Darko puts out some good content. I don’t always agree with him but he is good about explaining his leanings which I appreciate. He was one of the reviewers that influenced my decision to buy a Hegel H190.
On the Youtube page someone asked how he got that “cheeky” beta? John responded with “I know people…” 
He is probably a really good beta tester for them. He uses the equipment a ton and will probably give them a lot of good feedback. And then he will probably write about it and give them more promotion.
Plus I’d rather have him doing the beta testing than have Hegel dump the code on the user base and slowly fix problems as they come up. Because some companies would do it that way.
I wonder how many Hegel owners are also Roon users?
I wonder how many current potential Hegel buyers are waiting for these amps to be fully Roon ready before purchasing?
Hegel h190 owner here. Connected via USB from a Sonore ultraRendu - sounds great. Will be interesting to see if sound quality is any better when Roon Ready comes along - my bet is not much difference.
H360 owner here. I’m running Roon through my Antipodes CX streamer / renderer as the core and connected to the Hegel via USB. Everything sounds amazing and purple lights throughout the signal path.
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So ready for Hegel to end the wait.
A question to all Hegel owners. Would you rather invest in a new h190, or in a second hand h360? Is anyone able to give me a recommendation? Thanks.
I can’t answer that directly as I haven’t compared them side by side. However, my reasoning for going for an EOL H360 rather than the H190 was that I was happy with my existing fully balanced DAC/Streamer and wanted the best, fully balanced amp I could get for the money. Philosophically I like separating the digital and analogue portions of my chain as I think the former need to be more agile (evidenced in the Hegel RAAT delay) and are also more likely to be replaced than the latter. That’s just my take though rather than intended as an absolute truth.
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With the new model H390 coming out, you can probably snag a new H360 for close to the price of an H190, if dealers still have them. That would be a no-brainer. Not that it’s night and day but the 360 has a bit more punch and refinement. That being said I’m pretty happy with the H190.
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That is exactly my thinking. There are quite some second hand H360 at the moment.
Thanks for the replies.
But is it correct that the H360 is also a streamer and becoming Roon ready one day?
I am actually looking for a one box solution, that can replace my Allo Digione streamer and Music Fidelity V90 Dac one day.
In that case you don’t want the H360 - it will never become Roon Ready.
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Thanks. That was what I anticipated. Dang. Not so sure what I am going to do then.
Well, I guess it depends how important one box is to you. If it is, I doubt you’ll be disappointed by the H190. I also wonder whether the Primare series (e.g. i35) might become Roon Ready at some point (in line with the release of the NP5) - worth listening to if so. Am sure there’ll also be lots of other ideas suggested (should you wish)!
I faced the same choice and went with the H190 over the H360. My thinking was that the H190 would have enough power for my needs, it had a more recent DAC in it and it was on the list to become Roon Ready. In my case I was looking purely at used equipment and the prices were pretty comparable at the time I was hunting.
My H190 is driving a pair of Joseph Audio RM7si speakers. They are decent sized monitors and a fairly easy load. In a roughly 400 square foot room I never turn the amp up over the “50” level. The Hegel dug out a bit more bass compared to my previous integrated amp. It replaced three pieces of gear (integrated amp, Sonos Connect and DAC). Very happy with it.
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Oh, please make Roon for H190, so I could go and buy one. In other case I will have to waste a time in search.
I got my new Hegel H390 yesterday and it’s not ROON READY. You can‘t use it as ROON Endpoint. The only way to play music through ROON is via AirPlay. In terms of ROON, the Hegel H390 is a kind of misleading packaging. ROON Ready came in autumn this year, then at the end of this year, now in the first quarter of 2020 … I bring my item back to my dealer, life is to short to live with a Fata Morgana.
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not true—USB from any Roon Remote will also work.
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It’s absolutely shame on HEGEL for delaying Roon Ready support endlessly! As I’m still not pretty convinced to use USB for audio streaming (according SQ), thus I went for a bit more complex solution. I managed to use Raspberry Pi (powered by linear PSU) with HiFiBerry Digi+ PRO hat as Roon endpoint connected via good quality BNC cable to H590. Now the whole system really rock’s!
If there is anyone from HEGEL following this thread, please encourage RoonReady development team or just stop telling fairy tales if it’s just not possible to implement.
https://www.hegel.com/products/integrated/h590