Hegel H390 Integrated Amplifier

Audio Components Integrateds
1

I bought a new Hegel H390 last week and it arrived last Thursday. Sadly, my girlfriend has been working from home, so I haven’t been able to listen to it nearly as much as I would like, but I have left it on for the past 125 hours and have logged maybe 18 hours of listening during that time.

I bought it to replace/upgrade my trusty old A-S801 amplifier that I enjoy so much that after buying a A-S2200 to replace it, I found that I preferred the A-S801 with my B&W 704 S2 speakers. After waiting awhile, I decided that I wanted to try a Hegel, based on the reviews that I have read and, more importantly, on personal experience, as the amp that I demoed the 704 S2 on at my local dealer, which convinced me to buy, was a Hegel. I wanted more power than I was getting with my A-S801 (100W into 8ohms), so I decided to try the H390 (250W into 8ohms, Hegel reports that this doubles (500W) into 4ohms.) I bought it from ListenUp online, they have great service and Scott was very patient, informative and gave me a good deal.

As I am a believer in burn in, because I always have experienced it in new components, I feel it is too soon to say anything definitive, I thought I would share my current impression of the amplifier in my system. I’d love to hear the experiences of this and other Hegel amplifiers.

  1. The tonality is incredibly even, I can crank the music and I get zero harshness.
  2. The sound is slightly smooth, tonally neutral and very powerful
  3. It is made incredibly well, better than any component I have owned.
  4. The internal DAC sounds awesome, I have ordered an upgraded coaxial to do it justice. Mine is cheap.
  5. Bass is solid and powerful, treble is detailed but never harsh, mids are spooky real, natural.
  6. Resolution is superb, my SACDs sound awesome
  7. Well worth it’s price, IMO.
  8. No hum that others have found on this and other Hegel amps
  9. Bass is so tight, I get no bass distortion, even from loud masterings
  10. Soundstage is wider than ever in my system, the dual mono blocks allow for great separation between instruments.
  11. Cymbals to die for! Realistic and clear, never bright.
  12. The power cable it comes with is 18AWG! I have replaced it with a hospital grade 14AWG cord that I had.
  13. I had always liked my speakers, but never felt anything close to love for them. Now, I’m thinking I might ask them to marry me.
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Yep, nice integrated that should be a solid step up over what you had previously. Enjoy

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3

Nice review! Congratulations on your new acquisition!

That sums it up :+1:t2:

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4

It’s a smooth operator.

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5

Hegel owners, Can you tell me a few things?

  1. Is it possible to completely turn of a Hegel amplifier or do they just go into standby when you turn them off?

  2. Does the ECO button on the remote perform the exact same function as the button underneath the unit?

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  1. According to the manual ECO places the unit in low power mode, whatever that means.
  2. The main power switch, center underneath unit down powers the unit. It will not respond to the remote control.
    Personally I would prefer that the units would not automatically down power, as it interferes with attempts fort he amplifier to warm-up.
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The thing is, if you press ECO on the remote, it makes the same sounds and leaves the same thing on the screen (a small white light in the bottom left corner) as when you use the button on the bottom.

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You best touch base with Hegel, then.

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Yeah, I asked them, waiting to hear back.

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