I upgraded to the H390 from an H190 a few months ago. Could not be happier with this amp. It really is a significant step up from the H190 and just provides fantastic sound no matter the type of music you feed it. Obviously it has a lot more power, but there is more clarity and depth to the sound, and the grip on the bass is really exceptional. I’m using it with Dynaudio Contour 30s, which really need a lot of power to wake them up properly and the H390 gets the best out of these great speakers. It does have a very good DAC, but I’m feeding it via XLR from a Lumin T2 so, although I’m not using the DAC, I can certainly vouch for its excellent SQ.
In my view, the H390 is an outstanding piece of kit that represents fantastic value for money, and I firmly believe you would have to spend significantly more $$ to improve upon it.
I’ve had the H390 for a little over a week. It was a bit daunting out of the box because I experienced mechanical hum/buzz from the toroidal transformer. It has now dissipated. It’s early…but the amp is voiced superbly IMO. I’m eager to listen to my system for hours on end. The Hegel connects me to the spirit of the music which is an unexpected and welcomed experience. If I had to describe it…it’s a modern amp with romantic charm/edge in SQ.
If this persists or is intermittent you may want to try a product to eliminate DC offset and see if that resolves the issue - I found I needed one in my environment with the H360. There’s a few out there, for example by Emotiva, Isotek and Puritan Audio. If not, enjoy the music
Thanks. I purchased an ifi DC blocker. It was odd in that the hum/buzz seemingly stopped prior to implementation…I employed it anyway…as it didn’t cause any sonic degradation.
AirPlay2 added with the latest update. Waited longer than Roon
In communication with Hegel support, I found out that the H390 has a 10 mbit Ethernet port
I really like the sound. I can listen all day.
Roon Rock - LAN Gigabit through switch Bonn N8 - H390 - Monitor audio Gold 100 5g + REL t7i
I have H390 and i feel that internal DAC has lower dynamics then external ones (need to pump up the vol more on inte DAC) - do you have the same experience ?
I can’t say myself as I have never listened, but I know @Rockhound has an H390 and uses a Lumin T2 (I believe) and has gone on record of saying it sounded significantly better with the T2.
@Michael_Harris is correct - I think the DAC in the H390 can be bettered by decent external devices. I use a Lumin T2 and that combination sounds fantastic. Playing direct to the H390 via Roon does not have the same dynamics, clarity, and soundstage that the T2 provides - but then it costs almost as much as the H390 .
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