Yeah, it’s pretty nice and I hear the H590 is much better and the new H600 is better still. Now that the H600 is out, the H590 are on sale for about half price new. I can’t swing it this year, but maybe by the end of next?
Hegel H390 DAC
I hesitate to add yet another DAC related thread but I haven't seen this particular question asked before, so....
After owing an H390 for a year, I just got around to listening to it's onboard DAC. What? Huh? Why? I was biased -- convinced I wouldn't like because it wasn't described by reviewers as overtly"warm", like my Aqua La Voce S2.
As someone who always advocates making buying decisions based on listening, I feel quite sheepish making this confession but as this is an audio forum, not group therapy, I'll move on to the main point.
I was shocked to discover I actually prefer the Hegel's DAC to the Aqua. In my system, in my room, it is more transparent, smoother and more effortless. And, to my surprise, it conveys more emotion.
The only downside is that the Hegel's DAC is somewhat leaner in the mids than I'd prefer.
Question: which outboard DACs have a similar but more fleshed-out sonic profile under 7K, new?
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Anders, the marketing guy for Hegel has asserted the H590 and 390 have the same DAC module but that the H590 has better isolation. RE: H600, all I’ve seen/heard so far is this Jay’s Iyagi review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk13XzfWSZ0 Don’t know reliable his opinion is but he characterizes the H600 as warmer than the H590 and less warm than the H390, for whatever that’s worth. My experience comparing the Hegel’s DAC to the Aqua has compelled me to question my long-standing conviction that I inherently prefer warm gear. I guess if I lived somewhere close to high end audio stores I would be able to do more listening and less reading !
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I’ve been a separates guy since the seventies and all tube since the eighties. Getting an integrated was a big step for me. After all my research, the I was either going to get a Luxman, L-507 or the L-505UX MKll, the Hegel, H590 or the H390. I ended up getting the H390 for two reasons. The warmer sound and I was misled about the streaming features. That’s why I bought a BS Node N130 5 weeks later. I also bought a Denafrips Pontus ll and brother it made a huge improvement! Oh and Anders is a company man. He is one of the people who refused to tell me where the Bias is set for how many watts are class A and where the class B kicks in. He said that because of “Sound Engine” it didn’t matter! |
a couple random thoughts to you @stuartk how were the h390 dac and your aqua connected from upstream? streamer, clocking, cabling can affect the dac performance (did you have the h390 dac on the ’dac loop’ connection?) -- hope you made sure the two were on ’equal footing’ before reaching your comparative conclusions as you know i have had all the hegels pretty much (but not the 600 yet) and numerous dacs over the last few years i felt the h390 internal dac/streamer was tuned for best sound with tidal/mqa... it was nicely transparent, spacious and smooth, yet when used with qobuz or other digital feeds, the tonality became noticeably sharper and leaner, lost a degree of refinement, so to speak the h590 dac in comparison was more extended in both extreme highs and lows while producing a very smooth tactile midrange, slightly vaster spatial info recovery (not sure how of this is the dac section vs the pre/power section... where hegel definitely put more sonic goodies into the 590 over the 390) -- all the above i heard running roon into the hegels using the lan feed with no roon dsp engaged in time i will check out an h600 ... but probably not anytime soon... seems like they moved to a top ess chip, then worked around that chipset’s tonality to achieve the sonic balance they seek to offer in their top shelf integrated |
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