There is a copy of recomended reading done by Hegel
Modern day Digital-to-Analog Converters are much driven by a numbers game. How high a sampling rate can they achieve? Are they bit perfect? What levels of DSD can they decode? The list is long. All of these things are essentially good features. There is absolutely nothing wrong with playing DSD files or having a bit perfect DAC.
OK bitperfect is OK! But
What the Hegel engineers ended up asking themselves, however, was this; Are these features necessarily the best choice at any price point? Or is the sheer cost of making so disproportionally high that it drains the budget otherwise spent on other important components? Like the DAC-chip itself or the analog sections of the DAC. Could it be that the technology that drives the marketing is not always the best answer when it comes to sound performance?
We try to do something similar in the cheaper way:
Hegel Optimized Clock is a technology developed to address that question. 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. The money saved can be spent on better clocks, better DAC chips, better local power supplies, or better analog components. All of which can make for a better cost/performance ratio, always one of Hegelās primary goals.
We save money on USB interface, on DAC chip etc. to offer better cost/performance
Better margin for developer only
This technology is one of the reasons we have been able to offer reasonably priced DACs and integrated amplifiers with such high performance. Hegel Optimized Clock implementation can be found in products like Hegel H95, H120, H190, and others.
I hope H390 future roon update allow me to enjoy bitperfect playback, but I use Topping D70s connected to RPi streamer. It isnt one box solution promised by Hegel, but it works as roon endpoint for years and SQ of D70s is much better
The whole text is marketing BS
There is no engineering description
And independent measurement gives us the answer
I can agree that the text on the subject is not very in depth. But I disagree that it is marketing BS. It is explaining the basic thought and principle, but some of the details that would allow a competitor to easily copy it is hidden in quite a bit of fog.
If you find out something that you think is really clever and gives you a competitive advantage, then the last thing you want to do is reveal in detail what you have done. It that is marketing BS, then ok. I take that.
All this said, bit perfect is even better. But when you are on a budget, each company must make a decision on where they want to put the money. There many things you can do to make the best possible product, but you cannot afford them all in the less expensive products so you have to choose. And we believe that what we made for the H95/120/190 is really good.
You missed one point
I bought H390 as an ONE BOX SOLUTION
And another point would be one device control - roon app on mobile/table - you can switch device on/off, control volume and find the music on it
With external dac eg. D70s i should connect it to the RPi streamer and its PS - amother three devices and I should use remote of H390 to control volume
Iāve been waiting for roon ready status for years - since November 2019
I canāt understand you are saving every cent on devices which are not cheap
You present yourself as producer of high end audio
I understand that some of your integrated amps cost ONLY $2000, but you decided to use USB receiver which degrade used DAC device to 96/24. Even the cheapest usb dac dongles uses better interface. And you present idea that double translating of PCM data improve SQ now
You saved another buck or two by usage of old/cheapest ethernet interface. The result - you are not able to develop roon ready firmware inhouse on time
All your devices - even $11000 H590 use the outdated (cheap) display. And the displayd text and numbers are realy bad
And finaly - the cover on my H390 - $6000 + VAT in EU - is band sheet of steel. I understand Al CNC case will lower your margin
Every cent every dollar counts!
The way youāve communicated with your customers which paid you for your amps is unacceptable
Hi, I know this post is a little old, but im near enough in the same place. Ive a innuos mini mk3 running usb into a H590. I previously had roon running on the mini but the innuos sense app knocked roon out of the park with sound quality. Have always missed roon radio etc so would be keen to give it another go. Im curious to see if you stuck with roon over the innuos and if youāve got any further comments how the hegel sounds with roon running in comparison with the separate streamer?
Hi, I have an Hegel H120, so not really comparable to the H590 (although the streaming engine is the same, I believe). In my experience, the Roon Ready implementation is superb. Works really well. As to the sound quality, I can only give you my account of the Zen Stream (as a Roon Bridge) connected to the Hegel DAC via Coax. I find it very similiar to the internal H120 streaming engine, maybe marginaly better on the bass definition. Iām sure be happy with the H120 as a Roon End Point. Having said that, Iām aware that Innous is on a different level, so I canāt really comment on that. Cheers
Hi Anders. I own a H190 (very happy, thanks) but was wondering if you could provide an opinion.
Because we can set how Roon delivers the sample rate, is there a preferred option when sending a stream to a H95, 120 or 190?
For example; I can set Roon to only handle 44.1 or 48kHz rates, then I could resample (in Roon) to 88.2, the closest rate to 105.47. Would this be ideal or do you think letting Roon use higher resolution files, then down sample, would be better? Iām working on the principal that resampling in Roon is preferred and less resampling is better. Thanks in advance.