Heco Direkt Einklang
Lovely finish and build quality; quirky design They sound like a big old mess
It’s rare that
a product disappoints us as much as these Heco Direkt Einklang stereo speakers. With a huge discrepancy between their potential and actual performance, we can’t help but feel despondent.
The baby of the Direkt range from German hi-fi brand Heco, these Einklang speakers are immediately eye-catching, thanks to their retro-but-modern styling and sleek racing stripes. But after that impressive start, these Hecos don’t live up to their impression of high fidelity.
Any initial reservations about their quirky design soon give way to admiration once we assemble and place the speakers. The design – tilted back stature, widefronted baffle with racing stripes and contrasting wood-pulp paper cone – looks eccentric and elegant in turns.
The sleek lacquer finish, either in black or the white with silver stripes of our review sample, looks sophisticated and the metal feet are sturdy and easy to attach. The unusual shape means they don’t take up too much space. And while they’re not exactly discreet, they don’t stick out either.
Single minded
But the most unusual thing about the Einklangs is their use of a single driver unit. Unlike other single-point-source designs, such as KEF’S Uni-q array (which has a tweeter placed in the middle of the midrange/bass driver), these Hecos use a single driver with two cones. The horn-like ‘whizzer’ sprouts out from the full-range 21cm cone, but they’re part of the same diaphragm.
Unusual in the world of hi-fi speakers, there are pros and cons to a single driver design. It eliminates the need for multiple units and a crossover, leading to flawless cohesion, increased transparency and less phase distortion. But in trying to cover all the frequencies, the extreme ends suffer, as the cone isn’t able to reproduce super low-end frequencies and high treble without struggling.
The Hecos need a long run-in to fill out thinness. We normally give new speakers a weekend before serious listening, but these take a week to warm up. We also take some time to position them correctly. Placing them near a wall adds some much needed weight to the Hecos’ sound, and the downward-facing ports make the speakers a little less sensitive to walls than a conventional rear-firing design.
The speakers have a high sensitivity of 94db, which means they can be driven easily with low-powered amplifiers and still achieve high volume levels. Our experience with single-driver design speakers has us hoping for a potentially potent performer, but any advantages are outweighed by the many shortcomings. It’s a huge let down.
The speakers’ lack of bass weight is apparent from the start. The overall tone is fairly benign, with the Hecos delivering a good amount of detail in Nine Inch Nails’
Something I Can Never Have. Piano notes tinkle away, Trent Reznor’s vocal delivery is crisp. But closer listening reveals that the Einklangs lack the solidity and expression to communicate the rising intensity of angsty singing or the pounding of piano notes. Vocals sound laboured, and there’s a shortage of punch and attack.
With no solid base to underpin the musical notes, the sound is unmoored. That insubstantial quality to the Einklangs’ sonic character means everything from guitar strums to voices lacks a natural warmth.
Radiohead’s Everything In Its Right Place is a demanding piece of music, and the Hecos aren’t capable of making sense of the engulfing ambient noises. There isn't the sense of control or rhythmic precision to handle all the elements. The speakers fling out a wide soundfield, only for instruments to bump into each other in a confused state.
One thing these speakers do well is defining the stop and start of notes. The snappy drumbeat and hi-hats in Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean are precise, with every note pulled taut. It's a morsel of brilliance in an otherwise disappointing performance.
From speakers costing the best part of £2000, we would expect a certain level of quality. However, there are basic musical elements missing in the Heco Direkt Einklangs' sound that we would hope to find in a mid-priced £500 speaker. On that criterion alone, this isn’t money well spent.
“We would expect a certain level of quality from speakers costing the best part of £2000”