NAD M-33 or Hegel H190

Thanks for all the replies, folks. The reviews I’ve read and have listened to as well as advice from several people who have owned both say the difference in sound between the two amps is significant - significant enough to ignore all the features you don’t get on the Hegel that come standard on the NAD, and that’s saying something! The Hegel looks very naked compared to the NAD!  For the price, the Hegel should at least accommodate two sets of speakers or perhaps offer a sub out, but the Scandinavian ascetic rules. Of course there is no streaming except Air Play which, let’s face it, isn’t Tidal. So one needs to spend still more money to plug that hole and I’m not sure how to overcome the I/O issues mentioned earlier. Despite all these issues, sound is REALLY is the point. It’s what I seek. I should do exactly what @Grizlybutter mentioned and just buy one and return it if doesn’t live up to the sound claims. 

The m33 with room correction applied should leave little if anything to want.

@Mapman I use Dirac. And I failed to mention my speakers. I purchased them new in 1984. They are a set of KEF 105.4’s and a set of KEF103.3’s. These vintage KEF speakers are warm and beautiful. They represent the original sound KEF was known for. KEF was purchased and the sound was forever changed, to my mind for the worse. Regardless, the NAD works well with my speakers, but I’m lead to believe the Hegel will make them sing. I should also attempt to hear other, less known amps, but time and money are always an issue. 

As one moves up in higher quality audio equipment, the extra functions disappear. The emphasis becomes sound quality. Extra functions negatively impact sound quality. Tone controls, multiple functions in one box, and unnecessary functions are the realm of mid-fi. Twenty thousand dollar preamps do not have tone controls, or amps do not multiple amp outputs. So it is a question of what is important. Nothing wrong with having lots of functions, but there is a large cost to sound quality. Sound quality is secondary for 90 % of the folks out there. If you want great sound quality… then you are not going to get dual speaker outputs, tone controls, and lots of other stuff. It’s just a question of priorities..

You may be at the boundary of sound quality vs convenience. If you want to go forward, you may need to decide if the extra hassle of effort, cost, and research is worth it to achieve greater sound quality. I have been at this for fifty years. I have been reading, listening, and investing in single purpose components, increasing the sound quality of my system for decades. Perhaps this is just not your cup of tea. There is another way, Linn produces extremely high quality systems in a box. You can get a streamer, preamp, amp and even a phono stage all in one box (up to $34K… for a really high end solution). But, only two speaker outputs. Multiple speaker outputs is a low end feature.

I know little to nothing about amp design but I second @ghdprentice : the number of functions they jammed into one box is not conducive to better sound.