Zsolt Audio Turns 40 This Year

Last weekend, I was welcomed to a special event in an industrial area of Budapest. Zsolt Audio – one of the best known high-end audio manufacturers in Hungary – turns 40 this year, and Zsolt Huszti, the founder, started a series of events celebrating this in the showroom next to his “factory”. We listened to some fun stories from the past 40 years, and also to music on some of his latest devices.

The first time I heard about Heed Audio was in 2011, when one of my friends brought me along to an open house event. Sadly, that was the last time I met that friend before his passing, but that’s a different story. I’m happy that he introduced me to Heed Audio right before leaving us…

At that time, we listened to the Enigma 5 speakers, and to me, it was love at first sight. I mean, first listening… :-) I decided that these are the speakers I want to listen to. And almost a decade later, this dream finally became true. And while the Enigma 5 is no longer produced, you can still find some info about it at the bottom of this page: https://heedaudio.com/loudspeakers/

At the event last Saturday, we learned a lot about the company’s future plans, some of which is quite interesting. Zsolt had some ground-breaking ideas, but I’m not in the position to share those publicly. However, we also listened to a few devices that are already available or will be available soon.

The Heed Audio Asterisk is a really simple stereo amplifier. Nothing fancy, just three line inputs, and it can drive a pair of speakers. However, it can do its job really well. Connected to the amplifier, we could listen to a pair of bookshelf speakers. They are tiny and still under development, but could already fill the show room with a loud and clear voice. The amplifier is already available: https://www.bartimexaudio.hu/Heed-Audio-Asterisk

I love the sound of the Enigma 5 speakers. They do a fantastic job with most of the music I listen to. You can easily draw a map of instruments you are listening to in 3D. I did it a couple of times, and they turned out to be pretty accurate when compared to photos taken during recordings. Unlike the Enigma 5, the reincarnation of the StandArt speakers we listened to are not omnidirectional. You cannot expect the same level of spatial sound. However, speakers directed at you reproduce the atmosphere of a (prog)rock concert much better. At the event, we also listened to some Rammstein, which was pure joy on these speakers. They were driven by a Heed Obelisk integrated amplifier, a slightly more modern version of what I use at home. As you could guess from this description, these speakers are not meant to replace the Enigmas, but rather complement them.

This was just the first event of a promising series. I’m looking forward to listening to even more stories and music!

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