of the TPCD driver would for me justify the price difference to e.g. an HD600, HD490Pro or ATH-R70xa.
How does it compare to the Sennheiser HD 550? Those curves looks very similar to me.
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Yeah, you’re right about the bar. I think I was comparing it to the Senn, which to be fair is an extreme outlier.
A bit off-topic, but @listener can you please share your “ideal” EQ profile with the HD 800 that you mentioned in your review?
Thank you!
I’m personally not of the opinion that my specific profile has any use to people, because its very tailored to the idiosyncrasies of my head.
That said, a rough guideline would be Diffuse Field with a -5 dB high shelf with a Q of 0.4 placed anywhere from 500 Hz to 1000 Hz. That’s basically the target my EQ is aiming for, but with treble changes that are again, specific to my anatomy.
Main difference is smoothness of treble, HD 550 is better in the 10 kHz area for me but considerably worse in the low treble, having quite a rough, sandy treble presentation (typical of the 5 series). I don’t have the measurement in front of me but if they look close, they don’t sound close.
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Thanks you for your answer!
Is there something one can do with EQ to counter de sandy treble of the HD 550? Will a well judged cute on 5-6khz do the trick or is it more a hardwar-issue? Is de new D1 worth double the price?
GRRRRR yes, sorry edited 
Thanks for catching that.
Definitely addressable with EQ, will just need to identify the peaks above 4 kHz with a sine wave generator. I like Owliophile.com for that.
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FYI, the tool is offline atm since they’re figuring out some guardrails.
I currently own, and love, the Focal Elex, and it seems from the review that the HEDD D1 and Elex are slightly different flavors of the same icecream. I love the promise of these headphones, mostly because, as resolve mentioned, they’re an ideal platform to EQ to personal tastes.
Based on you’re experience with both the D1 and Elex, if I’m EQing both to my preference, is the D1 a significant improvement over the Elex? I’m generally a V-shaped heathen, if that helps I like the mids pulled back a little bit, which is part of why I love the Elex, both with and without EQ.
A 600 series with better bass sounds a lot like the 660S2. How do these hold up against the 660S2 @listener ?
If you want to boost the bass a lot, the D1 is definitely a better candidate. The Elex will hit the excursion limit in the bass first, so it limits how loud you can listen after adding a bass boost. Without EQ though, the Elex does sound more focused towards the low frequencies by comparison, though still on the neutral end of things.
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I would reckon the comparison that makes sense would be between the D1 and the HD 490 Pro. The HD 490 Pro actually gets a slightly higher overall grade for neutrality over the HD 650 from Sonarworks. It seems like the D1 and the HD 490 Pro both closely adhere to the Harman curve.
The D1 definitely seems like a excellent option.
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At the same $799, the obvious contender is the also recent and hyped Hifiman HE600. How does the D1 fare against HE600? My genres are opera, classical, jazz, R&B, then some light rock and pop.
Anyone compare the D1 to the HFA Dahlia sound and comfort wise . The only headphone I own is the Audioquest Nightowl Carbon and I’m wondering if I’ll miss that dark but melodic bass if I buy the D1 ? Thanks
How does the D1 compare to the DT 1990 Pro mk1 in terms of detail retrieval? I love how detailed the 1990 sounds, but I wonder if the D1 would be an upgrade.
For context I listen to the DT 1990 with the analytical pads and the treble peak doesn’t bother me.
I also love the tonality of the HD6XX.
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Am thinking of a “battle royal” involving the following headphones now all at or around $800:
HEDDphone D1
Focal Clear
Focal Hadenys
Meze 109 Pro
HFA Dahlia
Hifiman HE600
DCA Aeon 2 Noire
Audeze LCD-2 Classic
This is what it would take to get the Meze out of the ring:
Thanks for the graph. A part of me wonders if the D1 provides both the tonality the HD600 and the detail retrieval of the 1990 Pro, or exceeds it.
If so, Heddphone has another customer.
The Arya Stealth at $600 should be in the list as it can even exceed a lot of those headphones at cheaper price.
How would you compare the dms omega, focal elex to the d1? I like both for slightly different reasons, but would love the elex sound with like 2 month old pads with better build and driver quality.
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I believe Andrew touched on this comparison in the video review on our channel! https://youtu.be/Nt_Cw7ofXRQ?si=eYGzoOPHV1s_qBGX&t=796
Realistically its all about finding where the peaks are on your own head and cutting them if they’re an issue.
Where is that review posted? Il go gander.
The omega treble is a bit sharper, its an enjoyable sharpness on my head mostly, not like the 109 with the constant sizzle to every note.
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Thank you, I stg i could forget my own name if it wasn’t ij my ID. I knew where written reviews were. #ahdbraindead
I rather like the HD 490. The HD 650 is still my favorite Sennheiser.
The D1 sure looks like a excellent option.
really wish they used a magnetic pad system or just a less scuffed one, possibly similar to the one on the para (without the inner stuff, just the outer magnetic ring)
The battle at 8 hundo is fierce:
I’d love to see these squigs on the Headphones.com team’s rig. In the meantime, this is from Gadgetry Tech. We have a few visible outliers: Hadenys has a larger bass boost; the 109 Pro looks a little warmer in the lower mids and has the 1.5k dip; Dahlia has the biggest peak at my beloved 6k, and so on. But in truth there is a lot of similarity here. Most are following the target fairly closely through the mids.
IMO all of these are good headphones. Looking forward to hearing the D1.
Headphones.com says these are on back order. Anyone know how long until the back orders get filled? (I emailed them this morning; no response today).
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Interesting comparison.
After seeing and reading several reviews of the D1, one might have thought it was either a disguised Sennheiser HD600 with a bit more bass, or an HD650 with slightly clearer treble.
To that, I say… a resounding NO!
All these three headphones have in common is their natural reproduction of the midrange frequencies.
Paired with their respective best audio chains, the very first listen with the first test track
immediately reveals a massive difference between the D1 and both Sennheisers: driver speed, crispness, clarity, imaging… and again, speed, so much more speed than both Sennheisers, almost planar quality… only sounding more natural.
This is a factor I expected, however, as the Sennheisers are indeed getting on in years and were already inferior to other headphones in their price segment in these categories.
The Sennheisers are still good headphones, but good… not very good or outstanding.
I would, however, classify the D1 as very good; in my opinion, it sounds closer to the 2400€ Austrian Audio Composer than to the Sennheiser 6xx series.
But as I said, that’s just my humble opinion. 
Thanks for this comparison.
Would you say they get closer when used with the same amp?
As I have also a Feliks Euforia (EVO), I would be interested how you like the D1 with the Euforia?
Agreed. Same intended application, both recent vintage. That would be a very helpful comparison.
Nice little comparison. I’m interested in trying them out on some tube amps. Hear it helps them a bit.
And that 8k peak is real… at least for me. Can’t use them. Also felt 1990 has some serious grain to it vs the HD800S.
Recently picked up the D1. Was hard to find in stock! Solid headphone overall, tho still trying to see what works best as for synergy. I lean towards my diy aegis amp atm. Still haven’t tried the mojo 2 or woo tube mini.
So I might be in the minority here…lol. I don’t care for the ear pads that much. Feel a little small and not as soft as I hoped for. I don’t mind the headband pad, though it could be a little softer. But I was thinking about different ear pads. I recently picked up a pair of Soulwit cooling pads for the HD650 (based on DMS recommendation). And they’re amazing for an aftermarket senn pad. Very close to stock sound. Anyways it got me thinking about the D1 so I started messing around. The pads come off easily. You can remove the rings and slide on your pad of choice. I have some ZMF pads laying around so I threw on the universe (I believe that’s what these are) hybrid pads. And I think these are very close to stock tuning, maybe a tad warmer (which is fine to me). Need more time to A/B but not bad. And definitely more comfortable to me.
Edit: the additional padding slack that you see at the bottom can be avoided if you know you want to keep this pad on. Just cut little slits where the clips are on the rings and it’ll be like stock.
For you guys who love to mod, have at it! Let me know what you think!
It seems stock pads become softer after some time.
I listened to the Brent Lewis album (lossless) via Apple Music through my PC, comparing the D1 with the HD600. The electronics were a Topping D50s DAC and Schiit Midgard amp. The D1 clearly had deeper bass and harder-hitting attacks and transients. I would not call it a massive difference, but it wasn’t hard to hear it in this material.
I’ve been reading your opinions and latest reviews: is it a worthy addition/upgrade to a Hifiman Edition XS? I am thinking on what can add variety/fun to me listening music through XS whenever I would like something different. According to the ‘2025 awards’ I see D1 and Edition XV as possible options. What do you think?
Sorry, I don’t usually upload Andrew’s frequency response measurements to my 5128 database except in rare, exceptional cases (and with permission). The D1 frequency response will be available on Headphones.com’s database when that goes live.
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Too bad, but certainly understandable. Will the Headphones.com database be linked to Squiglink?
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Nope, it’ll be entirely separate.
Thanks Andrew. I’m well aware of your thoughts on this subject… mine are continuing to evolve with experience.
I’m also interested in DT1990 comparisons. I really enjoyed the DT1990 for recording music as they helped with hearing details when tweaking reverb and delay fx. They had lovely bass, midrange and sounded quite airy for a semi-open headphone, although perhaps that’s more due to FR more than the small vents? They were also quite beautiful for the German tank build and comfortable, a nice headphone to use. I however found the DT1990 a touch too sharp to keep as a studio or pleasure headphone and have been waiting for a replacement to come along, the D1 seems to tick every box.
Very nice. I’m glad you like them! They’re surprisingly fast for a dynamic and great linear bass.
Quick question. I am not into source gear and stuff and I have an adapter for my phone. The jcally jm20 pro max. Looking at the power calculator this should have more than enough for the d1. Even for some planars like the edition xv. Is there any benefit in buying a 100-200€ dac/amp combo for headphones like this? And if so why?? Because power should not be an issue. I like the d1 but don’t have a fancy amp for them and want to listen in my living room via my phone. Thanks guys!
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195 mW @ 32 ohms and that’s exactly the D1’s nominal impedance. You should be in great shape with that dongle.
Any more D1 impressions?
I’m curious how it would compare to an Edition XV (the other recent “hotness”) or the DCA E3 (my current cans).
Thanks
Listener has written that the treble of the D1 Is not his favorite (“slightly dry treble”). I finally have The D1 on the way from Headphones.com (waited close to 3 months). Don’t know how to EQ. Could Listener or someone else show me a picture of how to fix this with EQ, for instance with a equalizer on the Foobar player (sliders) or the on the Qudelix. Maybe even how to add a little more bass if I choose.
I hope it lives up to the hype! I know HEDD was not prepared for the D1’s success and it’s a shame that it took so long between launch and their next production run to come in but here’s hoping there’s a more steady supply coming into North America in the near future.
Excited to hear your thoughts (out of the box and with EQ).
I would be careful doing the same treble adjustments they did. I did custom EQ on mine and the treble peaks were in different places for me.
My EQ is:
Preamp: -4.9 dB
Filter 1: ON LSC Fc 50 Hz Gain 4.0 dB Q 0.500
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 7000 Hz Gain -4.0 dB Q 15.000
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 8950 Hz Gain -7.0 dB Q 15.000
Filter 4: ON HSC Fc 14000 Hz Gain 5.0 dB Q 0.700
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 7650 Hz Gain 3.0 dB Q 13.000
I didn’t think about seating variation. That’s a good point. They were very particular peaks for me though and Q15 was what it took to not affect the surrounding frequencies. I also cross referenced this tool: Equalizer Q Factor Calculator — Bandwidth, Octave & Frequency Converter | rftools.io
