Need advice please with HEGEL

I have always bought cables from Audio Sensibility, who make really excellent cables at a reasonable price. Don’t know if they do USB C to B though.

https://audiosensibility.com/blog/

@Rockhound Thanks for this. I just browsed their site. What do you think about: Testament Loudspeaker - Banana Plugs. Do they make a difference. Seems like they would be worth a try at only $40. But wonder if they are snake oilish.
NTL wish I had found this site before ordering my silver dragon cable… thanks.

@Atanarjuat99 I have a pair of theTestament speaker cables and they are excellent - sure there’s a lot of snake oil out there but these were an improvement over the old QED cables I had. I think they’re about $400 not $40! I also bought some Statement XE XLRs last year to hook up my T2. I also like to support this Canadian company.

I believe that the Testament plugs that I mentioned were for grounding the signals coming into the existing speaker cables (which are Nordost in my case). I was wondering if they made a difference. Thanks again.

Ah, sorry misunderstood. No idea if they are any good.

33 posts were split to a new topic: The problems at Hegel are in line with most hi-fi vendors

Finally pulled the trigger and traded my H190 for an H390. Even straight out of the box it sounds fantastic - the bass is much better, it sounds cleaner and richer with really tight control of the speakers. Soundstage is bigger and instrument placement is also better. My 2 takeaways: 1) the H390 is definitely a very significant step up in sound quality and should be considered extraordinary value for money, 2) the H190 is still one hell of a good amp, albeit without the effortless control of my Dynaudio Contour 30s afforded by the H390 and its roughly 490 watts into their 4 ohms.

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The 390 is what I’d like to get for my Dynaudios. Enjoy!

@Rockhound Kaboom! I told you so, enjoy it man!

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If it was the same depth as h120, I would trade it as well… It just don’t fit my shelf :(.
Could be as tall as h590 or taller, but can’t go deeper than h120.

Sounds like you need to get a bigger shelf then :laughing:.

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I spent ages wrestling with this dilemma when buying an H360. In the end, I just changed where I was putting the amp, a bit like the suggestion from @Rockhound. Tbh, I just wished I’d done that from the start rather than faffing around looking at other amps which weren’t what I really wanted. Appreciate that this isn’t always an option though!

@Rockhound will be very interested in your comparison of the H390 DAC to the T2 given the previous posts on this.

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Early impressions definitely give the nod to the T2 (bigger soundstage/better instrument placing/overall clarity better), although the DAC in the H390 is certainly better than that in the H190 - my CD player is a Cambridge Audio CXC transport and it sounds really really good through the H390’s optical input. I think if I didn’t have the T2, I’d be pretty happy with the DAC in the H390. Will be interesting to hear what Roon Ready sounds like if/when Hegel ever gets round to it.

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Thanks for feeding back - sounds like it’s quite a step up from their previous generation implementations.

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@Rockhound Still will be limited, especially comparing to T2. I mean H390 gives an ability to power the soundstage of whole symphonic orchestra, which is better to power through the DSD. So far I wasn’t impressed with native DSD via Hegel’s 390 DAC (Delta-sigma modulation).

P.S. You haven’t break it in yet, will see how it only gets better after 70 hours of active listening :slight_smile:

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@paxromana I haven’t tried it yet with DSD (although I don’t have too much in that format). Will also need to revisit upscaling in the T2, which I did not really like through the H190.

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@Rockhound Wait. All this time you’ve been recommending T2 but haven’t tried DSD yourself. You would be extremely surprised then! Can’t speak objectively on upscaling, still playing with it!

I have tried a few DSD albums, but felt that DXD sounded better - small sample size though, I will admit.

@Rockhound :open_mouth:

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I admit my >60 YO ears may not be SOTA analytical equipment :rofl:.

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