Orbit 1   &   Orbit 2

CanAmp

Canopus

Luna

Questar MM and MC

Quasar

Orbit 1 & 2       CanAmp       Canopus         Luna        Questar        Quasar

Heed Audio ORBIT 1 and ORBIT 2
Turntable Power Supplies

The speed accuracy and stability of many belt drive turntables driven by a synchronous motor depends entirely upon the quality/consistency of frequency delivered by the domestic mains supply. However, mains frequency at 50Hz leaves much to be desired since it is subject to fluctuation, distortion, and other innumerable problems prior to reaching your listening room.

The Heed ORBIT 1 and Heed ORBIT 2 off-board turntable power supplies offer a sophisticated solution to stabilise and improve any 4-pole, 110V syncronous motor drive, elevating your deck's sonic performance to startling new levels of musicality.

The ORBIT was, in its early version still as single-speed (33 1/3 RPM) device, originally designed to compliment the Linn Sondek LP12 as an affordable alternative to Linn's top-of-the-line LP12/Lingo combination. Even more excitingly, the ORBITs can be the ideal partner for the vast majority or Rega turntables (Planars 2&3, P2, P3, P25), their OEM derivatives as marketed by the likes of NAD and Goldring, and various models offered by Nottingham Analogue, Thorens, Manticore, and Kuzma to name just a few. That's more than a half-million turntables out there just begging for improvement!

The ORBIT 1 requires only a small modification of the motor circuitry (the capacitor used to provide phase shift needs to be removed from the circuit - preferably carried out by your qualified dealer/technician). The ORBIT 2 is all that and more, adding the convenience of genuine Plug'N' Play compatibility (no modification necessary) for any deck equipped with a 4-pole, 110V synchronous motor.

The ORBIT 2, as well as the current ORBIT 1, make it possible to switch speed between 33 1/3 and 45 RPM via one single, elegant push-button in lieu of the rather fussy manual speed change arrangement of many turntables (removing the platter and shifting the belt on the motor pulley time and time again.)

Both models regulate your turntable's motor drive via an intricate quadrature-quartz speed generator, providing unsurpassed speed accuracy and pitch stability. Packed into their hefty shielded steel casework (protecting the units from electromagnetic interference and vibration) are two mains-filtering transformers, and a high-current amplification circuit to assure that the power passed onto your motor is silky-smooth and constant, with no fluctuation and virtually immesurable distortion.

All told, the resulting sonic performance is previously unknown in this price category. Backgrounds become "blacker", bass gains added depth, and the overall soundstage widens accordingly. In fact, until the introduction of the ORBITs, we might only have expected to achieve such levels of grip, authority, and musicality with high-end turntables costing several times as much as, say, a Rega P3.

Heed Audio CanAmp
Headphone Amplifier

Many audiophiles use headphones to enjoy their system. While some people are compelled to do so by their living circumstances, others simply prefer cans to loudspeakers. However, some amplifiers either have no headphone output, just as they don't have phone stages, or if they do have one, it is often just a simple IC-based stage. Regrettably, even many outboard amplifiers resort to this simple - and cheap - solution, making it impossible for headphones to perform at their best. Let us introduce the CanAmp, offering a no-compromise solution at a realistic price - in fact, given its technology and manufacturing quality we might even say at a "discount" price.

Headphones can be considered as high quality loudspeakers, but with a much lower power requirement. For this reason, they have distortion levels an order of magnitude lower than conventional speakers, and therefore are capable of showing up amplifier deficiencies more clearly. What's more, headphones are one-way systems, with very few exceptions, and for this reason crossovers do not interfere with sound quality. Consequently, a headphone amplifier must offer the best possible sound quality, even at very low volume levels, whilst working not unlike a real power amplifier.

The CanAmp is a two-stage amplifier. While the first - voltage gain - stage is based on an integrated circuit of the highest audio pedigree, the second - power gain - stage is a single-ended, pure Class-A amplifier. It enables the CanAmp to drive virtually any headphones from 8 ohms up to 600 ohms. As its output power (at 8 ohm) is nearly 1W, the CanAmp could drive even a high-sensitivity loudspeaker!

The unit has no internal wiring, and the signal path is kept to a minimum on its PCB.

Its high-quality, 1 dB-tolerance Blue Alps volume pot goes through a further selection process during manufacturing to achieve an even tighter, 0.5 dB tolerance.

The CanAmp not only has a line-level input but offers a line-level output to boot; it can therefore be connected to the TAPE MONITOR output of an amplifier, leaving the TAPE output free for additional components (MP3, MiniDisc, CDR, etc.). Gold-plated RCA terminals are used, and soldered directly onto the fibreglass PCB.

Heed Audio CANOPUS
Mono Power Amplifier

Do you own a home cinema system which fails to please when you listen to music?

Or are you in the process of building up a good but value-for-money, traditional audio system? Perhaps you need a couple of identical power amps in order to bi-amp your speaker system, or even drive it actively? Maybe you need help in setting up a multi-room system? For all these purposes, our CANOPUS mono power amp could be the ideal choice.

The vast majority of amplifiers in our digital age - due to typically high input levels - do not have a preamplifier, but instead have only a volume pot followed by the power amplifier. Consequently, sound quality is entirely determined by the actual power stage. However, power amplifiers are very often - especially those normally used in less expensive home cinema components - of inferior quality. This sonic result is less astonishing if one considers that power stages claimed to deliver several-hundred watts of power are fed by one- or two-hundred-VA power supplies. In more demanding applications, such as music reproduction, this low-key approach is pathetically inadequate. However, as home cinema amplifiers and receivers have outputs for outboard power amplification, this problem can be cured by additional power amps, such as the CANOPUS. As a multifunctional component, it can be used in multichannel home cinema set-ups, as well as in true audio applications, with excellent results.

The CANOPUS is a 3-stage, Class-AB mono power amp design, using fully discrete components. Its power supply consists of a 100 VA torodial transformer and two 10,000 µF capacitors, manufactured by BHC to Heed's own specifications, whilst its output stage is built with complementary Darlington, 25 A power transistors. Due to its balanced circuit topology, the CANOPUS is barely susceptible to external interference. Its input sensitivity and impedance enable the user to connect the CANOPUS directly to a CD-player or one of our phono stages.

But have compromises been made for size and price? Absolutely not! The CANOPUS is a discrete design in the best audiophile tradition, extensively hand-built with custom-made components inside. This has all been achieved at a price that almost beggars belief, and with an accomplished sound quality that high-end finicks cannot believe.

In short, it is almost a unique high-end bargain!

Heed Audio LUNA
Preamplifier with Volume RC

Equipped with only two inputs and a simple remote control facility for adjusting volume, this high-level preamplifier may be spartan but, as far as sound quality and matching capability are concerned, it meets the highest audiophile standards.

The concept of the LUNA is based on an amplification stage not unlike an IC but built as a discrete circuit. This "op-amp block" designed by us delivers specifications

(S/N: 123 dB, Headroom: >40 dB, frequency range: 0-1 MHz) which cannot be achieved by ICs. A motorised and therefore remote-controllable Blue-Alps volume pot is used to adjust gain. Due to its two-stage configuration, inputs and outputs are completely separated which ensures a stable sound regardless of volume setting. Its output is powerful enough to drive high capacity cables even over long runs of up to 100 metres!

It goes without saying that such an ambitious application deserves an external power supply, such as our award-winning Quasar phonostage.

Heed Audio QUESTAR
MM and MC Phono Stages

The QUESTARs are destined to be the MVPs (Most Valuable Phonostage) of the Heed analogue range. At first glance, they physically resemble the Pulsar, our previous
entry-level MM phono stage, but looks can be deceiving. Under the hood of their hefty, shielded steel chassis beats the heart of our award-winning audiophile Quasar MM/MC phonostage, conveniently divided into neatly-specialized a' la carte portions.

The QUESTAR MM incorporates the Quasar’s unsurpassed MM circuitry. Its sibling, 
the QUESTAR MC deploys a streamlined version of the Quasar’s MC stage, eliminating the need for jumper switches by optimising the amplifier to suit the 300-600 µV output range characterising the vast majority of today’s moving coils. Considering its generous 18 dB headroom, ideal cartridge matching is virtually assured.

The internal construction of the QUESTARs meets the most critical high-end standards in every respect. The amplifier employs an entirely dual-mono configuration and uses a two-stage - passive/active - RIAA equalisation. Gain adjustment has been optimised for maximum headroom and highest signal-to-noise ratio. Component parts are selected to exacting tolerances matching those of our flagship Quasar.

The QUESTARs are suitable for any line-level amplifier input, and can easily drive virtually any length of interconnect. There is no internal wiring or binding, and all high-current parts of the circuit are shielded. Both models feature gold-plated RCA terminals soldered directly onto the PCB, limiting all signal paths to a bare minimum.

The QUESTARs utilise an external “wall-wart” power supply to avoid undesirable electro-magnetic interference within the chassis, distinguishing them from their predecessor, the all-in-one-box Pulsar. Sonic performance can be even further enhanced by upgrading to the Quasar’s substantial separate box PSU, constructed around a massive 60 VA toroidal transformer with low-density magnetic field and minimal dispersion. With substantial 40,000 µF capacitor filtering, the Quasar PSU can feed the QUESTAR’S circuitry with the kind of super-clean current usually delivered only by battery-based supplies, even with extreme dynamic swings.

Heed Audio QUASAR
State-of-the-Art  MM / MC  Phono Stage

The signal processing of cartridges is one of the most delicate jobs in amplification. All the more so because it isn't done merely by boosting a few hundred microvolts to a few hundred millivolts. In fact, at this thousandfold amplification (60 dB) the signal must be processed as cleanly and noise-free as possible. The extremely low signal level and the frequency-related amplification which arises from the RIAA equalisation curve applied in the cutting of LPs make the highest demands of the circuit topology and technical realisation of a phono preamplifier.

The QUASAR, with its discrete conception and wide range of features, represents a unique bargain at this price level. The QUASAR is built in dual-mono configuration from the power supply upwards. There are two separate amplifier stages for MM and MC cartridges, both being fed from their own regulated power supply arrangement. Optimum adjustments to the cartridge in use can be applied for sensitivity and load by various settings of the jumpers on the PCB. The two separate outputs with different sensitivities make it possible for preamps or recorders to be fed via 'Low Out', whilst
its 'High Out' can drive power amps directly.

The output stage has huge headroom at extremely low noise levels and, due to its low output impedance and high current delivery, can drive long interconnect cables without any sonic degradation.

The enhanced power supply of the QUASAR is based around a 60 VA toroidal transformer with low-density magnetic field and very little dispersion. This power, together with 40,000 µF filtering, can feed the circuit with the kind of super-clean current usually delivered only by battery-based supplies, even with extreme dynamic swings.
The entirely discrete conception, as well as the short signal paths of the QUASAR, combine the best audiophile tradition with innovative circuit design. This new phono preamplifier makes analogue high-end reproduction affordable at last!

See Image Hifi Review>>>

The QUASAR was awarded first prize for Best Phonostage in 2002 at the biannual "Image Hifi Awards" in Germany, one of Europe's premier hi-fi accolades.