Hegel H95 Review (Streaming Amplifier)

[rank]

It's a joke ?

 

[BDWoody]

@Alpha Oscar

I know, funny right?!

It's almost like you can't really trust the propaganda machine.

Good thing we have places like ASR where we can look behind the awards curtains to see what's really there.

 

[Alpha Oscar]

È uno scherzo?

M pare dì no

 

[rank]

Yes you are right, they have won awards for several amps (integrated) and even a CD player in recent years.

 

[Drengur]

I can't believe people are doubting the EISA awards. Next people are going to be saying that the English audio press favors local companies who buy advertisements!!!

 

[DSJR]

I can't believe people are doubting the EISA awards. Next people are going to be saying that the English audio press favors local companies who buy advertisements!!!

HiFi News favours anything that's extremely expensive and doesn't seem to care WHERE it's made.

What HiFi (WTF) magazine isn't a HiFi mag with any credibility in the wider trade and hasn't been for decades now... No idea these days on the handful of others, as they used to be full of subjectivist opinions and bulls**t mostly which are useless to anyone except the writer!

 

[Geert]

I can't believe people are doubting the EISA awards. Next people are going to be saying that the English audio press favors local companies who buy advertisements!!!

Your remark made me curious.

"EISA is the unique association of 56 special interest magazines and websites from 27 countries."

"Based on their own reviews and tests throughout the year, each member magazine nominates an initial short-list of products that best reflects the star performers in their particular Expert Group(s). All these individual recommendations are collated into a master list before the merits of these products are discussed in detail, and in person, by the members of each Expert Group at EISA’s Awards Meeting in late June."

So the whole thing is based on mostly uncontrolled subjective reviews by self-promoted golden ears, living from sponsorship by Hifi brands.

 

[rank]

I think he was joking (see his picture) and forgot (?) to put a smiley.
Regarding the hifi press on computer, I consult the sites 'tracking angle', 'analog planet', 'stereophile' and 'hi-fi news', in order of interest, the last two publishing very useful measurements and comments.

 

[Drengur]

I think he was joking (see his picture) and forgot (?) to put a smiley.

Yes, in old country we call this sarcasm. EISA and the traditional audio press are marketing entities.

 

[vuittion]

I'd rather buy a Begel.

 

[xiaojinglf]

I am quite ok with my life though. That does not discount that he is just a talking head, claiming to have golden ears. remember that the brands need a place to unload all the A&P that used to go to more shows and print media. He just wants to have the brands happy so they buy ad space. Still no credibility,

• Yes, they should obviously take their own test reports and compare them to find differences

 

[xiaojinglf]

Any disadvantage with such a high?

Way more then 2000 in damping factor if it is not needed? I guess you will say: Ask Hegel
But still. I was just curious.

• • In fact, Hegel did something even more dramatic to mask the line output problem: When the user turned off the H95 speaker output and connected an external amplifier from the line output, once the volume knob was turned, the H95 would unmute and force its own power amplifier output to the horn, thus limiting the separate use of the line output
  
  
• According to another audio test site（soundstagenetwork） the damping factor of the H95 is only 400, not the nominal 2000.
• https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/i...ts&catid=97:amplifier-measurements&Itemid=154

 

[xiaojinglf]

First of all thank you for taking the time to measure the H95. Immediately upon seeing the measurements we realized that something was very different to our own. We could not recognize ourselves in the results or in the conclusion.

Please consider this as a manufacturers comment. One where we totally respect the work that has been put down, and peoples views on the product. But where we want to comment the findings, where these does not match our own. So this will typically be our only comment on the issue.

We promised our own findings today. I will therefore present what we disagree on and why.

1) All the DAC measurements are in our mind misleading. They were measured at a level where the amplifier is clipping. In our view, they should be dismissed completely.

1.1) There has been some debate on how we can allow the RCA pre out to be optimized at 550mV, which actually is a fair question. The reasoning behind this is that we mainly see this as a subwoofer connection. Obviously you can debate wether that is a good or a bad choice.

When the pre amp output is more than 550 mV, the speaker output will be clipping and that will influence the performance of the pre out.

The pre-out on the H95 is taken directly from the power amplifiers input stage. See figure below:

View attachment 168201
When the power amplifier starts clipping, this will reflect in the RCA pre out as well. As such, the RCA pre out can NOT be used as a 2V DAC output. When we measure the DAC performance we connect Audio Precision directly to the output stage of the DAC board. You can of course also measure the DAC on the RCA output, but with a lower setting than 98 and it will include factors from the preamp.

Notes on why;
We used to have a lower output level on the RCA Pre out (earlier models), but since we have 32 dB gain in our power amplifiers we had to raise it to allow for easier subwoofer integration.

Actually we used to run the output from the preamp at a level where it never really started clipping (also earlier models), but on a 60w/pc amplifier consumers did not like to have the volume control at “98” to play loud. And what if you played an old Pink Floyd piece, with low gain… it would never be loud enough.


2) The stability measurement THD + N from ASR claims that the amplifier never reaches stability after warm up.

This measurement is, in our view, wrong. This is how it should look (our own test on AP 2722 today)

View attachment 168202
We have only almost managed to recreate the ASR measurement if we wiggle the speaker cables in the H95 terminals or tap the output relays.

We disagree with the comment about the power amplifier not being stable. The Hegel output stage is a no-feedback design, and since the distortion characteristics of the power transistor change somewhat with temperature, the total distortion will have a small increase with temperature. In a high open loop gain feedback-design this effect will be much smaller.


3) Distortion measurements in analog mode. These do match ours and are in our minds absolutely fine. We only have some comments.

We could obviously also achieve a super low 0,0001% THD by using lots of feedback. That is a fairly easy design.

But we don’t and the reason is that global feedback amplifiers, in our minds, doesn’t sound very good. Subjective, we take that, but it is our experience. So, we use our SoundEngine to dynamically reduce distortion instead. In the integrated amplifiers the soundEngine is only used in the output stage where we believe it is most important.

Finally, thank you for reading this rather long feedback. I am sure not all f you will agree in our thoughts and comment above. That is fair and it is really what a forum is about. Debating ones hobby.

And if you are ever in doubt, we urge you to visit your Hegel dealer for an audition.

Hegel Music System AS
Anders Ertzeid
VP Sales & Marketing

• From the audio path diagram given, it appears that there is no buffer amplifier designed for line output. In addition, it is well known that the damping coefficient of the amplifier will vary greatly depending on the frequency, so how can the conclusion that the damping coefficient of H95 can reach 2000 be measured?

 

[xiaojinglf]

Which already raises some question marks...View attachment 168341View attachment 168343

Anyway, I'm still thinking this is actually a good amp, with textbook behaviour regarding power/impedance and THD Vs Frequency. It is just not competitive for its price and comes with somewhat unacceptable DAC performance. That's it.

Yes, the measured damping coefficient is too different from the manufacturer's nominal 2000, especially the low frequency band damping coefficient is very low, resulting in insufficient horn control ability.

 

[xiaojinglf]

I have no interest in reading 40 pages of content, has Hegel provided their own measurements yet?

• In fact, when I emailed them to explain why the actual damping coefficient was measured far below their nominal 2000, they claimed that the tester was measuring at the speaker end (through the speaker wire). When I questioned the basis of their explanation, they chose to remain silent and did not respond.

 

[rank]

Back in the days, when the brand was fashionable, at least one of Stereophile's setups for listening to other devices included one of their power amplifiers. I hope their connectivity was a bit better (Neutrik XLR jacks, WBT for cinch and speakers). Not even an AES EBU here (hey it's audiophile !)...

 

[xiaojinglf]

I suspect that one of the reasons why dealers are pushing the Hegels are due to margins. If you've noticed, they tend to be a bit shy on the fact that it's actually manufactured in China and in the Roon forum they also were quite open that they opted for a 3rd party cheap streaming / digital section while at the same time they position themselves as being Norwegian. A EUR 10k H590 probably generates one of the highest margins for a retailer among their portfolio.

Having said that, I DID enjoy my 390, but the DAC / streamer was so inferior to the amplification part that I had to compensate by purchasing a separate DAC and streamer which ultimately rendered the 390 as a power amp. Selling it and moving on was one of the better decisions I've done and I suspect that their resale value these days would be much lower vs. before.

Please understand one thing: the design of this product is hegel, the procurement and selection of components is hegel, the production supervision is hegel, the final quality inspection of the product is hegel, and the product specification and publicity are from hegel. So, the reason why the final measurement parameters of this product are not ideal is related to the assembly of the product in China? You should give up your prejudices and ask Norwegian hegel what the reason is. If you believe that the measurement parameters are not ideal because of welding, please show proof.

 

[xiaojinglf]

The H95 is the best amp that I've used with the KEF LS50 Meta and the KEF KC62 so far. The synergy is great.
The only thing that annoys me is a humming noise from toroidal transformer. DC blocker doesn't help.

If you have a high-power thyristor device near you, the ring transformer will be affected by this and make a humming sound. Of course, it cannot be ruled out that the quality of the transformer in your hand is problematic.

 

[xiaojinglf]

This was mentioned as well, I am sure you can’t read 60 pages of comments. For an all in one unit at 50% of the price it’s not a bad deal.

I completely understand what you are saying, I am one of the members on here who is objective. Yet, through my experience and products I have owned I have had an amplifier which has the worst possible measurements and performance but subjectively when I listen to it it does not sound bad.

Still my point is it’s not better than a well made product it’s just not as awful as you would imagine and this is definitely a reason why it won you over.

Also far more important that amp was only 20 dollars, not 1000 or 2000

Second, which was my original point if you bought it because you are super tight on space you can have that as a plus on your purchase to a certain extent but still feel it’s a rip off and I will explain.

But for instance a NAD 326BEE + 100 usd dac + pi streamer would not only meet or beat the performance of the H95 but also give you mobility to change equipment out.

You clearly are aware as an audio enthusiast separates provide better performance. All the things I mentioned have a small foot print in size too.

So that’s 630/730 usd vs 1200/1300 for the Hegel

Very bad news: I have been using NAD 326BEE for exactly two years, and it is very bad, with unclear sound, turbidity, lack of layers and high frequency malleability, and overall giving the illusion of warmth. All internal electrolytic capacitors are used for low industrial electronic products (such as electronic energy-saving lamps). Such capacitors lack high-frequency characteristics. Another problem is that the output power is extremely low.

 

[xiaojinglf]

It doesn't even play music gaplessly via UPnP...

• I am using H95 and have been using it for about 3 + years, I actually use dlna or airplay to connect to H95 to play music, whether it is via computer (lan or wifi), Android phone, iPhone all work fine.
• If the H95 is not faulty, it is recommended to check the stability of the wifi network when it is found that the transmission cannot be stable through airplay. (I once found this problem in one of my laptop computers, after I checked, it was because the wireless network card inside the laptop caused the interruption, and then I plugged in an external wireless network card to solve it) In a few days, I will test the variable line output to the external amplifier, as I have not used this output terminal before seeing this test post.