Hegel H95 Review (Streaming Amplifier)

[VoRAT]

The problem is that if you have 2k burning in your pocket you're much better off getting a Lyngdorf TDAI-1120.

All depends on whether your speakers work well with Class D amplifiers, as some can sound quite dull and uninvolving. Unless that’s your aim of course.

 

[Rotiv]

That's the nature of exclusivity - you have to box somebody out to get the social benefit. A $10 quartz watch keeps better time than a $100k mechanical watch. No one is buying the expensive one due to its accuracy.

Yeap, we all have, have had, or will have a passion for something that doesn't justify the price involved. But I see a lot of stones being thrown around here

 

[alpha_logic]

Is really SINAD the name of the game? Is it really that simple? Hard to imagine all those companies not being able to pull almost anything they would want for the money they charge. Maybe there is a little more to the sound than just SINAD.

No it's not - but Hegel advertises this product as producing almost 'immeasurable distortion' - which is clearly not true. Plenty of other designers that build for 'sound' rather than measurements - Nelson Pass himself builds amps that produce distortion in form of even order harmonics, but he's absolutely straightforward about that, and he builds those amps for customers that want exactly those products.
So I think it's fair to say that Hegel's claims about 'SoundEngine 2' and almost immeasurable distortion are - well - simply not true, and misleading.

 

[symphara]

All depends on whether your speakers work well with Class D amplifiers, as some can sound quite dull and uninvolving. Unless that’s your aim of course.

"Dull and uninvolving", when it comes to an amplifier, I think would have to show up in its measurements somehow.

 

[VoRAT]

"Dull and uninvolving", when it comes to an amplifier, I think would have to show up in its measurements somehow.

What measurement would you look for?

 

[symphara]

What measurement would you look for?

For what you describe, I guess some particular non-linear frequency response, like rolled off highs or a house curve.

In any case, when it comes to amplifiers, I wouldn’t take this kind of description seriously without measurements showing the effect in a plausible manner, or a proper test. I no longer trust subjective descriptions (including mine), I think they’re placebo.

 

[Chagall]

What measurement would you look for?

Room frequency response. We ASR folk only listen to sweeps, whole day - every day.
That can tell a lot - do I need to look into room treatments, more powerful amp, speaker placement, room correction software, sub...two of them?

 

[PierreV]

What measurement would you look for?

That would be the WITOR rate (essentially counting the occurrences of reactions of the Wife In The Other Room).
It correlates well with black backgrounds, instruments popping out, veil ascension, sense of rhythm and similar stuff)

 

[tomchr]

Despite the blurb claims of "almost un-measurable distortion" the spec is <0.01% at 25W/8 ohms/1kHz. It meets that, so that is something!

"Almost un-measurable", "0.01%" LOL. Even my HP3563A (late 70s/early 80s vintage) can measure 0.01% THD+N. As could the HP8903A of the same vintage that I used to have. An external sound card like anything Focusrite makes has no trouble measuring below -100 dBc (0.001%).

Of course, with the APx525 or APx555 measuring even lower THD+N is perfectly possible.

Just saying...

Tom

 

[dshreter]

That would be the WITOR rate (essentially counting the occurrences of reactions of the Wife In The Other Room).
It correlates well with black backgrounds, instruments popping out, veil ascension, sense of rhythm and similar stuff)

Yes, Amir's reviews really need to start including metrics for PRAT as well.

 

[bravomail]

I put a link to the ASR review of this Hegel at Darko's YouTube review and Darko has disabled comments now and blanked out the comments.

then go to other Darko vids and comment there!

 

[phion]

These two were amongst the amps I auditioned before becoming a Hegel owner as my first ever amp. I did my best to both listen to them and also compare specs and measurements I could find (didn't know about ASR at them time).

The problem is that if you have 2k burning in your pocket you're much better off getting a Lyngdorf TDAI-1120.

It's more powerful than the Hegel H95. It has one of the fancier room correction system available on the market, complete with two independent subwoofer outputs (that will get room corrected). On top of what the Hegel does it's got Chromecast. And Roon. And a phono input. And WiFi. And you can configure it from a beautifully designed integrated web server. And I think it's got a better SINAD. To begin with, it's perfectly quiet, even at max volume.

Lyngdorf got a much worse SINAD. It has nice features but the Amp itself which is the main thing is kind of poor:

SoundStageNetwork.com | SoundStage.com - Lyngdorf Audio TDAI-1120 Integrated Amplifier-DAC

www.soundstagenetwork.com

Amir has reviewed a higher end model from Lyngdorf and that didn't show more promise either. I didn't like how it sounded at all.

Or - to stay with the Scandinavian theme - you could get a Primare i15 Prisma for similar money to the Hegel and it's also got more features (incl. DSD support, Roon, Chromecast, WiFi etc). I have no experience with this particular product but the Primare stuff I listened to had an inaudible noise floor, including their now defunct AV receiver.

I ruled this one out based on its review in hifi news vs. that of H95. It has a bit better THD than H95 but worse S/N ratio:

Primare I15 Prisma networked amplifier Lab Report

As I noted in our Classy Class D sidebar the full bandwidth of the I15 is only realised via its digital inputs as the analogue line input is sampled at 48kHz and the response thus limited to ~20kHz. Otherwise the amplifier’s response scales with incoming sample rate, reaching –0.6dB/20kHz...

www.hifinews.com

Hegel H95 Network-Attached Amp Lab Report

Lab Report If Hegel's mammoth H590 [HFN Oct '18] and H390 [HFN Aug '19] are both kilowatt-capable integrated amplifiers then the new baby of the range is necessarily more 'measured' in its, er, measurements. It's certainly very comfortable driving 8 and 4ohm loads where its 60W specification is...

www.hifinews.com

it was also £100 more expensive. I also again preferred how H95 sounded.

One week before I also auditioned Leak Stereo 130. It was half price and had a nice retro look, but I thought it wouldn't have enough power, and didn't have any streaming features. The sound was OK, but measurements were pretty poor (SINAD 70dB).

The last non Hegel model I listened to was Arcam SA3. For some reason I didn't like at all how it sounded, though before the auditioning this was my number 1 choice! SINAD for this is about 86dB I think, so not a lot better than Hegel.

SoundStageNetwork.com | SoundStage.com - Arcam SA30 Integrated Amplifier-DAC

www.soundstagenetwork.com

Between these I decided I liked H95 best for features and sound.

At the end I went up the Hegel chain and also listened to H120 and H190 also, and decided to get H190 due to better base and more power and also getting a good deal from the retailer.

I think if I were again limited to these options, I would still probably choose H190 or H120 between them. With what I have learned from ASR, my choice would have been a Benchmark AHB2 or a Purifi based amp.

 

[Somafunk]

There’s a lot to

then go to other Darko vids and comment there!

Id rather ASR forum users don’t start a trolling war of words as no one comes out of it looking good, let the measurements speak for themselves.

 

[LesterNZ]

You heard a H95 driving KEF Blades at a dealer?

Yes, as a "new special delight" product. And the source material was my burned "demo CD" favourites so I did have a little "sense" of what was presented. Somewhat disappointed re: price & all that slick curviness. But the amp was definitely not doing what those KEFs needed. Shame?

 

[JRiggs]

More sensible people will listen first, rather than base a buying decision on someone else’s opinion.

No they won't. Most people don't have easy access to listen first. Thus they trust the YouTube reviewer, selling a lifestyle, who's on the payroll...

 

[arcy]

The problem is that if you have 2k burning in your pocket you're much better off getting a Lyngdorf TDAI-1120.

It's more powerful than the Hegel H95. It has one of the fancier room correction system available on the market, complete with two independent subwoofer outputs (that will get room corrected). On top of what the Hegel does it's got Chromecast. And Roon. And a phono input. And WiFi. And you can configure it from a beautifully designed integrated web server. And I think it's got a better SINAD. To begin with, it's perfectly quiet, even at max volume.

Or - to stay with the Scandinavian theme - you could get a Primare i15 Prisma for similar money to the Hegel and it's also got more features (incl. DSD support, Roon, Chromecast, WiFi etc). I have no experience with this particular product but the Primare stuff I listened to had an inaudible noise floor, including their now defunct AV receiver.

Why would you recommend an inferior design (TDAI-1120) with SINAD of 69 vs 82 and much worse distortion? (because you own it?) You see the point? You like an amp with inferior spec and claim a better amp (H95) to be crap just because someone did inadequate (not wrong) measurements. btw 69 SINAD is even worse than 72 of H95 DAC (for which measurement was crappy, to say the least).

Amplifier SINAD list ASR + 3rd parties

List Name,THD+N (5W, 4 ohms),SINAD (dB) (5W, 4 ohms),Power (W) (1% THD+N, 4 ohms),Price (USD),Source Topping LA90 (stereo, bypass, low gain),0.00009%,121,90,800,<a href="https://www.l7audiolab.com/f/topping-la90/">L7 Audio Lab</a>,Suggestions, corrections and more info here: Topping LA90 Discre...

docs.google.com

 

[arcy]

The problem is that if you have 2k burning in your pocket you're much better off getting a Lyngdorf TDAI-1120.

It's more powerful than the Hegel H95. It has one of the fancier room correction system available on the market, complete with two independent subwoofer outputs (that will get room corrected). On top of what the Hegel does it's got Chromecast. And Roon. And a phono input. And WiFi. And you can configure it from a beautifully designed integrated web server. And I think it's got a better SINAD. To begin with, it's perfectly quiet, even at max volume.

Or - to stay with the Scandinavian theme - you could get a Primare i15 Prisma for similar money to the Hegel and it's also got more features (incl. DSD support, Roon, Chromecast, WiFi etc). I have no experience with this particular product but the Primare stuff I listened to had an inaudible noise floor, including their now defunct AV receiver.

when I crank up my H95 to 99 (max) I don't hear a thing, zero. so not sure how it correlates to all those noise and distortion measurements.

 

[JRiggs]

Why Herbeth, Keff, Dynaudio, and other companies use Hegel to present/develop their speakers? Are they that stupid to not know?

Maybe has something to do with international distribution, dealer networks, lifestyle marketing…and less (nothing) to do with synergy…and are you sure they use them in development? Really?

 

[arcy]

Maybe has something to do with international distribution, dealer networks, lifestyle marketing…and less (nothing) to do with synergy…and are you sure they use them in development? Really?

but you don't know for sure just maybe?

 

[ousi]

Interesting enough I also had its previous version the Hegel Rost. I returned it after 1 day (or rather 1 hour) of evaluation, even thought I had to pay shipping. It didn't have enough oomph to drive my 2-way bookshelf speaker, I could hear some small hiss in the background and the DAC didn't even manage to lock onto the Coax signal coming from a professional Marantz CD recorder (from 1990s) which all my DACs could. After that I just disregard this company altogether...