insert tumbleweed gif here
Thanks everyone for the advice on hooking up the Mac mini to the H390. Just ordered a silver dragon cable from Moon Audio. Which will probably take a few days to arrive. BTW, if there are any Canadians watching this post, is there a CDN outlet for top notch cables. I searched quite far and wide for a USB C to USB B before springing for a US cable provider (and shipping fees and duty etc). Maybe most people are using USB A to Bā¦
Thanks again.
I have always bought cables from Audio Sensibility, who make really excellent cables at a reasonable price. Donāt know if they do USB C to B though.
@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 cableā¦ thanks.
@Atanarjuat99 I have a pair of theTestament speaker cables and they are excellent - sure thereās a lot of snake oil out there but these were an improvement over the old QED cables I had. I think theyāre 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.
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.
The 390 is what Iād like to get for my Dynaudios. Enjoy!
If it was the same depth as h120, I would trade it as wellā¦ It just donāt fit my shelf :(.
Could be as tall as h590 or taller, but canāt go deeper than h120.
Sounds like you need to get a bigger shelf then .
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 Iād done that from the start rather than faffing around looking at other amps which werenāt what I really wanted. Appreciate that this isnāt 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.
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 H390ās optical input. I think if I didnāt have the T2, Iād 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.
Thanks for feeding back - sounds like itās quite a step up from their previous generation implementations.
@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 wasnāt impressed with native DSD via Hegelās 390 DAC (Delta-sigma modulation).
P.S. You havenāt break it in yet, will see how it only gets better after 70 hours of active listening
@paxromana I havenāt tried it yet with DSD (although I donāt have too much in that format). Will also need to revisit upscaling in the T2, which I did not really like through the H190.
@Rockhound Wait. All this time youāve been recommending T2 but havenāt tried DSD yourself. You would be extremely surprised then! Canāt 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.