Crane Song HEDD Quantum AD/DA

Conversion Takes a Quantum Leap Forward

When choosing analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, you have a choice to make: do you go for something that delivers transparent conversion, or look for a little color? Thanks to Crane Song's HEDD (Harmonically Enhanced Digital Device) technology, you can have your cake and eat it too. Endowed with proprietary analog filtering, sub-picosecond jitter clocking, and top-drawer componentry, the 2-channel HEDD Quantum gives you independent A/D and D/A converters that offer pristine, transparent conversion up to 192kHz. Once the signal is in the digital domain, HEDD's powerful DSP takes over. With the ability to mimic the warm distortion characteristics of triode and pentode tubes and analog tape, HEDD can turn a crispy digital signal into a master with the punch of a hit record from analog's golden age.

What's new in Quantum

Crane Song's HEDD series converters have earned a loyal following among professional recording, mastering, and front-of-house engineers. Now the HEDD Quantum ups the ante with several key upgrades. One of the most accurate converters we've seen here at Sweetwater, the Quantum features sub-picosecond jitter clocking applied to both the AD and the DA for exceptional imaging, a very open 3-dimensional sound, and highly detailed transient response. This is the same high-end clocking used in the company's flagship Avocet IIA DAC. Other upgrades include the addition of TOSlink optical I/O and six word clock outputs that let you use HEDD Quantum as a master clock while operating simultaneously as an AD/DA. Analog-generated dither is selectable for 16- or 20-bit.

Analog Sound in the Digital Domain

HEDD, an acronym for Harmonically Enhanced Digital Device, is a technological breakthrough in signal processing. Crane Song engineered HEDD to be musically transparent while providing the capability of generating tube/analog sounds in the digital domain. Essentially, HEDD technology gives audio engineers who work with digital the ability to produce more analog-sounding tracks, mixes, and masters.

Front-panel controls

The front-panel controls of the HEDD Quantum let you select input source, sample rate, and continuously variable triode and pentode tube and analog tape emulation. The HEDD can operate as an effects device or as a separate A/D and D/A converter with the sound enhancement process applied to either the A/D or D/A converter. The unit has transformerless balanced analog inputs and outputs, transformer-isolated digital inputs and outputs, and uses separate power transformers and supplies for the analog and digital sections.

Flexible operational modes

The HEDD Quantum's flexible operational modes make it easy to use the D/A and A/D concurrently at different sample rates. In the DIGI setting, the Quantum will run digital in from one of three sources, while outputting on all three digital outputs and the analog output simultaneously. Set to ANA mode, the Quantum's input is analog and it outputs on all three digital outputs plus the analog output at the same time.