MAGAZINE
Hegel launched the H590 integrated amp five years ago, which won the coveted EISA Award, among other accolades. After three years of development, the Norwegian manufacturer now present the successor: H600. According to Hegel, it offers a variety of new features, new design, a new DAC, an improved amplifier section, and a significantly superior streaming engine. In addition, it is supposed to be truly powerful in order to cover all audiophile needs, as Hegel has also added a few more watts of power.
The H600 is said to deliver a good 300 watts of continuous power into 8 ohms per channel, offer a damping factor of 4000 as well as the possibility to operate the amplifier stable at loads of two ohms. The amp is built in dual-mono design with channel-separated power supplies, aiming to come close to the performance of two mono amplifiers in a single housing. It is also said to feature a state-of-the-art preamp part with extremely precise volume control taken from Hegel's reference P30A preamplifier. The entire electronic circuitry comes from in-house development using the highest quality components, which aims to ensure optimal control over the entire setup.
A key part is the SoundEngine 2 – a patented electronic circuit-based error correction system – which is supposed to ensure that the audio signal delivered by the H600 is as close as possible to the original recording. As a result, the manufacturer reports an enormously wide and deep sound spectrum with incredible dynamic range and top-notch bass control.
Equipped with numerous analog as well as digital inputs and featuring the common streaming services, the H600 will be available at retailers from September/October* at a price of €11,495*, according to Hegel.
*Availability and price for Germany.
