Hegel H95 Review (Streaming Amplifier)

[Kuma]

The emperor has no clothes.

 

[abdo123]

Yes. Normally audio gear is supposed to be plug and play without the consumer having to know such intricate details of amplifiers and pre-amps. Here you better check.

Also note that even if you have a sensitive power amp, the DAC has too high a noise to be a good source for it. It degrades the performance of the internal amplifier already so will do the same to external one.

it was honestly really disappointing to see, you had a lot of mediocre expensive gear or completely bonkers designs but this is literally nothing but a display of amateur design. it's just absolutely unexcusably terrible.

 

[MerlinGS]

...Tests like this hopefully is a forcing function so that future designs don't suffer the same. As it is, there is no way to use an external more powerful amplifier.

Actually, under the "right" circumstances, the owner of the H95 would be worse off than not being able to use a more powerful amplifier. One of the audio products that has shown quite well at ASR (and other science oriented sites) are active speakers. There are so many excellent active speakers that would have been great to pair with a unit such as the H95 (i.e. all-in-one), but Hegel's engineering "decision" would limit its viability for many buyers (although clearly not to many others). It would have been nice if its performance approached the OPPO Sonica DAC.

 

[LesterNZ]

Oh, but Hegel + KEF = MAGIC! Or that's what I've read at least 100 times. ; )

Heard one of these at a dealer with the smaller KEF Blade$$$ and pretty quickly said it sounded WAAAAY inferior to my old LS-50's driven with a March 452. Now I know why. Thanks Amirm.

 

[VoRAT]

Heard one of these at a dealer with the smaller KEF Blade$$$ and pretty quickly said it sounded WAAAAY inferior to my old LS-50's driven with a March 452. Now I know why. Thanks Amirm.

You heard a H95 driving KEF Blades at a dealer?

 

[Fleuch]

Soundstage measured an average damping factor of ~400 for the H95 and max ~700 for the H590.

The damping ratio figures quoted in the posting are direct from https://www.hegel.com/.

So is ths another example of where the Hegel specifications are different to actual measured test-bench values?

 

[BoredErica]

Dang, we have some Hegel owners taking massive dosages of copium.

 

[Bogda]

This mediocre product does not need additional beating by the reviewer but it was delivered to it anyway. Why?
"DAC measurements", as worst set of results, was put first in the review, although it is much more Line Out driven into clipping measurements. Is that main function of this device?

 

[pozz]

This mediocre product does not need additional beating by the reviewer but it was delivered to it anyway. Why?
"DAC measurements", as worst set of results, was put first in the review, although it is much more Line Out driven into clipping measurements. Is that main function of this device?

It follows the same order for all integrated amp reviews.

 

[Everett T]

It follows the same order for all integrated amp reviews.

I was gonna say it follows all products with a DAC, but the account has been around long enough to know that, I assumed.

 

[Deleted member 40010]

its clear now that Tarun is paid for his "reviews" by manufacturers so ive unsubscribed from his you Tube channel and that danny darko prick as well

I purchased a H95 about 3 months ago. Auditioned in store on the same speakers I have at home (PMC Twenty5.22) and across the 3 amplifiers I was comparing it was my preference. I brought it home, hooked it up and was disappointed. The bass (which was lovely and full in store) seemed absent. I hooked up a Marantz Slimline AVR and it sounded better. Decided to give it some time and it improved massively and reached a point where I was very happy with it. In fact I now love it. I was always skeptical about burn in, but in this case it made a big difference. Since then it's had a lot of use and I've spent many an evening chilling out and thoroughly enjoying it.

So then I saw this review and my first reaction was not good. It's now been several days and with time and continued use of the amplifier I've decided I simply don't care. I loved how the amp sounded before and I continue to love it now and prefer it to previous amplifiers I've owned (Marantz Pearl Lite and a Cambridge Audio CXA80).

With that in mind, if a reviewer such as Tarun, John Darko or anyone else review and like the sound and report it that way, then so be it. It's going to be their subjective opinion. Few YouTube reviewers do measurements, so unless are measuring and reporting on performance figures you will be getting a subjective review.

I want to make it clear that I'd have loved the measurements to be top shelf to back up my expectations and listening impressions, but they didn't. I also don't mind John Darko or Tarun generally, but I don't take anything that they or any other reviewer say as gospel (for a range of reasons I won't go into here for fear of starting an audiophile ethernet cable debate - although I think most people on this site would agree with me that it's BS).

Long story short I auditioned the H95 and made my own mind up before purchasing it. I will be happily keeping it. Enjoy the music folks.

 

[DanielT]

I was always skeptical about burn in, but in this case it made a big difference. Since then it's had a lot of use and I've spent many an evening chilling out and thoroughly enjoying it.

Or if it was your ears that got used to the sound and over time burn-in?

Did you experience the same thing with your speakers, period of burn-in?

 

[JiiPee]

Actually, under the "right" circumstances, the owner of the H95 would be worse off than not being able to use a more powerful amplifier. One of the audio products that has shown quite well at ASR (and other science oriented sites) are active speakers. There are so many excellent active speakers that would have been great to pair with a unit such as the H95 (i.e. all-in-one), but Hegel's engineering "decision" would limit its viability for many buyers (although clearly not to many others). It would have been nice if its performance approached the OPPO Sonica DAC.

This is a good point and something Hegel should have taken into account. The development of better and cheaper class-D amplifiers and the relative ease of adding digital streaming capability to Your product have lead to increased interest in offering active speakers to consumers. This trend will likely continue, meaning that the ability to run Your integrated amplifier as a good pre-amp will be important to a larger client segment.

 

[V.b.]

I connected at least 5 different external DACs to my H120, e.g. the Denafrips Ares II and the Allo Boss2 Player. I could hear practically no differences. However, if I had found this forum 2 years ago, I would not have bought a Hegel amplifier...

You would not be able to hear any differences. The amplifier has awful 82db SINAD which means that any dac over 90db SINAD would be degraded into the same mess. That includes anything from 9$ dongles.

I do agree that DAC measurements at 2V do not mean a lot regarding H95 performance. Yet it is a valid measurement.

But Amir also measured 80db DAC before clipping levels which combined with the amplifier performance explains that 72db horrible performance with digital input.

 

[Deleted member 40010]

Or if it was your ears that got used to the sound and over time burn-in?

Did you experience the same thing with your speakers, period of burn-in?

To be honest I'll never know for sure. However I can say with reasonable certainty that after unboxing bass was lacking when compared to the Marantz AVR. Night and day difference. Comparing to the Marantz again several weeks later it did not exhibit the same issue. Speakers in the exact same position, same room etc. I'm not talking about impressions about tonality, soundstage etc, simply the presence of bass.

As for the speakers I am the second owner and they had plenty of hours on them beforehand.

 

[arcy]

You would not be able to hear any differences. The amplifier has awful 82db SINAD which means that any dac over 90db SINAD would be degraded into the same mess. That includes anything from 9$ dongles.

I do agree that DAC measurements at 2V do not mean a lot regarding H95 performance. Yet it is a valid measurement.

But Amir also measured 80db DAC before clipping levels which combined with the amplifier performance explains that 72db horrible performance with digital input.

So to your logic H95 82 "awful" SINAD is not good enough for 800$ DAC and 120 000$ Simaudio Moon 888 (just an example out of many from the list)) with its 72 SINAD is good for an uber-expensive DACs that one would expect to pair with such an expensive amp? or you think you should connect Apple dongle to it as 72 should deserve according to you? Per Stereophile.com, it is a Class A amp with its 72 sinad, why all of a sudden 82 is "awful" for an entry level H95?

source: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZlTOYxmPs938gqHjtDABkWS-MApu7uJjzIGnJ2Elm6Y/edit#gid=0

Also per this list, Amazon Link Amp with its 84 sinad seems to beat Hegel let alone Gryphon, Luxman, and many other great brands?

 

[DanielT]

To be honest I'll never know for sure. However I can say with reasonable certainty that after unboxing bass was lacking when compared to the Marantz AVR. Night and day difference. Comparing to the Marantz again several weeks later it did not exhibit the same issue. Speakers in the exact same position, same room etc. I'm not talking about impressions about tonality, soundstage etc, simply the presence of bass.

As for the speakers I am the second owner and they had plenty of hours on them beforehand.

If you experience it that way, you experience it that way. I do not take this experience away from you. However, I am a little skeptical that this would be the case. I think it's more about what I mentioned in my previous post.

Please note I do not mock you. I mock no one's personal experiences, of course.

 

[V.b.]

So to your logic H95 82 "awful" SINAD is not good enough for 800$ DAC and 120 000$ Simaudio Moon 888 (just an example out of many from the list)) with its 72 SINAD is good for an uber-expensive DACs that one would expect to pair with such an expensive amp? or you think you should connect Apple dongle to it as 72 should deserve according to you? Per Stereophile.com, it is a Class A amp with its 72 sinad, why all of a sudden 82 is "awful" for an entry level H95?

source: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZlTOYxmPs938gqHjtDABkWS-MApu7uJjzIGnJ2Elm6Y/edit#gid=0

Also per this list, Amazon Link Amp with its 84 sinad seems to beat Hegel let alone Gryphon, Luxman, and many other great brands?

Subpar gear is subpar gear regardless of price.

 

[arcy]

Subpar gear is subpar gear regardless of price.

you are not serious, right? did you take a look at the many amps on that list that are "subpar"? Apple Dongle will not solve all your (and many others on this group as I can see) problems.

 

[solderdude]

I'm not talking about impressions about tonality, soundstage etc, simply the presence of bass.

There could always be the slight possible chance the first time you connected the H95 you accidentally wired one of your speakers in counter phase.
This would/could explain what you heard; lack of bass and really different sound.
When you tried it again you wired the speakers correctly later and voila 'normal' sound.

My P.O.V. about this device:

I'll post it again... the DAC does not clip at all using the Hegel as it is supposed to be used. It is a bit noisy (as noisy as the Razer dongle) and not of great quality but the amplifier (which is the limiting factor) lands in the 'green zone' so perfectly usable.
Because of the high gain the device has it will amplify noise from the DAC when the volume is set to 96.
In practice you'll probably never go beyond 50.

Yes, the design isn't that great. DAC performance leaves to be desired. The distortion is consistent at 0.02% which with music is inaudible.
Yes, 100W in 4 ohm and 160W music power isn't particularly poor.

Yes, the headphone section is good enough for high impedance headphones. The output resistance is a bit high because the power amp (attenuated by 2 resistors) is far from ideal when using low impedance headphones but it reaches 87 SINAD (0.005% THD) at full power which also isn't really poor.

No.. its not a great performing device and pricey at that. One can find better devices at that price. Piece of junk ? No.. I don't think so.
The take-away is... don't use the H95 as a DAC and when you do want to use it that way and you really need to only use the mediocre DAC and use the device to feed other power amps... use the headphone out connector and you'll have 5V available.