Hegel H390 vs Krell Vanguard digital integrates amps

@luckrainbow63

First mistake you made is listening to me not many people who know me do. However, here are my thoughts. The price you are getting for the new KRELL seems good. I paid $7K for a demo unit but I was not going to haggle on this one for a few private reasons. I am pretty sure most dealers will give you about the price you are getting.

Today, after doing some tests, I am now not going to sell the KRELL because I found the KRELL + AMT3SE was better than the AMT3SE + Benchmark stack for the SR1a. I say this however after I bought a new AHB2 amp for my downstairs system last week.  I will also buy a Benchmark LA4 preamp for that same downstairs soon. I just do not love the BM stack with the SR1a. So now I have a $7K KRELL headphone amp. I am a bit of a head case to spend so much. Hopefully in the future I forget how much I spent.

I do not think you should buy the AMT3SE yet. The internal DAC is pretty good when I used it a particular way. First of all the gain on the DAC is a bit too high so that is a bummer (just lower the volume). I found that streaming to the KRELL DAC using Fibre Optic cable directly from my $199 network switch to a $999 OpticalRendu -> USB input on KRELL was very close to the AMT3SE using XLR. The AMT3SE was also streamed the same way in the comparison.

The beauty of the KRELL is that it is an all in one unit that is done at a very high level of excellence. So using the internal DAC is something to try first.

My next test will be to compare the AMT3SE vs the KRELL DAC’s USB using the same OpticalRendu. I have 2 of these OpticalRendu’s so I can do some meaningful tests. I may sell the AMT3SE if the difference is not that great. I will try to follow the same advice I gave in the previous paragraph to you.

BTW - I added my 50" TV to the system in the office. It is rather nice to hear the KRELL HDMI DAC input with the SR1a. The TV brought about other room acoustic issues but I am likely on the way to solving them.

I did test my 2 external DACs with the KRELL and the Thiel CS3.7. I always preferred the AMT3SE with Class A power such as the CODA and the KRELL. However, I prefer the all Benchmark stack on the Thiel CS3.7 overall but when I had the KRELL on the CS3.7 I liked it with the AMT3SE over the DAC3B. It was a bit better synergy.

In a post before I was saying that the Benchmark stack sounded very good now with the AMT3SE (likely after AMT3SE burn-in) . After more listening the last few days I take that back a little and say while it does sound great, the all BM stack (with the DAC3B) is still better for my tastes.

This review sums up exactly how I hear the BM stack. Not everyone likes this type of sound. I do.
https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews/amplifier/preamplifier/benchmark-media-hpa4-preamplifier-ahb2-po...

I should add that I thought the RJ45 Network streaming on the KRELL internal DAC was not as good as my other streaming options. The optical Rendu was easily better. I forgot if I compared it with my mircoRendu.

If you have not heard Fibre then maybe the RJ45 is sufficient but after hearing the Fibre I totally dismissed the RJ45 streaming. That is a shame because the ROON Endpoint for the KRELL RJ45 has a volume control for the ROON client. All other Endpoints I use to the KRELL do not have volume adjustment. This adjustment is done inside the KRELL, not the client software.

@luckrainbow63 I tested the AMT3SE using XLR to the KRELL K-300i vs the USB on the KRELL. Both of them were streaming using Fibre with the only difference being slightly different USB cables to the DAC and the Linear Power Supply were not the same. The last 2 factors are not that big because I have flipped them around in other tests and I did not notice a difference.

The AMT3SE was preferred by me over the USB on the internal KRELL DAC. It was not a huge difference but enough that I will always use the AMT3SE with the KRELL from now on. I am wasting the internal DAC since I am now only using it for HDMI sources. Maybe also TOSLINK with YouTube but those are not sources I care about for the best sound. I guess the internal DAC will be a good backup DAC if anything goes bad with the AMT3SE.

The AMT3SE with the 2 Class A amps that I had in house has been magic.

@yyzsantabarbara I just order Krell k3000i from Illinois (Chicago) and will arrived on next Wednesday.and I will test. Krell internal dac to see how good they’re.if not then I will followed yours path way to buy AMT2SE. @yyzsantabarbara in 1 to 10 scales.how many scale you gave Krell internal vs AMT2SE? I have no good source like AMT2SE to compare them.But I will compare them with Helge H390 and McIntosh MA252 amps.I appreciated you for good efforts to test them and provide very detailed each Item you have own.