That’s quite a tantalising thought.Cool, so that means they are willing to pick out their amp in a double blind test?
That’s quite a tantalising thought.Cool, so that means they are willing to pick out their amp in a double blind test?
@amirm, for my understanding, how far did you need to open the volume control to reach 2 V? And say people would use the line output to drive a sub, is this volume control setting something people might use in practise when using a digital input or would this level drive the power output stage of the amp into clipping?Hegel H95 DAC Measurements
This being an amplifier, I immediately jumped to measuring that part of it first. But then I had to backtrack when I noticed digital input performance was worse than analog. Given the line out, I decided to measure the DAC using coax input. For some reason, like a Hegel DAC I tested in the past, my ASIO4ALL interface would not see the USB input so I decided to test with Coax. Here is our dashboard with volume control adjusted to produce the nominal 2 volts
Marantz PM-90 is a properly engineered amplifier unlike this junk.Hi All,
I am the original author of the facebook post highlighting this review. I'll paste all official Hegel company employees comments here:
"You have totally missed the point. Noise and distortion measurements have some questionable values when it comes to sound quality in an amp. You can easily achieve very good measurements by introducing a lot of feedback loops and elaborate circuitry, however, that doesn't matter when the amp sounds bad and boring in the end of the day. Marantz PM90 is a typical Japanese late 80's construction, it sounds ok, but rather dull and lacks dynamics. NAD 2200 is powerfull and dynamic, but coarse and lacking in detail. Nobody with working ears would consider any of these remotely close to any current Hegel amp in sound quality.
It's the same chip as in my HAD-1 from swissonic, (Thomann in-house brand)It would have been nice to see the Hegel USB port measured. That's my favorite sound wise. The USB port shows up as a sound card in the MacBook Pro sound preference. It's labeled as “TE7022 Audio w/ SPDIF” as the Output Device.
Actually we don’t need to. We have SINAD data from just before clipping. It’s about 80.Just trying to understand if people might effectively run into the issue of overdriving the line output. If not, do you consider remeasuring the DAC at a lower output level?
The amplifier section won't perform any better indeed, but I wonder what it would do to the DAC's performance. As you can read in Hegel's response this line output level thing is important for the credibility of the review.Actually we don’t need to. We have SINAD data from just before clipping. It’s about 80.
Tips to Hegel. If you are going to go to war, you should know what your enemy is capable of.
Like I said, we have that:The amplifier section won't perform any better indeed, but I wonder what it would do to the DAC's performance. As you can read in Hegel's response this line output level thing is important for the credibility of the review.
I don't get this argument at all.H95 is an integrated amp, not a preamp, so a 2 volt signal on the variable output is outside parameters and will be heavily distorted.
Hegel’s comments on Facebook are not helping them. Making comments like, If somebody would prefer this to a Hegel H95 when it comes to sound quality, please be my guest. They are probably the same people that would prefer a Budweiser over a Budvar, comes across as elitist and derogatory.Before you release the dogs it’d be prudent to wait for Hegel’s response, not a fan of a smug forum pile-on as it does no one any favour.
You're right, the issue is clear and Amirm identified the saturation issue. But there's still the first dashboard with an FFT graph and SINAD numbers which refer to the saturation scenario if I'm not mistaken. It also doesn't answer the question if people might run into the issue of saturating the line output in practise.Like I said, we have that:
Has been discussed earlier on. Hegel commented the line output is not a preamp out.I don't get this argument at all.
2V is the most common output level for a DAC on RCA outputs, isn't it?
why would it be a problem?
and why didn't they restrict it lower if 2V too high? (it isn't, their argument makes no sense).
We're all doing it wrong. Need to put our laptops on big spikes to get the sound right
Yes, that's change everything at all! Laps on spikes and you have audio-nirvana. Only for 500$ after 10% diss.We're all doing it wrong. Need to put our laptops on big spikes to get the sound right.
The -63dB @ 2V SINAD figure is can be seen on the graph at 0dBFS. You can see it achieves its best SINAD of -82dB is as -12dBFS, which is about 0.5Vrms (1.4Vp-p), then it starts to clip.You're right, the issue is clear and Amirm identified the saturation issue. But there's still the first dashboard with an FFT graph and SINAD numbers which refer to the saturation scenario if I'm not mistaken. It also doesn't answer the question if people might run into the issue of saturating the line output in practise.
Has been discussed earlier on. Hegel commented the line output is not a preamp out.
Ages ago the standard reference level used to be -10 dBV (0,316V). Not saying all is fine, but it's clear lots of people will laugh this review away because of this issue.
To give them a fair chance; line level for consumer products used to be -10 dBV, being 0,316 V. Although that standard got lost once CD players started using the full digital dynamic range instead of maintaining head room (the reason why on a lot of amplifiers you can only use 1/4th of the range of the volume control).
It all comes down to this (try not to laugh): Quote; “There is no damage control, there is only a sensible approach to claims that you do not understand”. We simply just don’t understand, understand?I dont get it, dont they measure their own products? This amp should have never left the HQ. How can this be possible? Should be fairly easy for them, and many others, to do some quality measurements. And cost a lot too.