Hegel H95 Review (Streaming Amplifier)

[Dennis_FL]

Hey has anyone done a review here of the h390 or h590? I’m considering the h390 because of the reviews I’ve heard, but this review of the lesser amp gives me pause.

Why take a chance? The same people probably designed them.

 

[Rja4000]

@AnderS52
Turn it down until it stops clipping, and re-take it.

And then you'll get 82dB SINAD for the DAC... which is still in the red range.
That's a DAC. It should at least be able to read 16 bits CD.
For reference, my smartphone's internal DAC has a 1kHz SINAD of 92dB.

 

[steve59]

Hey has anyone done a review here of the h390 or h590? I’m considering the h390 because of the reviews I’ve heard, but this review of the lesser amp gives me pause.

The H95 is built to a price while the H390 and H590 are competing/attempting to compete with top name components. I seriously doubt the h95 dac and the dac's in the 390 or 590 are the same. My H360 made my salon 1 sound glorious, replacing a parasound A21/Krell pre, but I would always try with the intended speakers.

 

[voodooless]

The H95 is built to a price while the H390 and H590 are competing/attempting to compete with top name components. I seriously doubt the h95 dac and the dac's in the 390 or 590 are the same. My H360 made my salon 1 sound glorious, replacing a parasound A21/Krell pre, but I would always try with the intended speakers.

The H390 seems to use AK4493, also found the the €£$ 130 Topping E30 (Gen 1). For a $€£ 6k product one would expect better. The H95 has a lower quality AK4396, still capable of 100 SINAD. The actual performance of Hegels implementation is up to 30 to 40 dB worse however. That is just beyond sub-par.

 

[Purité Audio]

The H95 is built to a price while the H390 and H590 are competing/attempting to compete with top name components. I seriously doubt the h95 dac and the dac's in the 390 or 590 are the same. My H360 made my salon 1 sound glorious, replacing a parasound A21/Krell pre, but I would always try with the intended speakers.

One used to read this a lot, ‘built down to a price’ but it just doesn’t wash, it seems to me their are good designers who really take the trouble over their products and pretty poor designers, relative to the retail the actual electronics are not expensive.
Keith

 

[Serg]

Hey has anyone done a review here of the h390 or h590? I’m considering the h390 because of the reviews I’ve heard, but this review of the lesser amp gives me pause.

I had an H390 for less than 1 week... I wasn't impressed at what it offered for the price. We all know about the measurements of the smaller brother, and can make some assumptions for the bigger one as well. My personal issues were with very poor quality control of the unit; toslink showed up broken and not working, and volume knob was crooked (bent encoder shaft?)! Even beyond those issues, I felt it should cost half or less than what it currently does. If I were looking at that price class, I'd look at NAD.

 

[steve59]

Hegel H390 Integrated Amplifier/Network DAC Lab Report​

Lab Report
Its quartet of substantial feet lift the H390 sufficiently off the deck that the meatiest of audiophile hands can still reach the on/off rocker switch located beneath. Discount those pins and the H390 is uncommonly svelte for what is a hugely capable design. In practice, it delivers in excess of its 250W/8ohm rated output to the tune of 2x270W/8ohm and 2x490W/4ohm with 279W, 544W, 1.04kW and 1.16kW available at <1% THD under dynamic conditions into 8, 4, 2 and 1ohm loads [see Graph 1, below]. This power is delivered through a low 0.014-0.048ohm source impedance and a response that's flat to within –1dB from 6Hz-75kHz (–1.6dB/100kHz). Noise is very low too, the H390 matching the H590's sensibly 'low' +32.6dB gain (balanced inputs) and contributing to a generous 90dB A-wtd S/N ratio (re. 0dBW). Distortion is equally low and climbs only gently with increasing output from 0.0022%/1W to 0.003%/10W, 0.008%/100W and 0.015%/200W through bass and midrange. Versus frequency, THD increases beyond 5kHz although it still only reaches 0.02%/20kHz at 10W/8ohm.
The digital board, based on the H590, features the same AKM AK4490 DAC with its minimum phase/fast roll-off filter. Distortion is just 0.0004-0.0028% (20Hz-20kHz, 0dBFs), with a minimum of 0.0001% [see Graph 2, below] and with response limits of +0.1dB/20kHz, +0.3dB/45kHz and +0.5dB/55kHz (to –1.7dB/90kHz) with 48kHz, 96kHz and 192kHz media, respectively. The fixed preamp offers 2.43V from a high 951ohm source impedance, but the 106dB A-wtd S/N ratio is creditable. With all digital inputs routed through via the USB DSP section here, jitter is fabulously low at <10psec with all sample rates. PM

Dynamic power output versus distortion into 8ohm (black trace), 4ohm (red), 2ohm (blue) and 1ohm (green) speaker loads. Max. current is 34.1A

Distortion versus 24-bit digital signal level over a 120dB range at 1kHz (black) and 20kHz (blue)

Continuous power (<1% THD, 8/4ohm)	270W / 490W
Dynamic power (<1% THD, 8/4/2/1ohm)	279W / 544W / 1.04kW / 1.16kW
Output impedance (20Hz–20kHz)	0.014–0.048ohm (951ohm, pre)
Freq. resp. (20Hz–20kHz/100kHz)	+0.0 to –0.15dB/–1.6dB
Digital jitter (S/PDIF at 48kHz/96kHz)	10psec / 5psec
A-wtd S/N ratio (re. 0dBW/0dBFs)	90.5dB (Analogue) / 105.6dB (Dig)
Dist. (20Hz-20kHz; 0dBW/–20dBFs)	0.0025–0.01%/0.0001–0.0005%
Power consumption (idle/rated o/p)	67W / 830W (27W 'Eco' mode)
Dimensions (WHD) / Weight	430x150x380mm / 22kg
Price	£4900

 

[steve59]

You guys are the experts, does that mean anything?

 

[MacCali]

Hey has anyone done a review here of the h390 or h590? I’m considering the h390 because of the reviews I’ve heard, but this review of the lesser amp gives me pause.

Honestly man it's not worth it. You dont have to be a master objectivist and be a solely about flawless measurements. Just look in the review index, anything that has a -100 db sinad or near that will probably out perform that junk amp. It's way too over priced.

Master Audio Review Index

www.audiosciencereview.com

If that doesn't work, click on the advanced search.

Device Type: Amplifier or integrated

Sinad 95-120db

22 results are available.

Pick whatever you want and check the review. I tried to apply those filters for you, I do not know if it will transfer.

What do you currently use?

 

[voodooless]

It means it basically performs according to spec sheet. So did the H95 that was tested. Power into low impedance is quite impressive. Otherwise nothing special really.

 

[MacCali]

It's actually quite sad, seems like besides the benchmark none of the amps 95-120 are class A/B.

The dac is super skimped, to the maximum extreme. Too much money.

 

[steve59]

Sinad is the only measurement to consider when shopping for an integrated amp yet HIFI news doesn't even bother to check it? interesting.

 

[voodooless]

Sinad is the only measurement to consider when shopping for an integrated amp yet HIFI news doesn't even bother to check it? interesting.

Nobody said any of this. Hifi news measures both distortion and noise, so effectively the SINAD is in the data.

 

[MacCali]

Sinad is the only measurement to consider when shopping for an integrated amp yet HIFI news doesn't even bother to check it? interesting.

I have stated on here multiple times, I own an amp that has a sinad of higher than -40db; it's absolutely trash in our books. It's not the best thing to listen too, but it's not as bad as you might imagine.

This is why these people get away with this bs. How these companies charge so much money for what we would consider mid tier performance.

In addition, my main listening setup currently everything is -119 db or better. Amp, DAC, and pre. So I definitely can tell the difference between both of them, and I will still hold my position it's not as bad as you would think or you would expect far worse from something higher than -40 db and by higher I mean going towards 0

 

[Rja4000]

It's actually quite sad, seems like besides the benchmark none of the amps 95-120 are class A/B.

Isn't the Topping LA90 an A/B design ?

 

[steve59]

I don't know what sinad is, I was repeating another poster that said all hegel products are junk because the h95 sinad isn't in the top 40. I have my own method for deciding how my money's spent.

 

[JiiPee]

This thread is often used by asr-detractors as a proof that we are bunch of SINAD-obsessed fanatics who think that sound quality can be boiled down to a single number. Please don't provide them with more bullets.

 

[Axo1989]

Hey has anyone done a review here of the h390 or h590? I’m considering the h390 because of the reviews I’ve heard, but this review of the lesser amp gives me pause.

I wouldn't worry. The amp tested here is a lifestyle product at the bottom of their range and has a few issues (performance via coax out, overdriving the pre-out to drive a sub) but as usual the amp testing envelop of ASR rewards inaudible numbers and graph hygiene both as a proxy for ‘good engineering’ and as a type of engineering fetish.

If you want a nice traditional class AB amp that will drive passive speakers (especially if they have the usual impedance dips) and you like the aesthetics/sonics/haptics of the Hegels, then you will quite likely be happy, especially with the two models you mention.

If the lure of nice numbers threatens to override that enjoyment, get something else. Ditto if you are more budget-constrained. Class D architecture has some advantages and can also be had at lower $/watt. I don’t think you’ll actually hear any performance benefits however (same for DAC alternatives too).

 

[voodooless]

I don't know what sinad is, I was repeating another poster that said all hegel products are junk because the h95 sinad isn't in the top 40. I have my own method for deciding how my money's spent.

If you come to an audio science forum, at least make some effort to understand what it is about. Otherwise your just here to troll.

 

[Riva]

I wouldn't worry. The amp tested here is a lifestyle product at the bottom of their range and has a few issues (performance via coax out, overdriving the pre-out to drive a sub) but as usual the amp testing envelop of ASR rewards inaudible numbers and graph hygiene both as a proxy for ‘good engineering’ and as a type of engineering fetish.

If you want a nice traditional class AB amp that will drive passive speakers (especially if they have the usual impedance dips) and you like the aesthetics/sonics/haptics of the Hegels, then you will quite likely be happy, especially with the two models you mention.

If the lure of nice numbers threatens to override that enjoyment, get something else. Ditto if you are more budget-constrained. Class D architecture has some advantages and can also be had at lower $/watt. I don’t think you’ll actually hear any performance benefits however (same for DAC alternatives too).