Hegel H95 Review (Streaming Amplifier)

[amirm]

On the the other hand, it's not a piece of trash. I've had my share of amps and it is, subjectively, one of the better sounding integrated amps I've owned. There is no coloration or other audible anomalies, period.

Other than low power output (and instability), the amplifier itself is not bad. It is slightly above average with SINAD of 81 after all. So I am not surprised that it sounds fine within its capability.

 

[amirm]

FYI Hegel is a member here. They commented when I tested their DAC. I don't recall their alias though.

 

[capitanharlock]

The "so called" hi-end audio companies know very well that they need to put their money on "marketing", i.e youtube reviewers, magazines, gurus, etc...
The audiophiles are not rational, and for some reason need to be reassured by some more expert guys, to spend thousand of $ on audio equipment.
There isn't any other field in electronics so full of lies and techno babbles.

Recently I read an Italian audio magazine that measured a pair of tower loudspeakers, that have more than 50% distortion (yes FIFTY %), at 100db at the low frequencies.

Guess what, the review summary was very good, they managed to hide that indecent distortion, clutching at straws in any possible (and impossible) way.

That's the way it goes.

BTW, that pair of speakers cost around 15k$.

 

[capitanharlock]

It a good sounding amp. I have no complaints about the performance. The pre-out situation is really annoying and has been noted by others with the amp.

IMHO, although it measured relatively poorly, it's not "obviously audible". It's clean, neutral and basic. Do I regret purchasing it? Yeah, I do and I wouldn't purchase it again. Will I keep it? Yup.

I am pretty sure it sounds "good", but for that price I'd like to have a decent internal DAC and a good headphones amp.
And a normal line out.
We are talking about an "hi-end" expensive product, not a cheap Chinese one.

 

[DSJR]

Simple - possibly.....

They're thinking of older domestic power amps with 500mV sensitivity rather than current designs seemingly needing a few volts for full output?

So, can some tests be repeated with 500mV or 750mV output instead?

 

[Vovgan]

Thanks for posting their response. On this bit:

I wonder what they think the purpose of a line out is, if it is not to buffer and be able to produce a measly 2 volt output. Line out would be used for an external amplifier these days so it would be acting as a pre-amp output anyway.

Regardless, if line out has such bad limitation, it should be documented and specified clearly.

you have previously cut some slack for AVRs by measuring their line out with amps off or measuring it at 1.3 - 1.4 volts (which as you said is enough if you use it with an external amp with sensitivity below 1.4 volts like my NAD M28), so why not make the maker of this integrated amp happy by posting their SINAD @1 volt along with SINAD @2 volts? If their internal amps cannot be turned off.

it looks like most of the internal and external modern class d amps are designed to clip after ~ 1 - 1.4 volts anyway, so maybe instead of thrashing manufacturers for bad performance at 2 volts, 1 and not 2 volts should be the most useful benchmark for DACs in such products? Would save you in the future from repeatedly facing this unimportant battle.

 

[Tangband]

No chance.
If that was the case, you wouldn't see all the other bad performances: jitter, bump of distortion at -10dBFS, too high Phone amp impedance, instability,...

I own a Focusrite Liquid 4Pre: this mic preamp has a 'distortion" knob: you may add 2nd order and/or 3rd order harmonics to taste, to simulate some legendary preamps.
But other than that, it's book-perfect (for its age)

Just a screwed design here.

EDIT: here are measurements of the preamp I speak about above:.

Putting THD in the perspective

Some pages for reference https://clarityfidelity.blogspot.com/2016/05/audeze-lcd-2-fazor-over-ear-headphones.html https://m.blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=gre_nada&logNo=221293072936&navType=tl https://clarityfidelity.blogspot.com/2016/06/stax-sr-404-signature-over-ear.html...

www.audiosciencereview.com

With ”nicer sound” I ment slightly compressed, softer treble, and less clear. Worse sound infact, but maybe something audiphiles can prefer depending on the caracter of the loudspeakers.
People tend to like vinylrecords and valve amplifiers to. The younger generation seems to like MP3 or lossy soundformats….

The irony is that the owner of expensive highend gear with bad measurement results often believes it is a superior product when it comes to measurements to.

But - being a scandinavian I want to believe that the rest of the HEGEL products are measuring better than this one.
HEGEL HD12 had much better measurement results here on audiosciencereview, without being great.

 

[Matias]

FYI Hegel is a member here. They commented when I tested their DAC. I don't recall their alias though.

@Hegel Music System

 

[Hegel Music System]

Hey everyone. Wow, this was quite the review to wake up to this morning. I am not going to go ahead and respond to the findings as such. Findings are findings however they came about.
But we are working on trying to replicate them to see how this could have been.
I will say that measurements and striving for low distortion is a driving factor at Hegel. We invest significant money in the the measurement equipment you can buy for Audio Precision and others. We measure to a great extent and getting as near as possible to the truth is what we aim for. I will get back and share our findings when we find them.

I wanted to share something from HiFi News to begin with though. They have also measured the H95:
https://www.hifinews.com/content/hegel-h95-network-attached-amp-lab-report

The RCA out starts clipping at 1V, for example. Measurements are done by Paul Miller who is an expert at measurements.

I will just leave that there for now and I will share more info on our findings later. Hopefully tomorrow.

Anders Ertzeid
VP Sales & Marketing
Hegel Music System AS

 

[JRS]

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.

Clearly a case of putting Des Carte before the horse with regard to price before performance, and seems to have Locke-d up last place when in comes to actual value.

 

[restorer-john]

Hey everyone. Wow, this was quite the review to wake up to this morning. I am not going to go ahead and respond to the findings as such. Findings are findings however they came about.
But we are working on trying to replicate them to see how this could have been.
I will say that measurements and striving for low distortion is a driving factor at Hegel. We invest significant money in the the measurement equipment you can buy for Audio Precision and others. We measure to a great extent and getting as near as possible to the truth is what we aim for. I will get back and share our findings when we find them.

I wanted to share something from HiFi News to begin with though. They have also measured the H95:
https://www.hifinews.com/content/hegel-h95-network-attached-amp-lab-report

The RCA out starts clipping at 1V, for example. Measurements are done by Paul Miller who is an expert at measurements.

I will just leave that there for now and I will share more info on our findings later. Hopefully tomorrow.

Anders Ertzeid
VP Sales & Marketing
Hegel Music System AS

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:

 

[fotoalan]

Clearly a case of putting Des Carte before the horse with regard to price before performance, and seems to have Locke-d up last place when in comes to actual value.

Hume, it'll be interesting to see fanboys trying to put a favourable spin o' za test results

 

[Dimifoot]

I would like to see decent AP measurements from @Hegel Music System that contradict @amirm findings, and/or a decent attempt of improving the product.

 

[Dennis_FL]

Holy crap. Is this simply the result of cheap and lazy engineering?

Yeah...you read above about saving money on the USB in a $3000 component.

 

[Geert]

$70 Chinese amps are better.

Looking at the internals; this is a $70 Chinese amp, with 2 965$ SoundEngine chips in it.

 

[sarumbear]

Oh BoY! This guy is going to be eating his words, "The DA converter is massively improved" "Much more expensive DAC" " DAC is the same as in the H120 and the H190" "AKM DAC chip" "H95 is revealing more detail, is more fluid, more musical than the H90, paints a bigger soundstage, so you can really hear the flow wide and deep of the speakers" and blah blah he goes on and on.
This guy is a goof.

That is one hell of a complicated design for a pre-power amplifier with a DAC. No wonder it measures so badly. Engineering for the sake of engineering never works.

 

[bumelant]

I used to own a Hegel H300 amp back in the days. I never enjoyed the way it sounded and my wife always complained after coming back from live concerts (we're mostly into classical) how edgy strings sounded. Once I moved on to class D, the feeling of lack of distortion was tremendous. Perhaps it was just some mismatch with the speakers, I don't know - but surely nothing to be expected in a beefy amp like that one.

That being said, their CDP4A was a great CD player and for what I was able to hear, once I volume match, I'm still not able to discern it from state of the art Topping DAC I also own, even when comparing 24 bit to 16 and listen trough the headphones. To me it always showed how low level of distortion and noise are we talking about. I'm surprised to see such a poor measurements for digital in this amp.

 

[sarumbear]

What I don't like is the absence of power button on the front face. After some research I found out it is on the bottom.

@amirm May I ask you to explain that power switch under the amplifier? Do you mean you have to lift the amplifier to access it? I.e. it is mounted on to the bottom floor panel of the amplifier?

 

[brimble]

Engineering for the sake of engineering never works.

That's my feeling about Audio-gd products. I'm not an expert and I could be wrong, but it's an interesting topic.

 

[restorer-john]

Sorry, I just look at the interior shots and wonder what the hell they were thinking.

OPTs at the front, high current paths running past all the low level front ends to relays (not audio relays) in the middle of the board. Power stage PSU and rectifiers in the middle of the board, instead of sitting close to the switching OPTs.

And those poor line inputs, sandwiched up against the power amp outputs of one channel. It's a layout disaster.

There's so much optically wrong with this thing, it's not even worth bothering testing IMO.

Amir doesn't even need to test this stuff. Just show us a nudie (with the cover off). These guys need to go study some 1970s and 1980s designs. Learn about layout.