Hegel h200 low level listening

Hi everyone. It's going to be official tomorrow afternoon. I pick up my spankin' new Chuck Hegel H200. I'm looking forward to first impressions as well as the break in period. Once I connect Chuck, I'm turning it on and letting it get to temp for a half hour and then it's all over. Nothing but tunes and leaving it on in mute when not in use for a long time. I'll keep you posted.

Don

Okay, so here goes after 24 hours in comparison to my Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum which I will always love.

I let the Hegel H200 warm up for 45 minutes before I played a CD (I'm CD only right now). Slightly wider and deeper soundstage on Ms Gradenko off of the policy's Synchronisity album. Greater detail and separation of instruments with an airy texture. Bass control is noticeably tighter and theres a lot of it. Midrange is as good as the Rogue but the highs aren't quite there yet. I do hear more detail on everything I've listened to so far.

So far both my wife and I are pretty much awestruck by this amp. I started playing music this morning before breakfast and we haven't stopped at all today. From Mozart piano concerto's to Eddy Vedder, Cassandra Wilson and Bonnie Raitt, it's all been amazing. I can't imagine what's in store after this breaks in.

I'm not running balanced right now because the Rogue didn't have that option. My plan is to get a good XLR as soon as I can. I also need to add banana plugs to the amp end of my Audioquest Rockefellers. I've decided to order some Oyaide Rhodium banana plugs for both ends of my AQ speaker cables. The spades don't bottom out on the lugs. I figure I'm looking at another grand for the Oyaides and XLR and I'm good to go.

I'll keep you posted as the weeks go by and I get my new XLR's and bananas. I'm really looking forward to running balanced and hope I hear a substantial difference although I can't imagine this sounding a heck of a lot better. There's some music we've been playing that revealed some instruments and notes we've never heard before. That's always a good
thing.

Don - I was following your posts up to your decision to actually buy the Hegel.
Did not realize you had posted some early listening impressions. It's great to
hear you are enjoying it. What CDP do you use in your system? I think you have
Harbeth speakers? (are they full range or monitors?) I also use the H200 as an
alternative to tubes. Your comments on the Hegel pretty much match my
impressions. Bass is tighter and maybe a little deeper than the Cyber 800SEs.
Mid-range is nicely warm. This might be helped in part by a high end that is a
little rolled off in comparison to the Cybers. Detail and separation is excellent
though I note slightly less air and dimensionality in the overall presentation
(attributable to the rolled off treble, I think). The upside is that on hot
recordings and with Totem Forest speakers (metal dome tweeter) the top end is
tamer. Overall, listening with the Hegel is very, very enjoyable. I bought the
Hegel used and ran it from March of this year to just recently. Took it out in
August and went back to the tubes 'cause I was a little concerned about not
running that gear for a prolonged period. I really liked the Hegel and was
thinking I might be disappointed going back to the Cybers. Not the case,
however. I feel very fortunate that now I've got 2 great sounding modes of
amplification that are just different enough to liven things up when I feel the
need for a change. One helps me appreciate the other (if that makes any sense)
though neither leaves me feeling dissatisfied. Hope to hear from you on how
things are progressing. By the way - how are you finding low level listening?

Ghosthouse, my CDP is the Audiolab 8200 CDQ. I biught this because of the reviews and the flexibility it offers me. Im staring to mess around with computer audio (slowly). Speakers are Harbeth C7es3 monitors. I'm going to be going balanced by this weekend. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go for the Nordost Red Dawn LS xlr interconnect. There's also the possibility I may put Oyaide Rhodium banana plugs on my Audioquest Rockefeller speaker cables. Then there's also the possibility of a subwoofer but who knows.

One thing I've noticed thus far which is in comparison to my Rogue Cronus Magnum. Bad recordings sound bad and good ones sound great. With the Rogue, everything sounded pretty good but I felt like I was missing out on the finer details. With the Hegel, I do hear a lot of details I was missing out on but some of those details are bad recordings.

I'm going into this as slowly and with a positive attitude as I can. It's funny because I thought I would just buy the Hegel and be done with it. Once I got it, I realized I had to run balanced. Then, with the amp not being as deep in length as the Rogue, I couldn't effectively use the spades on my speaker cables. Then I found out how revealing this amp is and although good bass, I could probably throw a subwoofer in the mix and be very happy. I guess sometimes you think you're about to jump off the merry go round only to find out the rides only half over.

Once I get this dialed in I know I'm going to be very happy and broke. Although I'd prefer to run the tubes this winter, I think I'm going to use this indoor time in Upstate NY to get this up to par.

Were you leaving the Hegel turned on 24/7? If so did you mute it? Hegel told me to turn it off but every review I've read says leave it on.

It sounds fine at low levels which is what I do when the wife goes to bed. Occasionally if I'm not in the mood to turn it down, I have a Schitt Lyr headphone amp with AKG K702's to fill the need.

Thanks for checking in. I'm glad you said that one helps you appreciate the other. I've found that to be the case as well. I really thought for a moment that I would sell the Rogue. I don't think I can. I also don't think ill be parting with the Hegel for many years.

Don - thanks for the reply...it's late now. I'll look at your cabling and CDP tomorrow (or should I say, later today). I'd been leaving the Hegel powered up 24/7 when I had it in the system. There's no mute that I can see on mine...I just turned the volume all the way down. Funny about the balanced XLR thing. I've been looking at possibly getting a new CDP and balanced out is on the list of features because of the Hegel. Curious how that will sound vs unbalanced RCAs.