Hegel H95 Review (Streaming Amplifier)

[respice finem]

On the bright side, it sports the name of an important philosopher.

So crates and crates of these are now classified as junk, thanks to its poor marx? I just kant(o?) stand it.

http://statusmind.com/images/2014/07/Famous-Quotes-46514-statusmind.com.jpg

/scnr

 

[respice finem]

how about that poll?
I really want to vote on this one. Poor.

Another "two panthers case" - the piggybank one would be the second.

 

[Zensō]

But, but, but, it costs $2000 and comes in a fancy box, it must be good!

 

[pma]

Terrible results. I wonder if there is at least some fancy design story behind the product. Maybe somebody of Hegel could join us and tell .

 

[pierre]

I went to a hifi shop last week for the first time in years. Now that I know a bit better, the owner is more a scammer than someone here to advise you. I got plenty of advises along "this one is of course better but a lot more expensive", "devialet phantom are not very good you should try this XXX thingy", "your Accuphase amplifier is ok but you should try this YYY ones which is much much better". YYY was top of the line Hegel one ...

Thanks to ASR and amirm@ for putting some orders into a crazy audio word and educating people.

 

[restorer-john]

Maybe somebody of Hegel could join us and tell

Somehow I don't think that's going to happen...

 

[Amplifier dude]

They could have charged $4000 if it only had 3 more kilos of aluminum on the faceplate.

 

[rammster]

Hegel brand is promoted and popularized as an audiophile grade quality gear with high power, which explains the cost.
And now we see this ((

 

[Doodski]

Somehow I don't think that's going to happen...

Did you see the Sound Engine 2 IC that they added to the amp circuitry? The way he describes the thing is, it uses feedback to cancel out unwanted stuff. A in-house part.

 

[JiiPee]

A local magazine reviewed recently the H95 against Atoll IN200, NAD C388 and Rotel RA1572MK2. Their measurements were not exactly similar (they measured SNR, THD, IM etc... from speaker outputs using both analog and s/pdif inputs), but as far as I can see, their measurements do not contradict with amirm's measurement. They did not measure/review the headphones amps.

When it came to subjective listening based verdict, the reviewers were quite happy with the Hegel. This made me think, where are the limits in measured deficiencies after which we can reliably hear them? I think it is obvious that the H95 performance s nothing special, especially considering the price, but then again, is it already good enough in the sense that improvements in technical performance would not mean significant improvements in what we can hear?

Now, don't get me wrong. I can appreciate the engineering excellence manifested in an equipment with superior objective measurable performance. I'm just wondering that purely from the listening point of view, where's the level that can be judged as "perfect 10".

 

[NYfan2]

Tons and tons of reviews at YouTube that praise the Hegel amps!!
I'm sure a lot of people bought a Hegel amp because of this

 

[Amplifier dude]

A local magazine reviewed recently the H95 against Atoll IN200, NAD C388 and Rotel RA1572MK2. Their measurements were not exactly similar (they measured SNR, THD, IM etc... from speaker outputs using both analog and s/pdif inputs), but as far as I can see, their measurements do not contradict with amirm's measurement. They did not measure/review the headphones amps.

When it came to subjective listening based verdict, the reviewers were quite happy with the Hegel. This made me think, where are the limits in measured deficiencies after which we can reliably hear them? I think it is obvious that the H95 performance s nothing special, especially considering the price, but then again, is it already good enough in the sense that improvements in technical performance would not mean significant improvements in what we can hear?

Now, don't get me wrong. I can appreciate the engineering excellence manifested in an equipment with superior objective measurable performance. I'm just wondering that purely from the listening point of view, where's the level that can be judged as "perfect 10".

If poor performance is what you’re after, similar measuring Chinese amps can be found for $70.

 

[vkvedam]

Hegel exceeded my expectations, this is class leading failure

 

[zeppzeppzepp]

not surprised for the DAC portion, it was complained even in audiophile magazines.

 

[ah-ra]

I'm literally shocked by this review. I really considered buying a Hegel amp last year. Happy I didn't. This will leave a lot of people troubled....

 

[danielbaen]

I bought it a few years ago but the ROST version because I can read if it is improved, I do not want to know mine ...
After a few weeks I saw that I had made a bad purchase ... as a good amplifier but its DAC leaves a lot to be desired and when I connected my high impedance headphones you can even hear the parasitic noise of the amplifier ... a real rubbish!

 

[NHL99]

Hi-Fi News 'Outstanding Product'
There's a Lab Report attached to the review, amazingly the engineer doesn't unravel anything of major concern.

Hegel H95 Network-Attached Amp Lab Report

Lab Report If Hegel's mammoth H590 [HFN Oct '18] and H390 [HFN Aug '19] are both kilowatt-capable integrated amplifiers then the new baby of the range is necessarily more 'measured' in its, er, measurements. It's certainly very comfortable driving 8 and 4ohm loads where its 60W specification is...

www.hifinews.com

 

[Amplifier dude]

How a $2000 amp should measure

 

[xarkkon]

Another thing that sucks about this amp is the very low voltage preouts. I had to add a separate preamp to get sufficient signal to my sub.

(The amp reviewed is mine, BTW.)

Regrets… a mistake I can afford, begrudgingly.

-salute- Thank you sir for your sacrifice. For science!

 

[amirm]

Hi-Fi News 'Outstanding Product'
There's a Lab Report attached to the review, amazingly the engineer doesn't unravel anything of major concern.

He does but just phrases it in the way to make marketing happy. 86 dB a-weighted signal to noise ratio is considered good? In whose book when CD has 96 dB of dynamic range, unweighted! He also talks about DAC clipping severely above -10 dBFS. On and on. Trick is to put all of that in dense text and horrible to read charts. Then no one knows what they are or mean.

Paul Miller is not who he used to be. He used to have tons of graphs with pass/fail criteria. Now he does the minimum to let the whole "review" essentially by a subjective piece.