Hegel H2 Power Amp Mini-Review

Discussion in 'Power Amps' started by purr1n, Jan 25, 2017.

  1. Clemmaster

    Clemmaster Friend

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    How about "Designed in Calabasas CA, Assembled in Valencia CA". Hint, hint.
     
  2. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    LOL. That will never happen. The supply chain with tube amps can be difficult. Hmm, maybe.
     
  3. TwoEars

    TwoEars Friend

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    @Marvey

    That's more like it. If you have amps you think beat the H20 in terms of price-performance that's fine. But I don't think you know the cost of the components inside the H20, or the cost of the R&D that went into it. And neither do I for that matter.

    A Schiit / Craig collaboration could be pretty interesting. Maybe Craig could help Schiit put out a tube Raggy?
     
    Last edited: Mar 30, 2017
  4. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    I think reviews and randos on the internet play up the whole Norwegian thing. The only mention of Norway on their website I can find is their friggin contact info.

    Regardless of any of this, my H360 is a fantastic piece of gear and got a great price off MSRP. Happy customer here!
     
  5. murphythecat

    murphythecat GRU-powered uniformed trumpkin

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    im considering the hegel h80... so the h80 was bright and boring... what do you use now?

    thanks
     
  6. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    The H80 integrated is not same the same class as the H2 / H20 power amps.
     
  7. zonto

    zonto Friend

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    Saw this today and thought folks may be interested:

     
  8. zonto

    zonto Friend

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    I've been looking into other amps for my living room system for a while now and was intrigued by the Hegel separates after reading this thread. In researching the Hegel H20 amp, I came across @purr1n's statement in his Vidar review:
    This is inaccurate. The Hegel H20 product page states that it uses 20 bipolar transistors.

    I asked on the Hegel Music System Facebook group about the differences between the H2 and H20. Anders Ertzeid of Hegel responded:

    When I asked about the biasing of the amp, Anders stated:
    More SoundEngine marketing info (and the video linked above) here: https://www.hegel.com/technology/soundengine.

    Last December, I borrowed a Hegel H20 amplifier from my local dealer for a week-long home demo. Unfortunately the dealer had already sold their P20 preamp store demo and didn't have any other balanced preamps in stock, so I used my Ragnarok 1.5 as preamp via the XLR outputs. Other system details in my profile.

    Compared to my Ragnarok amp stage, the Hegel H20:
    • portrayed a taller and wider stage.
    • was more forward in its presentation. This was not a frequency response thing, but rather a sense of where sound appeared to emanate from the Maggies. With the Ragnarok, the stage started even with the speakers and went back from there. With the Hegel it appeared to start a small distance in front of the speakers. This was nice on music, but I did not like it for TV/movies because vocals were slightly disconnected from the actors themselves.
    • had a sense of ease and flow, and much better bass response and control. The Hegel much more effectively drove my Maggies. No surprise here.
    • did not sound any "brighter" to me. No surprise here either given the Ragnarok already has a more neutral sound signature.
    • seemed more resolving, especially of the acoustic space. Noticed this especially on some acoustic Christmas music with bells and shakers, but the phenomenon was even noticeable when watching sitcoms where it was easier to hear footsteps and high heel clicks on the stage/set.
    I like the clean aesthetic of the amp, and thought the silver finish was pretty nice. The dealer was asking $3,000 for the store demo on closeout, and I may have been able to negotiate lower. I was not enamored enough with the amp to do so. Given I like more current-hungry speakers that often have brighter sound signatures I did not think I'd be happy with the amp long term. Also don't want to spend Hegel H30 money. Looks like the dealer sold the H20 on Audiogon for $2,700. I recently found an amazing deal on a 100-pound monster amp from Coda Technologies in CA (very similar to the 15.5 amp), and should receive it later this month. May start a separate thread for that in a couple months. Edit: see here and here re: the Coda.
     
    Last edited: Sep 4, 2020

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