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Why not review some Hegel amps?

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How about the H390 or the H590? Or how about some of their lower powered amps? I'm sure we'd all love to know how they measure.

H590Front.jpg
 

Alexanderc

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I would like to see one of these too. The way things work here is usually that someone has to buy the product and ship it in for testing. For big, heavy, expensive items like Hegel electronics, shipping costs would be significant and whoever sent it wouldn’t get to use it for a while. Then there’s the potential for the psychological trauma that comes from spending several thousand dollars on something you like and finding out it really isn’t very good. If I owned one, I wouldn’t want to know.
 
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I would like to see one of these too. The way things work here is usually that someone has to buy the product and ship it in for testing. For big, heavy, expensive items like Hegel electronics, shipping costs would be significant and whoever sent it wouldn’t get to use it for a while. Then there’s the potential for the psychological trauma that comes from spending several thousand dollars on something you like and finding out it really isn’t very good. If I owned one, I wouldn’t want to know.

Aha! So that's how it works. I guess the manufacturers don't want the bad news either. Thanks for the heads up.
 

BDWoody

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Aha! So that's how it works. I guess the manufacturers don't want the bad news either. Thanks for the heads up.

It is a great feature of this site. No advertising, No cherry-picked samples (from member sent items), pure honesty from measured results. It is interesting to see the varied reactions from the manufacturers who have a product reviewed that might have shown some embarrassing design issues. Some have stepped up, taken their medicine and improved the product (Schiit being probably the biggest mover up the scale), and others have simply revealed themselves to be...well, a wide range of things.

Some brave manufacturers will send things in, but they know they will get what they get.

Anyway, hope you stick around and send one of those in when you get it!
 

Alexanderc

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Aha! So that's how it works. I guess the manufacturers don't want the bad news either. Thanks for the heads up.
I think you’re right. I imagine most big companies know exactly how their products would perform on the suite of tests Amir does and don’t want to see their products ranked in an objective way against all others.
 

nemanja_t

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What is bad is that as best amplifiers here are considered D class amps, because they are light and easy to send. Sooner or later and 20kg + amplifiers should be tested , otherwise it is bias towards 3 kg amplifiers. They are just so many DACs and D class that could take attention of members.
 

CDMC

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It is nice to see some manufacturers have sent equipment for testing. It will likely always be a small group, as most high end manufacturers are selling a story, not good measurements. When you don’t get to have someone push your story and your measurements don’t justify the price, sending in your product only serves to potentially harm your sales.
 

RayDunzl

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CDMC

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What is bad is that as best amplifiers here are considered D class amps, because they are light and easy to send. Sooner or later and 20kg + amplifiers should be tested , otherwise it is bias towards 3 kg amplifiers. They are just so many DACs and D class that could take attention of members.

There is no doubt that there are good measuring traditional amps, but very few will measure better than Class D. Look no further than Stereophile which has measured them for 30+ years. Even traditional high end amplifiers with a focus on engineering do not generally measure as well as the hypex/purifi modules.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/bryston-7b-sstsup2sup-monoblock-power-amplifier-measurements

https://www.stereophile.com/content/parasound-halo-jc-1-monoblock-power-amplifier-measurements-0

https://www.stereophile.com/content/mark-levinson-no333-power-amplifier-measurements

https://www.stereophile.com/content/classé-delta-mono-monoblock-power-amplifier-measurements

I believe this will continue to be the case. High quality traditional amps take a lot of engineering and have a much higher parts cost than Class D. Each model amplifier has to be designed individually. Class D amps (most at least) use well designed modules. All the amp designer has to do is put them in a case, hook them up properly (which many companies seem to have trouble with) and implement their own custom gain stage, so they can claim magical improvements while, hopefully, not making it measure much worse than the default op amp gain stage.
 

tmtomh

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Those Hegel amp measurements would suggest it uses relatively low feedback, yes?
 

Matias

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Vini darko

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What is bad is that as best amplifiers here are considered D class amps, because they are light and easy to send. Sooner or later and 20kg + amplifiers should be tested , otherwise it is bias towards 3 kg amplifiers. They are just so many DACs and D class that could take attention of members.
Fat shaming? :D
 

Matias

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Those Hegel amp measurements would suggest it uses relatively low feedback, yes?
It is a special patented "feed forward" distortion correction circuit they have.
 

nemanja_t

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... the amp designer has to do is put them in a case, hook them up properly (which many companies seem to have trouble with) and implement their own custom gain stage, so they can claim magical improvements while, hopefully, not making it measure much worse than the default op amp gain stage.

That is my problem with D class, when I see some of them it looks like something from kit of school electronics for 4th grade. I would not give few thousands for something like that. Maybe few hundredths.

And when I see something like this, it looks like amplifier:


AF89E646-A2FC-46AE-81DA-0709CB81A94B.jpeg


Saying that , I do not think that Hegel is good buy for 9000$, as it is just a brand, and manufacturing is done by OEM. If brand stop to exist, you have paper weight in case of malfunctions.
 

Matias

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That is my problem with D class, when I see some of them it looks like something from kit of school electronics for 4th grade. I would not give few thousands for something like that. Maybe few hundredths.

And when I see something like this, it looks like amplifier:


View attachment 76000

Maybe you would prefer the high-end style chassis and feet of the Merril Audio Element 118 class D monos (36k usd)? :)

ELEMENT-118-Pair-min-1-1024x683.jpg
 

Chrispy

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That is my problem with D class, when I see some of them it looks like something from kit of school electronics for 4th grade. I would not give few thousands for something like that. Maybe few hundredths.

And when I see something like this, it looks like amplifier:


View attachment 76000

Saying that , I do not think that Hegel is good buy for 9000$, as it is just a brand, and manufacturing is done by OEM. If brand stop to exist, you have paper weight in case of malfunctions.
That looks more like a receiver than an amp.
 
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