Hegel Amplifiers

Rafael,
Thanks for the link. And good to know that the combination of TVC + Spectrons worked fine for you.

Magfan,
I get your point on the voltage and current. This was explained in detail in the link Rafael provided. My next question is, what is the link between "class" of an amp and it's wattage? I do not believe that a 50 Watts Class A amp will drive a speaker better than 100 watts class AB or D. It might sound better, but not "drive" better. Isn't more power always better than less power, to get more "headroom" for a better sound?

I recently happened to listen to some Hegel stuff, namely the P4A MKII pre-amp driving the H20 and the H4A MKII power amps, through Xavian speakers. The sound was indeed really (really) good, smooth, lucid and communicative, very detailed and with a very airy and silky top end. I was however thrown back by their pricing - for that kind of money I could think of (and have in fact listened to)better combinations out there..

Jnk,
Thanks much for your feedback. And what a timing!!
Yes, the price is a bit forbidding and even a good deal is very pricey on the H20. I am guessing it is a good amp, based on what you mentioned. But at twice the cost of the Parasound A21?
And by timing I meant - I found an article by Norway's Audio Fidelity's group test in May-2004 of the following amps: Hegel HP-4A transistor amplifier, EAR 509 Silver Jubilee tube, McIntosh 275 (revisited) tube, Dynamic Precision DP A-1 transistor amplifier, Naim integrated transistor amplifier, Tandberg Huldra 10 transistor radio, Rotel RA-1062 integrated transistor amplifier, Rotel RB-1090 power amplifier transistor, PB SDA 2175 semi-digital power amplifier, Embla ICE power digital mono blocks, Parasound A-21 transistor amplifier. They declared the A21 as a winner based on price/performance ratio. Some comments on the A21 were (Norwegian to English conversion) "Only a tiny hardness up reveals that this is not entirely same class as Hegel and DP to double times the price. Flaws little weight at the very bottom in terms of super amps to Hegel and the DP, but it has a warm and lush sound balance without being gross or fat. There was no blurring of detail and body and here is the air in plenty. Female Voices are bold reproduced with high 'femme fatale' factor."

The conclusion was "Another råbra amplifier that has the appearance that a more expensive amplifiers, the build quality as a more expensive amplifiers, have powers like a more expensive amplifier. And as the most important; also sonically is Para Sound A-21 very closely on a lot expensive stuff! It has a perfectly delicious body
with lush lower midrange, solid dypbass and a brave and småfrekk upper midrange that gives music high gøyfaktor. An unusual blend of soft warm and quick, sparkling transients! "

I am at this point heavily leaning towards a A21.

Good link.
Those kind of 'quality' numbers don't impress me as much as the raw data, however. I like to see both impedance against frequency and Phase Angle against frequency combined into a 'Smith Chart'. This says it all, electrically speaking. Phase Angle is the 'missing link' in the good load / bad load debate which rages in the speaker postings. My current hungry panels, though no less than 4 ohms, are really not a bad load. Moderate phase means that more amp power actually makes it to the room as sound.

For some reason, people really LOVE numbers. All those awful sounding Japanese amps from the 80s, with incredibly low distortion numbers and high NFB didn't alway sound good, or sometimes even 'right'.

Is it time to begin discussing power supply regulation? A couple generations of NAD equipment ago, you could get an amp with an astounding 6db of dynamic power. So, what do you want? Pure RMS with little headroom? Or would you like a smaller RMS rating with huge peaks? I have no answer, only asking the question.

Enjoy whatever you end up with, That's all that counts!

For some reason, people really LOVE numbers.

Nope, there is a specific reason that people love numbers. The reason being they do not have enough experience with different amplifiers and only numbers make sense to them. And this, I believe, will come as we get deeper into this hobby. It is a learning curve and most of the audiophiles have gone through this, I guess.