What Sets Hegel Amplifiers Apart | Listen Interview w/ Hegel

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When Bent Holder founded Hegel in 1988 in Oslo Norway, he didn’t know he was starting a company that would go on to make some of the world’s finest amplifiers. A musician and budding electronics wiz, initially, he just wanted to find a solution to the distortion issue that plagued pretty much all amplifiers. Traditional amplifier designs, even transistor or vacuum tube level designs, distort the waveform found at their input to some degree, consequently creating an output that is different from their input. So he started working on technology that would minimize amplifier distortion. Technology that would later become Hegel’s signature SoundEngine distortion canceling system.

Sound Engine utilizes an analog computer and comparator circuit in each stage of amplification. The analog computer takes a continuous snapshot of the signal, and inverts it, then compares it to the original waveform. Because the waveform is inverted, distortions that have been added appear as differences in the original waveform and are filtered out leaving the original waveform intact without distortion at the circuit's output.

At first Bent’s idea was to develop distortion cancel technology to be used by anyone developing and building amplifiers. However, after realizing he had something special and that if it was utilized in a ground up design, he could better realize his vision of distortion free amplification, Hegel Music Systems was officially born. And so was its vision—to be a company intent on creating the best distortion free amplifiers available.

But that’s not all. Bent and Hegel’s knack for innovation would result in many other breakthrough developments, including a unique approach to creating the ultimate integrated amplifiers that offer tons of capability without sacrificing performance—something other integrated amplifier designs have struggled to achieve. Some of these designs include the Hegel H390, Hegel H190 and the new reference Hegel H600.

Additionally, Hegel has contributed to huge leaps in the quality and convenience of streaming music. Most notably with their Apple Airplay integration and how they have been able to improve the sound quality significantly. What this has done is made it simpler to stream at high quality because you don’t need additional built in streaming apps. You can just simply rely on the ease and convenience of Airplay.

In this video ListenUp sits down with Hegel’s head of marketing and communications, Anders Ertzeid, to discuss Hegel’s unique philosophy of sound and how this philosophy, along with SoundEngine, has guided Hegel toward developing one of the finest collections of amplifiers and audio components in the world.

Hegel H600 Specifications:

Power Output: 2 x 303 watts in 8 ohms
Minimum Load: 2-ohms
Analog Inputs: (2) Balanced (XLR), (2) Unbalanced (RCA)
Digital Outputs: (1) Coaxial (BNC) S/PDIF - 24/192
Digital Inputs: (1) Coaxial (BNC) S/PDIF - 24/192, DSD64(DoP), MQA 8x
(1) Coaxial (RCA) S/PDIF - 24/192, DSD64(DoP), MQA 8x
(3) Optical S/PDIF - 24/96, MQA 8x
(1) USB - 32/384, DSD256(DoP), MQA 8x
(1) Network - 24/192, DSD64, MQA 8x
Line Level Outputs: (1) Unbalanced fixed(RCA), (1) Unbalanced variable(RCA)
Streaming: AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, Roon Ready (pending), Tidal Connect, UPnP
Streaming Formats: MP3, WAV, FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, DSF, DFF, AAC, PCM, MQA,Ogg
Frequency Response: 5Hz-100kHz
Signal-to-Noise Ratio: More than 100dB
Crosstalk: Less than -100dB
Distortion: Less than 0.005% @ 50W 8 Ohms 1kHz
Intermodulation: Less than 0.01% (19kHz + 20kHz)
Damping Factor: More than 4000 (main power output stage)
Dimensions/weight 17,1cm x 43cm x 44,5cm (HxWxD), 22kg
Dimensions/weight US 6,74” x 16,93” x 17,52” (HxWxD), 48,51 lbs

Hegel H190 Specifications:
Power output: 2 x 150 W into 8 Ω
Minimum load: 2 Ω
Analog Inputs: 1 x balanced (XLR), 2 x unbalanced (RCA)
Digital Inputs: 1 x coaxial (RCA), 3 x optical, 1 x USB, 1 x Network
Line level Output: 1 x unbalanced fixed (RCA), 1 x unbalanced variable (RCA)
Frequency response: 5 Hz - 100 kHz
Signal-to-noise ratio: More than 100 dB
Crosstalk: Less than -100 dB
Distortion: Less than 0.01% @ 25 W/8 Ω/1 kHz
Intermodulation: Less than 0.01% (19 kHz + 20 kHz)
Damping factor: More than 4000 (main power output stage)

Finish: Black or White

#HegelMusicSystems #IntegratedAmplifiers #NorwegianSound #DistortionFreeMusic #SoundEngine

0:00 Intro
0:36 Philosophy of Sound
1:13 Approach to Integrated Amplifiers
4:00 Hegel Sound Signature
6:04 SoundEngine 2
11:00 Unique Airplay Integration
12:40 H600 Streaming & Internal DAC
16:03 Where to Find