Heed Questar Omtale - Hi-Fi World October 2015

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Take Heed

Looking for a low cost moving coil phono amplifier? Paul Rigby reviews the Heed Questar.

W

hile sub-£300 moving magnet phono amps are commonplace, finding the same for a moving coil cartridge is a little more difficult. So Heed has done well to produce a suitable unit for this cost.

To reach this price point, though, Heed has cut its cloth. Hence, the prosaic chassis – a simple metal box – is supported by Maplin-esque feet fixed by a basic set of screws.

Powered by a wall-wart, the front of the box sports a simple power light with the usual sockets on the rear.

There are no silicon chips inside; this is an all-discrete design – usually considered to provide better quality.

Because of the chassis’ long-form factor, the rear of the phono amp is short on space. Hence, the sockets are rather squeezed together. In use, my connected cables became so crowded and so difficult to site

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correctly that I initially only heard one channel. After further fiddling with the cables I then heard...nothing at all!

It was only when I totally removed the outer metal tightening sheaths on the RCA connectors that I had room to force the cables home into the sockets, a teeth-grating experience.

There are no selector knobs or DIP switches on the Questar, the settings are fixed. As the tests show, the Questar is aimed at low output moving coils of around 0.2-0.5 mV and it has a high 64dB gain.

and proud section which tests the phono amp’s dynamic capabilities.

I tested the Heed alongside my reference Trichord Dino Mk.3 that soars with freedom in the upper midrange area.

The Heed felt slightly claustrophobic in comparison, despite its low noise (revealed during testing).

Those results also alluded to possible excessive warmth and this certainly

SOUND QUALITY I began the sound test with a piece of modern classical fare via Bruce Brubaker from his new LP, ‘Glass Piano’, a solo piano interpretation of the works of Philip Glass, and ‘Mad Rush’. This long track features a flighty sequence over a metronomic rhythm before launching into a loud

The sockets are rather too close together for adult fingers to manipulate decent quality cables.

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support to make it anywhere near understandable and here, again, the Heed scored.

CONCLUSION This is a compact phono amp that, sonically, packs a lot in for the price. Those music fans who count classical and jazz amongst their foremost listening content will not be disappointed by the Heed but might better look elsewhere for improved value, while those attracted to rock, synth-based electronica and richly arranged pop will find much to be impressed with the Heed.

There are no silicon chips in the Questar; it is an all-discrete design, this shot shows. The grey blocks are 10µF input capacitors that protect the cartridge from d.c. – a nice touch. added to the slightly veiled response, especially in the upper mids.

That said, there was an excellent sense of low-end emphasis from the Heed during this performance. This meant that varying key pressure on the low registers from Brubaker's piano was easily recognised, making for an emotive performance.

Moving to the jazz/pop of Morgana King and ‘Like A Seed’ from the 1973 album ‘New Beginnings’ the Heed tracked the funky introductory bass with aplomb while King’s rather sultry and smooth vocal delivery (a mixture of Barbara Streisand and Cleo Lane in style) was particularly suited to the unit's warm approach.

Although some of the secondary percussion was a little subdued and lacking in pizazz and the strumming guitar was rather tamed in its approach, the electric organ offered a foot-tapping presentation while the drums provided a valuable foundation to the overall track.

As the Heed seemed to be more at home with low-end and powerful music, I thought that I’d turn towards rock. In this case a very early rendition from the Electric Light Orchestra, during their particularly hairy early phase within ‘10538 Overture’ from ‘The Light Shines On Vol 2’ LP recorded in 1971.

I was impressed by the Heed’s instrumental separation on this track. There is a conglomeration of stringed instruments within this ditty that threatens to be presented as a tuneful lump.

The Heed did well to tease each instrument apart and into something recognisable. The more delicate aspects of this song, the rather fragile acoustic guitar pickings and secondary percussion which could easily be lost in this busy soundstage, were illuminated and could easily be tracked.

The low noise certainly aided this

welcome sonic feature. The midrange and treble side of the soundstage lacked extension but this was more than made up by the power and body of the aggressive cellos which dominated the song.

They launched at my ear with purpose, giving the track a dominating and portentous danger that threatened to overwhelm the entire song, while the lead guitar controlled the entire structure of the track, adding sonic signposts around which the rest of the music flowed. The treated, rather weedy, lead vocal needed the low noise

The power supply features a usefully long power cord.

MEASURED PERFORMANCE Frequency response of the Questar wasn’t flat, straying quite far from the 318µS time constant below 1kHz our analysis shows. As a result there is a lift of +1.5dB relative to treble levels and this will add warmth and body into the sound, to a degree that some may find

FREQUENCY RESPONSE

DISTORTION

excessive. It will also re-balance bright sounding cartridges for the better – for those that have such an animal.

Heed have included a warp filter that introduces attenuation below 20Hz and -7dB attenuation at 5Hz, where most warps occur - useful. The Questar is an all-discrete design – impressive – with input blocking capacitors, likely proportioned to provide warp filtering.

The gain of the Questar was high at x1800 (65dB), but with an output overload ceiling of just 5.5V (10V is common) this equated back to an input overload value of 3mV – fairly low.

Around 10mV is a common figure.

Equivalent input noise (e.i.n.) IEC A weighted was low at 0.1µV, a value approaching that of an input transformer (0.08µV) so this is where the Heed excels. Together with high gain, this suggests the design has been aimed at low output MCs, where very low noise is essential and overload not an issue. NK

Frequency response (-1dB) 11Hz-20kHz Distortion 0.18% Separation (1kHz) 78dB Noise (e.i.n., IEC A) 0.1µV Output (max) 5.5V Overload 3mV in/5.5V out Gain 65dB / x1800 www.hi-fiworld.co.uk

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HEED QUESTAR MOVING COIL PHONO AMPLIFIER £ £300 EXCELLENT - extremely capable.

VERDICT

For the price, the Heed Questar provides a big, bold, powerful sound that will rock your socks off.

FOR

- compact - low end performance - low noise - instrumental separation

AGAINST

- chassis design - veiled mids - no mono switch Heed Audio +44 (0) 1242 547663 www.heedaudio.com

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