he H190 is one of five integrated amplifiers currently offered by HEGEL MUSIC SYSTEMS, and the latest addition to the range. In the price list it sits below the powerful H360. The hierarchy seems clear - the higher the power, the bigger and more expensive the amplifier. This does not say anything about the true value of the product. It is actually a combination of power (though not always), performance, functionality, reliability and durability. In the case of Hegel, all these elements are constant, are always there, although some improvements are made from time to time when the designers come to the conclusion that it is worthwhile to change something and that these changes will translate into a significant change in performance.

It's one of those manufacturers who prefer common sense over current trends. They do not rush to implement every novelty in their products, waiting for what will come out of it, how it develops and whether the market will accept it. But when such novelty turns out to be a permanent trend, Bent Holger, Hegel's founder and chief engineer, takes a closer look at it, trying to adapt what he thinks is the most interesting part of it for his customers.

In the case of the latest addition to the Hegel lineup, we have a powerful integrated amplifier with a digital card installed inside, with electrical and optical inputs, plus an USB port. Looking at its predecessor one is likely to say that it is not a revolution, but rather an evolutionary change - the H160 model featured the same power output, size, weight and offered the same set of analog and digital inputs. This is the latest version of the Hegel's platform, even newer than the one used for H360 and Röst.

Digital inputs: musical signal | audio files

The H190 is also an integrated amplifier with three line inputs - two unbalanced RCAs and one balanced XLR - two RCA line outputs and a series of digital inputs, including coaxial, three optical TOSLinks and USB. Next to the latter there is one more port - the RJ45, for a classic Ethernet jack. It's also a digital input, but it's bi-directional, and it's not used to send a music signal through it but files. This is the basic difference between digital and Ethernet inputs, which most music lovers and unfortunately also journalists do not understand. The difference may seem subtle, but from technical point of view it is essential, so actually we are dealing with two different types of audio devices.

In the first case, when we transmit the signal via RCA digital cable or optical TOSLink, we are already transmitting a decoded music signal; digital but music one. Decoding - in other words: reading data from a memory, HDD or optical disc - takes place on the side of digital transport, i.e. computer, CD transport (DVD / Blu-ray) or streamer.

The digital signal is transmitted over the RJ45 link, but in the form of files, as in the computer. It is only in the music card - as it is called by Hegel's literature - files are unpacked, decoded and converted to digital music signal in I2S format. This signal is then sent to the DAC and converted to an analog form. The function I'm talking about is a function assigned to STREAMERS / AUDIO FILES TRANSPORTS. Therefor the Hegel H190 is an integrated amplifier and audio files player. In company's materials, this feature is called the Digital Media Renderer.

We connect the RJ45 port to the router connected to a NAS storing music files. The H190's sound card works with DLNA, including AirPlay. The H190 plays PCM formats including WAV, AIFF, FLAC, ALAC, Ogg and MP3. There is no information regarding maximum sampling rate in company's literature, nor whether the device plays also DSD files. After taking a look inside I think it is capable of playing PCM files up to 24 bits and 192 kHz.

This may be yet another manifestation of Mr. Holger's conservative approach - what he offers must fully meet his expectations. If something does not seem to be perfect, he doesn't use it. The same applies to USB input, which is considered as inputs for people who do not want to bother themselves with drivers and settings - it only accepts signals up to 24 bits and 96 kHz so no need for any setup/driver. But it is based on one of the best chips of Tenor Audio, which Hegel already has worked out. In my opinion many manufacturers lack such a reasonable approach in our industry forgetting that sometimes less means more. Ultimately, if someone needs a full-fledged audio files player or USB DAC, he or she should look for an external D/A converter.

| H190

“Hegel H190 replaces the Hegel H160, one of our all time best sellers, and the first EISA Award winning product from Hegel. The new H190 has newer features, updated design and sounds much better. The new soundengine gives it better woofer control with a damping factor of more than 4000. A bigger soundstage, more details, clearer sound and the ability to play loud longer, on bigger speakers than the H160 could.”

source: Hegel H190 manual

The H190 is a powerful amplifier delivering up to 150 watts per channel at 8 ohms load, at 4 ohms offering a pretty solid 250 watts. The device does not double the power at half the impedance, but Bent Holger never tried to achieve that, concentrating on other solutions. One can find them on the manufacturer's website in the H190 description sheet, mentioned in the following order:

• DualAmp,
• DualPower,
• Organic Sound,
• SoundEngine,
• SynchroDAC,
• USB.

Some of them are pretty obvious, like USB (USB input), and SynchroDAC. The latter name conveys a fairly simple solution, that's been used by Hegel since they began to produce DACs, and it is based on synchronous upsampling, ie changing the sampling frequency directly - eg from 44.1 kHz we get 176.4 kHz (x4) or 352 kHz (x8) and not 192 kHz or 384 kHz respectively, as in asynchronous upsampling. Both methods have their fans and opponents. The company says that along with Direct MasterClock solution, the synchronous upsampling brings the most benefits.

One intuitively understands the name: Organic Sound, that described manufacturer's desire for coherent, natural sound. The Dual Power term should also sound familiar. The latter tells us that voltage sections, input and driver stages have separate power supplies. The difference is that if power supply is divided among different stages it is usually separate for preamplifier and output stages, which is different from in Dual Power case.

An interesting idea is also the DualAmp, although it is hardly a "patent", it is simply a known technical solution, but a rarely used one. The widely used division in for the preamp and power output sections (the power amplifier). But the power amplifier itself is also divided into - at least – two sections: input/control one, a voltage section, similar to a preamplifier, and an output section, ie current one (as opposed to voltage). The DualAmp is a physical separation of the control section from the current section. This allows designers to optimize the power supply and topology of the system.

SoundEngine2

The SoundEngine deserves a more elaborate explanation. When a music signal is passing through an audio amplifier it is changed. Hegel compares this degrading process to a story repeated by many people when usually each of them adds something to the story and forgets some small part too. At some point, the story has changed – the output information is different from the input one. The job of any designer should be finding proper solution to minimize that effect.

A classic solution is a negative feedback. Portion of a signal from output is sent back to the input. It allows achieving extended frequency range, lower distortion and noise levels, a lowers output impedance, or in other words increases damping factor. The negative feedback has also some downsides, for example it increases intermodulation distortion.

One of the most annoying distortion in case of an amplifier is so called "crossover distortions". They are formed when the amplified signal passes through zero, and this happens in all amplifiers working in the Class AB. The solution is to operate amplifier in Class A, but in this case one has to choose between low power or very large size (and price) of such device. That's why most modern amplifiers work in the Class AB.

To counter them, Hegel chose a solution called "adaptive feed forward technology," a system in which the signal is sent to the output of the circuit, instead of its input. This solution is called SoundEngine, and the H190 features its improved version - 2. In this way, the company says, "It combines the advantages of A and AB Class amplifiers, bypassing most of their problems." The SoundEngine2 eliminates crossover distortion present in other AB class amplifiers, ie high frequency distortion. In Hegel there is no glo

The H190 was tested in the "High Fidelity's" reference system and was compared to the separate system consisting of: Ayon Audio Spheris III and Soulution 710. The source was the Ayon Audio CD-35 HF Edition (No. 01/50) Player. The amplifier drove Harbeth M40.1 loudspeakers. All the cables came from Acoustic Revive lineup from their top series Triple-C cables. The amplifier was placed on the top of the Finite Elemente Pagode Edition rack and the Acoustic Revive RAF-48H pneumatic platform. On top of the amplifier I placed the EMI/RFI noise filter, the Verictum X Block.

The files were played via router from the Synology NAS. I used the application recommended by Hegel, ie Bubble, available at the Samsung Play store. For the test of the RCA digital input I used the CD transport of the Ayon Audio player. The headphone output was evaluated using HiFiMAN HE-1000 v2 planar-magnetic headphones and the Sennheiser HD800 dynamic headphones.

Recordings used for the test (a selec- tion)

• Gershwin, wyk. Anima Eterna Brugge, Jos van Immerseel, Alpha Classics ALPHA 289, CD (2017)
• Ella Fitzgerald, Ella Fitzgerald sings the Rodgers and Hart Song Book, Verve 537 258-2, „Verve Master Edition”, 2 x CD (1956/1997)
• Ferit Odman, Dameronia with Strings, Equinox Music & Entertainment/Master Music XRCD24-NT019, XRCD24 (2015/2016)
• Mark Hollis, Mark Hollis, Polydor 537 688-2, CD (1988)
• Nirvana, In Utero, Geffen GED 24536, CD (1993)
• Rosemary Clooney, Rosemary Clooney sings Ballads, Concord/Stereo Sound SSCDR-007, „Flat Transfer Series”, CD-R (1985/2016)
• Sting, The dream of the blue turtles, A&M Records/Mobile Fidelity, UDCD 528, gold-CD (1985/1990)
• Władysław Komendarek, Fruwająca lalka, Sonus/GAD Records GAD CD 059, CD (1991/2017)

---

Japanese issues available at

When testing the Luxman L-550AX MARK II amplifier, a device that clearly refers to the aesthetics of the 1970s, I wrote about its operation as if it was an almost living organism. Clicking of the relays, the backlit of its VA meter waking up, the VA meters themselves - all this reminded me of a living, breathing creature. I would place the Hegel amplifier exactly on the opposite end of the rainbow, because its design and functionality are based on functional minimalism. Still, the last thing that I associate this device with is some cold and harsh landscape of the north. This is one of those products that give the user a sense of confidence, offer some kind of "guarantee" and even the Luxman in terms of perception, not performance, seemed to be distanced (in comparison).

| Analog inputs

To me the most important feature of the Hegel H190 seems to be something outside musical performance, which comes to us with time and what later will be missed with most of the audio products – this feature I already referred to is confidence. I'm talking about the inner peace using this amplifier gives us. We do not have to worry about quality of any recordings because they will all sound interesting, if the music content allows it. And this is because Hegel's sound is extremely well balanced. It is a device whose creators wanted to deliver maximum bandwidth, the highest dynamics possible, and in their pursuit of a balance they did not lose the most important piece of the puzzle from their sight, ie the listener.

Focusing on a listener means, apart from generally accepted correctness, that nothing here is impersonal or bland. It is a common mistake of designers to assess their products based exclusively on measurements, instead of also listening to music. The measurements are of course crucial, but only in the first stage, and then they have to give way to some compromises needed to achieve a truly great sound. If I were to guess the design process in Hegel, I'd say that it is a sequence of measurements, listening, subsequent measurements, and final listening sessions that determine the ultimate performance.

One indicator is the energy-balance relationship, for example. By striving for "absolute" tonal balance one can easily lose energy somewhere on the way. In turn, the reverse process is best heard with tube amplifiers in which the tonal balance is most often subordinated to the tonality and energy. The Hegel H190 has both very nice tonality and great energy. The latter reminded me of that of the Qualiton A50i tube amplifier, which was featured on "High Fidelity's" October cover.

The Hegel is much more tonally aligned, with much better control of lowest part of the band, and at the same time it does not fall far behind in terms of the richness and energy level of the performance - a perfect compromise. On the other hand it does not offer such a tangible sound, that we love tube amplifier for. Therefore the H190 is more focused on the recording and its re-creation, not on creating a new event. It's great to hear the compromises made by the Nirvana on their In Utero album, which had two producers. It will also allow us to hear why Master CD-Rs are far superior to even the best mass releases.

At the same time the device's performance is not distant, I would even say that the foreground is a little favored against the back of the stage. But – please note - the soundstage is very deep. It is also stretched far beyond the wall behind the loudspeakers. Preferring vocals, solo instruments and generally what's in front of listener, even moving these elements bit closer to listener, focuses his attention on "here and now".

The amplifier's performance is very well balanced. It's a thing that comes back from time to time in your letters and which I try to correct from time to time. It happens quite often that Hegel's devices added to a system, built around a different amplifier, produce a “slimmer” sound, sometimes also adding some emphasis in the upper part of the band. As I know most of Hegel's devices I can only say one thing: if it happens there is a problem in a system that is not caused by Hegel. Sometimes problem lays in the listener, but still not in Hegel.

The H190 delivers an open sound, but with emphasis on lower midrange. Unlike Qualiton and Luxman, the treble is not warmed up nor rolled off, it is open and crisp. I remember many cases when after comparing publicly the Master CDs of the Polish Jazz series and their mass released versions, I asked the audience about their preference and most of them immediately pointed to the latter and to more enjoyable. It was only after second listening when I pointed out what to search for in the sound, that almost everyone changed their minds, unable to understand why they had not noticed it before.

And they didn't notice that the Master CD-R was much more resolving and therefore seemed brighter. But actually it is not. Hegel might have similar perceptual problems - because it does not “camouflage” anything, it does not pretend anything, it may seem too light sounding in unfavorable conditions, it may deliver too strong treble. If this happens, please rethink your system, try to listen to your recordings critically, breaking away from your habits. And it is worth it, because the H190 plays music as it should be played, ie honestly and with commitment. It plays it very, very well.

| DAC

The digital-to-analog converter installed in Hegel H190 works very well. Its main advantages are: smoothness, fluidity and leveled sound. It's a component that does not favor anything, it does not demand certain types of recordings to sound well. The tonal balance is slightly shifted up, but really just slightly so it's hard to call it a flaw - it's still an integral part of the amplifier. The treble is really good, maybe not as rich and as dense as with the Ayon player, but we are talking about the "card" in the integrated amplifier for less than 16,000 PLN compared to the player that costs 80 000 PLN.

At first, the DAC in the H190 does not attract much attention, but after some time one starts to realize its, above mentioned, advantages. It's not this type of component that wows listener from the start with bass, density or momentum. Everything develops slowly, casually, by the way. One quickly gets used to this presentation which turns out to be very attractive. Its strength lies in high resolution, reasonable selectivity and leveled sound.

If you are looking for a performance with some focus on, say, warmth or precision, Hegel most likely won't be IT. It is very transparent to the accompanying elements, removing the DAC itself from the picture. If it suits you, if you are looking for the truth, then spending at least 5000-6000 PLN for an external DAC will offer you more.

| Audio files player

The audio files playback is one of these functions that were not available in amplifiers, say, five years ago. The rapid change of the paradigm in which the amplifier becomes a source of sound calls for a separate article. Here and now let's say it's a very good addition to the H190's functionality. This is not the most important of its functions, nor is it the best one, but - like all others – it's a very solid, well thought out one.

While playing audio files we get a slightly different sound than from the DAC itself - which is also a part of the player - and from the analog inputs. First of all, it is significantly warmer and lower-set sound. There is a fluidity and density here, but the attention of the listener is focused primarily on the listening axis, because it is where the most things are happening. There is a large, solid foreground with nice warm vocals and a deep perspective.

A resolution and differentiation are not priorities here, because while one can hear the differences between 16/44.1, 24/96 and 24/192 files, they are not as important as the perception of the presentation as a whole. The higher the file resolution, the more information we get, it's clearer. But it were the 16/44.1 files that impressed me the most because they were warmer and more focused. There was nothing wrong with them, nothing was missing, everything was nice, pleasant, good. This is probably the most important advantage of this module: it plays files so that music is the most important, and the technician aspects remain “out of the view”.

| Headphones

I would treat the headphone output the same way as the digital inputs of this amplifier - as its complementary but important part. With any headphones Hegel will deliver at least good or very good performance. It is capable of driving any cans, at least it was with all the headphones I had, including planar ones. With the HiFiMAN HE-1000 v2 I got the best resolution and great differentiation, although the point of gravity was shifted up. So if I had to choose planar headphones it would either be not the HiFiMAN, but the Audeze LCD-3. This is not an amplifier that delivers very low bass, but with these cans it offers the most balanced sound with focus on the lower midrange.

As I've said, the headphone output is so good that it does not matter what type of headphone you use - whether it is the AKG K701, Sennheiser HD800 or even budget AKG Y50 music will sound really nice. It will surprise you more than once with the resolution and insight into the recording without annoying brightness. It focuses listener's attention on the "middle of the stage" - quotes are necessary because of the space presentation capabilities of any headphones. However, when the sound is properly encoded or by using proper software like for Kraftwerk's 3D Catalogue box, you will find yourselves surrounded by sounds.

What high quality external amplifiers can offer additionally is primarily a larger scale and warmer, richer sound. But that's life - if you have at least 3000-4000 zloty for external headphone amp – go for it. Otherwise buy better headphones which should offer you more significant sound quality improvement without adding additional device to the system.

Summary

This is a very solidly built device, in which any “fireworks” were dropped in favor of well-thought-out engineering. Its functionality is quite extensive, because it features both analogue and digital inputs, a good files player, and additionally it allows user to listen to the music using headphones. The amplifier is user friendly and simply put, pleasant to use, also because of a large, easily readable display.

The most important are the analog inputs. With a good source H190 will deliver a very realistic, truthful performance. I do not want to go to the upper "C", because it's not this type of device, one does not have to praise it endlessly, I even think that it would offend its designer. It should be enough to say that in every aspect it performs really well. It is worth building a system around it. It is not an amplifier for everyone, because some music lovers prefer a more tube-like sound, warmer and denser. But if you want to hear the truth about what's in the recording, Hegel will deliver just that.

Enthusiastic RED Fingerprint across the board- for the sound, fit&finish and above all for common sense

The H190 is a large, heavy device that can easily be mistaken for other Hegel amplifiers. And that is because the company in their effort to reduce costs, and thus the end price, makes all housings in a similar way, using a steel sheet metal chassis with aluminum front.

| Front and rear

The amplifier feature a slightly convex aluminum front with centrally placed display and two knobs on the sides. The OLED display in H190 looks very nice and easy to read. With the right knob user changes volume in one hundred steps - from 0 to 99 - every 1 dB, where '0' represents the mute and '99' the maximum volume. The left knob is an input selector. There is also a 6.3 mm headphone output on the side - when the headphones are plugged in, the speaker outputs are muted and only the line outputs remain active.

The display delivers all necessary information, such as the active source, volume level, and status of the LAN connection. It is also useful when adjusting settings in the menu - Hegel is microprocessor controlled, which opens up more possibilities for users. With the remote control, one can set the maximum volume (child and party protection), the initial volume level and turn off the display.

The sockets on the rear panel are arranged according to their functionality. On the left there are analogue, low-level connectors: two pairs of RCA inputs, one of XLR (pin 2 = hot) and two output pairs - one with a fixed signal level and the other with a variable one (for preamplifier or subwoofer). In the center there are speaker posts and to the right there is the digital section. There we have a RCA input, three TOSLink inputs, one USB and RJ45. Even further to the right there is the power inlet; the mechanical switch connected to it is placed in underneath the front panel.

The amplifier features three feet, as always in case of this manufacturer with two in the front and one in the rear. They are made of hard rubber.

| Inside

The electronic circuits are assembled on two PCBs: one with analogue and the other with digital circuitry. The latter is called a "sound card" by Hegel and includes digital inputs, a USB receiver, a file player and a digital-to-analog converter. The files player card, AirPlay and USB receivers were outsourced from an external supplier. The DAC is entirely designed in Hegel.

The resolution and the upper sampling frequency are determined by AK4118 receiver by Japanese company AKM with 24 bit resolution and 192 kHz sampling rate. The converter next to it, also by AKM, is the sampling rate converter (SRC). The manufacturer describes it as "asynchronous", but apparently it can be set to the desired output value because Hegel talks about a "synchronous" conversion.

And finally we arrived to the D/A converter itself, the AK4490EQ. This is a modern chip of the Velvet Sound series, a prestigious lineup of the AKM chips that accept PCM signals up to 32 bits and 768 kHz and DSD up to 11.2 MHz. Next to it there is a very nice wordclock, part of the Direct MasterClock system. Let's also say that the USB receiver/converter is part of a Hegel board. They decided to use the Tenor Audio TE7022 chip. It's not the latest development, but it's been tested in many other products and it accepts PCM signal up to 24 bits and 96 kHz.

The file player section is a LibreSync circuit. It also serves for wireless signal transmission, although this functionality is not supported here, because the wired (LAN) connection is clearly preferred. The digital circuit is powered from a separate secondary winding of the transformer, meaning it has its separate power supply.

The analogue section is surface-mounted, and it features WIMA polypropylene capacitors. The preamplifier section utilizes integrated circuits, including the integrated HRC NJW1159 resistor ladder. It is integrated into the output buffer, so the preamplifier itself can be very simple. The headphone amplifier is based on a single JRC4556AD chip and several surface-mount transistors.

The power amp section is completely solid-state. In its input one finds blue elements that once we would have called “thick-chip integrated circuits”. They are labeled SE3090 with Hegel logo. I guess that these are the SoundEngine2 chipsets. In the output work pairs of Sanken's transistors per channel, that operate in the AB class in a push-pull mode, and are bolted to a large heatsink. On the same PCB there is a power supply section with six large filtering capacitors. The voltage is supplied from a large toroidal transformer with several independent secondary windings. The analogue PCB is made of a thicker than usual copper layers.

| Remote control

H190 is controlled using the RC8 remote – a metal, solid unit with small push-buttons. They allow user to control not only Hegel amplifier but also their CD Players. Additionally it can be used to control playback of music files. It allows user to turn off the display, switch the “mute” function on/off, set on of the analogue inputs to work as so called „pass through”, which comes handy when combining Hegel with a home theater system.

It's a damn good machine!

Technical specification (according to manufacturer)

Nominal power: 2 x 150W / 8Ω | 2 x 250W / 4Ω
Minimal loading: 2Ω
THD: < 0,01% (p = 50W / 8Ω, f = 1kHz)
Intemodulation (19 + 20 kHz): < 0.01%
Damping factor: >4000
Frequency range: 5Hz - 100kHz
Crosstalk: <-100dB
Analog inputs: 1 x balanced XLR, 3 x unbalanced RCA
Digital inputs: 1 x RCA S/PDIF, 3 x TOSLink S/PDIF, 1 x USB, 1 x RJ45
S/N: > 100dB
Dimensions: 410 x 430 x 196mm
Weight: 19kg