Hegel H95 Review (Streaming Amplifier)

[pozz]

The way I see it as a consumer, the role of electronics is to offer something that meets my needs. If I don't need high output power, or headphones amp, why should these features play a significant role in my decision making?

Hmm.

You've changed course from "human hearing capability" to "needs". If you compartmentalize things to that extent you can justify most decisions.

So say you have some very specific, inflexible set of needs. Does this product really satisfy them?

The question to ask is if Hegel is justified in producing this product at all, which costs $2k and has two poorly working subsystems. If they removed the headphone amp or improved it, and improved the line out, it would be fine. Not great, not applicable to a wide range of use cases and buyers (certainly due to price), but fine and worth considering.

I think one of the main reasons a product like this exists is because most of the market intentionally obfuscates the capabilities of gear. This makes it difficult for consumers to match their use cases to products. How good are consumers are defining their use cases, really? There's not enough information to form an opinion or make a real comparison. So we guess or rely on authority or just buy anyway and try it out. Hopefully nothing comes up that makes you mad at the thing, the company making it, or yourself for spending the money.

 

[JiiPee]

Hmm.

You've changed course from "human hearing capability" to "needs". If you compartmentalize things to that extent you can justify most decisions.

So say you have some very specific, inflexible set of needs. Does this product really satisfy them?

The question to ask is if Hegel is justified in producing this product at all, which costs $2k and has two poorly working subsystems. If they removed the headphone amp or improved it, and improved the line out, it would be fine. Not great, not applicable to a wide range of use cases and buyers (certainly due to price), but fine and worth considering.

I think one of the main reasons a product like this exists is because most of the market intentionally obfuscates the capabilities of gear. This makes it difficult for consumers to match their use cases to products. How good are consumers are defining their use cases, really? There's not enough information to form an opinion or make a real comparison. So we guess or rely on authority or just buy anyway and try it out. Hopefully nothing comes up that makes you mad at the thing, the company making it, or yourself for spending the money.

No. I have not changed anything. Having an amplifier with a sound quality that is good enough in the sense that I can not detect a difference between it and another (better measuring) amplifier, and do I want/need to use headphones, or not, are not mutually exclusive alternatives to each other. A customer may include them both, or one of them, or neither one of them in his/her purchasing criteria.

Just about all integrated amplifiers in the same price range as H95 can be said to be overpriced, if You only look at the measurements and notice that You can have the equal or better results from cheaper alternatives. If You arrange a proper blind test among them, You will likely see that the participants are not able the tell them apart from sound quality point of view.

This may come as a surprise to some forum members, but there are actually people who don't get a warm and fuzzy feeling from the knowledge that their amplifier has 7dB better SINAD, than the amplifier of their neighbor.

 

[Liten]

Now soundstagenetwork saying that Amir does not know what he's doing. Clowns.

 

[USER]

Now soundstagenetwork saying that Amir does not know what he's doing. Clowns.

View attachment 168664

Good thing no one is listening to them.

https://www.similarweb.com/website/audiosciencereview.com/?competitors=soundstagenetwork

Those asinine comments are far worse for them than for ASR.

 

[BDWoody]

Now soundstagenetwork saying that Amir does not know what he's doing. Clowns.

View attachment 168664

Desperate clowns...scrambling for relevance.

 

[KSTR]

The "DAC" output is prior to amplification block. It is capable of going up to 2.4 volt. Why would that stage care that the amplification block *after* it clips? If I cascade an external DAC to your amplifier and your amp clips, nothing happens to the performance of the external DAC. Why is it that by pulling that functionality in, you wind up disturbing the performance of the DAC in the same scenario?

That is indeed a good question as this behavior is totally unexpected and therefore the pitfall you trapped into opened up to begin with.

I can think of circuit designs where the pot is used unbuffered to feed the power amp and when that input is overdriven it starts to clamp down the voltage. Tapping off at the same point to a line-out, even with buffer in place, then wouldn't help.

At any rate such conditions normally only occur at much higher levels. Plus I've only seen this in global feedback design (which we don't have here), op-amp-based, witch clamping diodes accross the stage input. When the amp clips it goes open-loop and the feedback input cannot track the signal input anymore, causing the clamping diodes to shunt away current from the signal input once it reached certain levels.

It's really weird, definitely.

 

[pozz]

No. I have not changed anything. Having an amplifier with a sound quality that is good enough in the sense that I can not detect a difference between it and another (better measuring) amplifier, and do I want/need to use headphones, or not, are not mutually exclusive alternatives to each other. A customer may include them both, or one of them, or neither one of them in his/her purchasing criteria.

Just about all integrated amplifiers in the same price range as H95 can be said to be overpriced, if You only look at the measurements and notice that You can have the equal or better results from cheaper alternatives. If You arrange a proper blind test among them, You will likely see that the participants are not able the tell them apart from sound quality point of view.

This may come as a surprise to some forum members, but there are actually people who don't get a warm and fuzzy feeling from the knowledge that their amplifier has 7dB better SINAD, than the amplifier of their neighbor.

Ok, so let's do what you suggest and ignore everything except the amp. Here are some competitors:

Whether or not differences will be heard will depend on the efficiency of the speakers and size of the room, playback level and, yes, SINAD at the output. If the H95 runs out of power, SINAD will drop hard. At 100 watts output, SINAD is 30dB!

So choosing one of these devices and defining a use case means having a good sense of the contributing numbers. No blind testing or audition necessary.

 

[capitanharlock]

Conclusions
Let's quickly agree that both the DAC and headphone amplifiers are junk. They are better off leaving both out. You can do better with hundreds of products that cost the same as the shipping or tax of the H95. I watched one video where the youtuber said he preferred the sound of Hegel DAC to his Chord Mojo in some ways. Wonder what he thinks now.

I guess the above quote had alot to do with swaying your opinion about what was a perfectly satisfactory purchase at the time.
Amir listens to some of the products tested. How he determines which one is worthy seems capricious. If any product needed a subjective evaluation it's something like the H95 to further prove that it, in fact, sounds like it measures. Of course, I gather that it has already been shipped back.

L

Come on, he was sarcastic.

 

[MaxBuck]

Disgruntled H95 owner here. I must admit that I bought into the Hegel PR garbage of distortion free / pure / clean sound. SoundEngine2 feed-forward nonsense. I even convinced myself the DAC was good!

I auditioned 5 different amps at my house (including a 'perfect' class-D with enormous amount of global feedback) and after lots of effort decided that I liked the H95 the best. Disclaimer, I am a sucker for all-in-one solutions, I even use the headphone output on this thing.

Anyway, after reading this thread I can no longer listen the noisy hunk of junk in my rack.
I hate it everything about it now, funny how your brain works. It's on eBay already.

The question is what the hell I should get now. I spent so much time landing on the H95, can't go though the audition agony/expense again.

Giving up on music is probably the correct answer.

// Annoyed Hegel customer

 

[capitanharlock]

flip it, my H95 got picked up within the hour on eBay.

I know, I bought it. 50 $ is a bit expensive, but if I can help a friend…

 

[JiiPee]

Ok, so let's do what you suggest and ignore everything except the amp. Here are some competitors:

View attachment 168668
Whether or not differences will be heard will depend on the efficiency of the speakers and size of the room, playback level and, yes, SINAD at the output. If the H95 runs out of power, SINAD will drop hard. At 100 watts output, SINAD is 30dB!

So choosing one of these devices and defining a use case means having a good sense of the contributing numbers. No blind testing or audition necessary.

Sigh... just when I have tried to explain that consumers make their own criteria based on what is relevant to them. Why should I care if the amplifier does not have enough power to satisfy a heavy metal band performing an open air concert, if it still has all the power needed to drive my speakers in my modest living room. There are tens of amplifiers that perform well enough from my point of view, so when I choose between them, the numbers won't play an important role.

 

[DanielT]

What contrasts it is. This thread, this amplifier compared to:

Check price AND performance here:

Topping PA5 Review (Amplifier)

Think I could run LS50s off of this?

audiosciencereview.com

 

[killdozzer]

I mean, the performance would be ok for a 400-500 dollars Yamaha gear, but that's not the case.

Hey, hey, hey... What's with the highbrow and stiff upper? 500$ Yamaha wipes floors with boutiqey sh like this Hegel.

 

[Berlin]

The Hegel H90 (previous version of H95) and the RME ADI-2 DAC with a 200W per channel amp. I have been comparing both units using my BMR Monitors in this 12'x13' room. The ADI-2 DAC has a very positive ASR review while the Hegel H95 was just rated poorly by ASR. However, when I switch between these units with the BMR monitors the sound difference is minor to my ears. I am quite happy listening to music on either system.

I connected at least 5 different external DACs to my H120, e.g. the Denafrips Ares II and the Allo Boss2 Player. I could hear practically no differences. However, if I had found this forum 2 years ago, I would not have bought a Hegel amplifier...

 

[AudioJester]

I connected at least 5 different external DACs to my H120, e.g. the Denafrips Ares II and the Allo Boss2 Player. I could hear practically no differences. However, if I had found this forum 2 years ago, I would not have bought a Hegel amplifier...

What you hear does not change the fact something is over-priced and poorly engineered.....

 

[amirm]

That is indeed a good question as this behavior is totally unexpected and therefore the pitfall you trapped into opened up to begin with.

I am not trapped into anything. I have tested a number of AVRs with the same limitation. It is completely familiar ground for me. What is not is seeing an expensive piece of gear do the same thing. Tests like this hopefully is a forcing function so that future designs don't suffer the same. As it is, there is no way to use an external more powerful amplifier.

 

[luknap]

However in terms of SINAD H95 measures better than much more more pricier new Marantz 30?

 

[pozz]

Sigh... just when I have tried to explain that consumers make their own criteria based on what is relevant to them. Why should I care if the amplifier does not have enough power to satisfy a heavy metal band performing an open air concert, if it still has all the power needed to drive my speakers in my modest living room. There are tens of amplifiers that perform well enough from my point of view, so when I choose between them, the numbers won't play an important role.

This exchange started when you wrote there were two ways to interpret the H95: inadequate based on the stringent requirements of "audio science", or adequate because none of its issues are audible.

Audibility will depend on how it's used, which subsystem, for what purpose, and so forth. The member who sent the H95 for measurement complained that the line out was unable to drive his subwoofer. The headphone amp is sure to be inadequate for planars or IEMs. The speaker amp is fine, and shows good headroom, although with inefficient speakers and a large room it will underperform.

The H95's not abhorrent as you say. It's mediocre. It falls evenly into line beside its competitors and is hardly distinguishable. That's the surprise. The expectations going in were high, given the reputation of the company and the marketing.

So it's adequate, the way a C+ was adequate in grade school.

 

[dougi]

I am not trapped into anything. I have tested a number of AVRs with the same limitation. It is completely familiar ground for me. What is not is seeing an expensive piece of gear do the same thing. Tests like this hopefully is a forcing function so that future designs don't suffer the same. As it is, there is no way to use an external more powerful amplifier.

Well, I assume you can use one well enough if it is sufficiently senstitive? Hegel don't quote that for their amp specs though. They should be OK with the N95 though, going by Soundstage measurements of their H20.

 

[amirm]

Well, I assume you can use one well enough if it is sufficiently senstitive?

Yes. Normally audio gear is supposed to be plug and play without the consumer having to know such intricate details of amplifiers and pre-amps. Here you better check.

Also note that even if you have a sensitive power amp, the DAC has too high a noise to be a good source for it. It degrades the performance of the internal amplifier already so will do the same to external one.