No and that is not the case here either …the component used in the Hegel you have is on par with other amps of that quality and time period. If Hegel had claimed that it was an expandable upgradable Dac then you would have a legit beef…but they didn’t
This is a review and detailed measurements of the Hegel H95 integrated amplifier with DAC and streaming support. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $2000.
The H95 looks pretty nice:
I really like the large, high resolution and very responsive graphic display. What I don’t like is the absence of power button on the front face. After some research I found out it is on the bottom. I realize without it there is symmetry but the one or two times that you play something super loud and want to rush to shut it off, you will hate the fact that it will take some effort to reach under to power it down. Another thing I didn’t like is lack of acceleration on volume control. You have to crank and crank it to turn it all the way up and down.
The back panel shows the extra connectively over a standard analog amplifier:
Very nice to see built-in DAC and Ethernet streaming. What is not is the maximum supported sample rate of 96 kHz over USB. This tells me they are using ancient and obsolete USB interface. They say they did this for ease of design and to save money to put toward making the DAC itself better. We will see about that.
A simple plastic remote control is provided which is very similar to what we see from Chinese desktop manufacturers. I tend to like it but it is unusual for such an expensive product to come with this kind of remote. Usually they include some heavy but harder to use remote.
Hegel H95 DAC Measurements
This being an amplifier, I immediately jumped to measuring that part of it first. But then I had to backtrack when I noticed digital input performance was worse than analog. Given the line out, I decided to measure the DAC using coax input. For some reason, like a Hegel DAC I tested in the past, my ASIO4ALL interface would not see the USB input so I decided to test with Coax. Here is our dashboard with volume control adjusted to produce the nominal 2 volts:
1 Like
Horrific measurements per Audio Science. Wow most good dacs are over 100 db’s !
It’s all low end Chinese components. They just market like they’re Nordic and have huge markups for dealers and let reviewers keep the gear. It’s one big scam.
2 Likes
There is a much more reliable source( Hans Beekhuyzen) for measurements on youtube…and those look nothing like yours…you either did something wrong or outright lying.
1 Like
I’d hardly describe Hans Beekhuyzen as a reliable source for measurements…
The Hegel H95 above was tested with an Audio Precision APx555. Testing doesn’t come any better than that.
If something measures badly with an APx555, then it measures badly.
3 Likes
Yes, I second that.
1 Like
I am glad I went with Cambridge two years ago when I was looking for an integrated amp. Hegel was pretty hyped here in Germany back then but they sounded not as good as the Cambridge to my ears… these measurements seem to prove my experience.
Can you test the h390?
Maybe I just don’t want to face the fact I was duped like many others…
Isn’t it the 390 and 190 share the same digital section? If so one could assume these would measure quite similarly.
The H95 above was tested by Amir at Audio Science Review (ASR).
Much as I’d like to own an APx555, my good lady would put her foot very firmly down if I tried to buy one!
ASR is vilified by many around here, but the testing is open and objective. If Amir has a business relationship with any of the manufacturers whose gear he tests, he’s completely transparent about it.
As a source of measurement information, it’s a great place to look.
Unfortunately a lot of people get sucked in by the subjective hype around certain brands and it smarts when you’ve dropped a significant chunk of cash on something that later on doesn’t measure up.
2 Likes
390 and 590 share the same
I have no skin in this, but I have to say that I think you would have been better off not publishing this weird document. Sounds like the DAC in your low end models makes some serious compromises in order to save money …
"It basically means we have found an optimal sampling frequency for the DAC implementation we use. The benefits of this far outweigh those of bit perfect implementation if you are on a more limited budget. "
What is this secret optimal frequency? Sounds like you are not oversampling data at all like most DAC’s … and the thing about not being bit-perfect is odd to say the least.
Just don’t get it … I think it will create more questions than answer anything.
2 Likes
I don’t think they had any choice, as I believe they would have been obliged to show this upsampling on the signal path to achieve Roon Ready status. It therefore needed explaining.
Aha. Indeed you are correct. 105.47 kHz. And not being an integer ratio thus not “bit-perfect”. Does 192 content get down-sampled to 105.47 as well???
It would appear so.
https://community.roonlabs.com/t/hegel-roon-ready-status-statement/122065/464?u=rbo
192k is also down sampled to 105.47 in the H95/120/190. But not in the H390/590 as this tread is about.
When it comes to the document… as @dhusky says, we had no choice. We could have done it more elaborate, but would then make it easier for our competitors to copy something that is very cool. Even when you play 192k files
His measurements may be objective (even that is questionable) but his opinions conclusions on products are not. His listening impressions are worthless…
2 Likes