Hegel calls the H390 the ‘Robin Hood’ amplifier as they state it steals a number of key pieces of technology from the bigger H590 (specifically the on the digital side). The Hegel H390 is a Class A/B, dual mono integrated amplifier rated at 250 watts per channel into 8 ohms. It is the second highest priced integrated from the company, topped only by the massive H590 at $11,000. Hegel components are designed by a team in Oslo, but are manufactured in China. His research eventually led to the company’s patented ‘SoundEngine’ (now SoundEngine 2) technology which utilizes feed forward circuitry to cancel out audible distortion while maintaining startlingly high damping factors. But do these sleek Scandinavian boxes compete with the more traditional separates enthusiasts turn to? To answer this question I sat down with one of the company’s newest products, the H390 Integrated Amplifier ( $6,000).įor those unfamiliar, Hegel is the brainchild of Norwegian musician-turned-engineer Bent Holter who founded the company in 1988 after university research led him to probe solutions for distortion created by traditional transistor amplification. Integrated streaming amplifiers are not just popular, they are becoming the default choice for many serious music listeners as our recent review of the Cambridge EVO 150 demonstrates. Much like the Cadillac receivers of the past, there is a huge appeal for the combination of a quality integrated amplifier with enough features to prevent the need for other boxes cluttering up your HiFi rack. Hegel Music Systems, out of Oslo, Norway, has embraced this concept head-on, centering the company around a line of Class A/B integrated amplifiers with built-in streamers and DACs.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |