Did anybody actually notice that it's clear
the DAC itself is not distorting at all? Amir tested the "line out" in good faith but the line out is the dimmed down speaker out and to reach 2Vrms the amp is already on the edge of clipping. The DAC itself was never tested and cannot be tested.
The DAC itself performs just fine im 100% confident, as does the amp. Not SOTA performance but completely OK. The price/performance ratio looks to suffers a bit which is also quite clear why.... Norway is an expensive country, Hegel is a small-scale outlet.
Ok, this "line-out" issue was not to be expected by Amir but now I come down to the main point:
ASR tests now have gained so much impact (typically including a shitstorm from all the backseat drivers and hobby-dissers) that it is absolutely required that those test be as thorough as they can. The internet doesn't forget anything.
There is a huge responsibility and sorry to say it so directly to you,
@amirm, you seem to lack that engineering thoroughness that is required by now. Don't post review/measurements when you are not 100% sure you can really nail down what's going on. Check back with the manufacturer in case you see unexpected behavior, or at least check back with the local forum experts, you know who those are.
And most importantly: take your time. IME (and I'm doing this for along time now), a proper device test takes at least one work day, double- and triple-checking everything. In case of odd behavior this can easily extend to several days, even up to a week, including some "settling time".