Hegel H95 Review (Streaming Amplifier)

[brimble]

Feyerabend comes to mind. Anarchy in Science. I mean, he did write Farewell to Reason...

Feyerabend was a lover of opera and would be appalled to have his name used in this context.

 

[ex audiophile]

How about proper specifications instead of marketing bullet-point numbers?

Frequency response at what specific level and +/- xx.xx dB
S/N for what? Line inputs? Shorted? And with respect to what? Full power?
Crosstalk, at what frequency or range
Distortion? From 250mW to full rated power? Not some arbitary half power (25W@1kHz) number- what does that mean? It means your amplifers are shockingly bad doesn't it?
IMD at what power level?
Damping factor. Ok. with respect to exactly what load?

These specifications are your marketing department's idea of something that will catch a few hipsters and wannabe audiophiles with no clue. They just make your company look stupid.

It's hilarious anybody with a modicum of understanding would buy a product based on this absolute BS:

View attachment 168002

A bit harsh John, although I do agree in substance. At least they (Hegel) are participating in this forum, responding to the review, and perhaps even improving their product as a result of this critique. That's so much better than many manufacturers who ignore objective reviews and go on marketing their crap. So I say give Hegel a chance to respond.

 

[DanielT]

Thanks Amir!

You have done a good deed. Hopefully there will be some person who was about to buy it for hard earned money that will rethink after reading this test. One of this year's best consumer information.

Hegel H95: Warning flag!

 

[ex audiophile]

Bad dream amp.

It's something I'd walk past on a kerbside pickup...

oops, I just saw their Facebook response. You're right, nuke em.

 

[bkrmar]

Come on, DAC performance that best case would land it in the mid "poor" category. Even 30-year-old technology can beat this. How much space do they want (or need) to leave? Amplifier performance is a bit better, but also not what one would expect from such a device. My Loxjie A30 performs similarly for less than 10x the price.

I'm pretty sure if we test a higher-end model that we will see a similar picture: sub-par performance for even more money.

I work in automotive industry and I can make a parallel to this.

I look at Hegel as a BMW. BMW by default is a premium brand with premium price on it. But, not every BMW is a M5. BMW also has striped down BMW 116i with mediocre performance then even some 30 year old cars can beat. But, 116i is still BMWs best selling and most profitable model. And its overpriced for sure. You can buy better car in every way for the price of 116i.

Same goes for Hegel H95. Not every Hegel is state of the art performance. It is actually well designed from meeting a certain criteria point of view and for who it is intended. It was a business decision to make H95.

Example: my best friend is the type of guy who would likely be the target buyer for H95. He has the funds, he likes premium brands, he is not an audiophile, but likes decent quality music and uses Spotify. He thinks I am insane because I have my own SOTA DIY DAC, custom D Class amp, spend time on forums, use Audirvana etc... He just want premium brand, nice sound and convenience.

Yes, for us, enthusiast this is a bad product, but for my friend, it is all he wants and needs.

 

[Slayer]

This guy is a goof.

That's putting it very politely. I would be willing to bet, his viewing audience is 99% of the young and ill-informed crowd.

 

[caught gesture]

oops, I just saw their Facebook response. You're right, nuke em.

What are they saying in response for those of us without Facebook.

 

[ex audiophile]

What are they saying in response for those of us without Facebook.

see post 126 in this thread from Sarumbear

 

[Geert]

So I say give Hegel a chance to respond.

We already have a (new) response, exactly what I predicted. From their sales manager an hour ago on the Hegel Music System Facebook group:

"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.

The virtue of the Sound Engine technology isn't low distortion and noise data. This technology makes us able to construct great sounding amps with short signal paths (that actually measures reasonably good) without the use of extensive feedback loops, which would render good measurement, but bad sound.

I also happen to know the Yamaha WXA-50 quite well, it's a decent custom installation amp for secondary listening with very good functionality and versatility. 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".

So in the end this will boil down to "differences in believe".

 

[aliqaz]

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.
The virtue of the Sound Engine technology isn't low distortion and noise data. This technology makes us able to construct great sounding amps with short signal paths (that actually measures reasonably good) without the use of extensive feedback loops, which would render good measurement, but bad sound.
I also happen to know the Yamaha WXA-50 quite well, it's a decent custom installation amp for secondary listening with very good functionality and versatility. 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."

"No, but it's impossible to imply that an amp sounds better just because some distortion measurements is 0,01% instead of 0,1%"

"It's good that Amir acknowledges that he has made a serious mistake when trying to measure the DAC distortion running the amp at volume 98. The variable RCA output is tapped from the output and is obviously clipping severely at this level. His comments about the quality of the DAC can thus be disregarded totally"

"Measuring audio products is a difficult task. You obviously have to know what you are doing and also have the required knowhow on the subject of the measurements to establish the correct procedure so you don't end up with the misleading results. This "review" gets off on the wrong foot straight away in that respect by measuring the distortion on the variable output at volume level 98. 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. This continues with some rather unorthodox measurements and strange results which we of course would like to comment, so please give us some time for a proper response.
You can in the meantime read the lab report from Hi-Fi News & Record Review, which is also done totally independently without any input from us, which I suspect is closer to the truth. Remember that an integrated amp like H95 is designed to play music on a loudspeaker and the proof is always in the pudding.
https://www.hifinews.com/.../hegel-h95-network-attached..."


"Just wanted to let you all know that we will be looking in to these measurements ourselves and see if we can replicate somehow.
It is important to say that we are using the best possible measurement tools from Audio Precision at our development center in Oslo, and take very much care in measurements during R&D for Hegel products. Of course especially in terms of distortion. We will come back with more info once we know."

 

[voodooless]

Nobody with working ears would consider any of these remotely close to any current Hegel amp in sound quality.

Cool, so that means they are willing to pick out their amp in a double blind test?

Also it’s rather something to imply that @amirm doesn’t know what he is doing when measuring equipment. He measured probably hundreds of devices by now using mostly the same procedures. If there was something really wrong, it would have come to light by now.

 

[caught gesture]

We already have a (new) response, exactly what I predicted. From their sales manager an hour ago on the Hegel Music System Facebook group:

"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.

The virtue of the Sound Engine technology isn't low distortion and noise data. This technology makes us able to construct great sounding amps with short signal paths (that actually measures reasonably good) without the use of extensive feedback loops, which would render good measurement, but bad sound.

I also happen to know the Yamaha WXA-50 quite well, it's a decent custom installation amp for secondary listening with very good functionality and versatility. 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".

So in the end this will boil down to "differences in believe".

So Hegel state initially in this thread, “I will say that measurements and striving for low distortion is a driving factor at Hegel” but are now saying that distortion measurements have questionable values! They’ve been rumbled palming off low to average quality packaged and marketed as high quality at a price to match. Instead of owning it they are trying to deflect and run to the subjective hills. Shame on them.

 

[AndreaT]

One more darling of the audiophiles off the pedestal, great review!

 

[Lambda]

To put it simply: Youtube reviews. One of my favorite reviewers gushes over Hegel.

I have looked on there website and i must say there suff looks good.
And they even have distortion specifications. they are sadly not true.

Wonder if they have to face any legal consequences for lying like this?

 

[voodooless]

It's good that Amir acknowledges that he has made a serious mistake when trying to measure the DAC distortion running the amp at volume 98.

Did he?

The variable RCA output is tapped from the output and is obviously clipping severely at this level. His comments about the quality of the DAC can thus be disregarded totally"

Can it?

 

[pma]

"Measuring audio products is a difficult task.

Yes especially for engineering marketing guys, they have no clue and never display a meaningful wide set of measurements. Maybe enough to keep the crowds feeling good, but it does not work everywhere with everyone, hopefully. Come on and have a talk supported by facts, not by feelings and bla bla.

 

[Lambda]

Can it?

Well i would say a DAC and DACAMP is broken if it can not Handel 0dBFS.
Sadly most manufactures don't agree.

Stupid customer seem to prefer if only halve of the volume range is usable so they think there amp is more powerful.

Anyways
I also agree this should be detected and the amp tested at what ever level it performs the best.

 

[USER]

THE VIDEO REVIEW AND ITS AFTER-EFFECTS WILL BE AMAZING.

@amirm, I hope you take on any public responses made by the company such as those mentioned above.


Also, this thread is in serious need of puns. Take for example: It sure looks like the turkey arrived early this Thanksgiving.

 

[voodooless]

The virtue of the Sound Engine technology isn't low distortion and noise data.

Okay, so let’s see here what’s on your website then:

The Hegel SoundEngine local error canceling system prevents distortion in the audio amplifier circuit stages, preserving the original details and the dynamic range in the original music signal. The end result is a much cleaner music signal with a larger dynamic range and lower distortion.

And

The SoundEngine Technology will cancel crossover distortion found in all types of class-AB amplifiers. The human ear is very sensitive to high-frequency distortion components in the music signal. The Hegel SoundEngine technology will cancel high-frequency distortion components found in normal types of audio amplifiers.

So which is it? In fact, the intro is all about distortion:

It's a common fact: As a story is told from person to person, details change. Things are added, others lost. At some point, the story has changed. When a music signal is passing through an audio amplifier a similar effect will take place. As the signal is passed from stage to stage within the audio amplifier, the music signal will be changed by every single amplifier stage.

And guess what? We can measure this.. this audio analyzer that Amir uses can measure quite close to the thermal limit if needed. So you are now telling us that you can fix distortion that we cannot be measured?

 

[DanielT]

Okay, so let’s see here what’s on your website then:


And

So which is it?

Tips to Hegel. If you are going to go to war, you should know what your enemy is capable of.

Now I lean back and watch the spectacle from a distance. This will probably be as a good action movie.