The Norwegian company Hegel introduced its previous flagship integrated amplifier H590 five years ago, and finally, after three years of development, Hegel is ready to present the H600 model, which will replace the H590.
The Hegel H 600 integrated amplifier offers many new features, a new chassis design, a new DAC, an improved amplifier section and a superior network streamer. The Norwegians also increased the output power of the flagship – now it produces 303 watts in each channel when operating on a load with a nominal resistance of 8 ohms. The damping factor in this case reaches 4000 – the amplifier is able to withstand a load impedance drop of up to 2 ohms.
The Hegel H600 is built in the concept of “double mono”, which brings its characteristics as close as possible to the characteristics of two monoblocks arranged in one case. The preamplifier section uses an extremely precise volume attenuator, the same one used in the reference P30A preamplifier. The circuit uses components of the highest quality.
The Hegel H600 amplifier’s digital-to-analog converter does not use oversampling – Hegel believes that upsampling the digital stream is detrimental to sound quality. The DAC is powered by a separate source and is shielded with a thick steel plate, which protects it and the analog amplifier circuits from mutual interference and interference.
The body of the Hegel H600 amplifier is made of aluminum. The design is based on a strong chassis and a top cover with vents milled on two levels for extra rigidity and better air circulation. Large aluminum feet keep the amplifier stable and dampen vibrations, while high-quality RCA connectors and optimized analog and digital jack placement ensure less noise and better channel separation.
The Hegel H600 integrated amplifier offers access to all popular streaming services and supports UPnP, Spotify Connect, Airplay 2, Tidal Connect and Roon Ready (in future firmware).
The switching arsenal of the Hegel H600 amplifier includes two pairs of balanced analog XLR inputs and two pairs of unbalanced RCA analog inputs. Any analog input can be configured as a power amplifier input to integrate the Hegel H600 into a home theater system. Digital switching is represented by Ethernet RJ45 and USB-B ports (32bit/384kHz with DSD256/DoP support), three optical inputs, a coaxial input, and a 75 ohm BNC input. There are also analog outputs from the pre-amplifier – linear and adjustable, as well as digital coaxial BNC.
The Hegel H 600 flagship integrated amplifier is expected to be available in Europe and the UK as early as September 2023 . The recommended retail price of new items in the UK is 10,500 pounds .
Hegel H600 Specifications:
- Output power: 2 x 303W into 8 ohms, dual mono
- Minimum load resistance: 2 ohms
- Frequency response: 5Hz – 100kHz
- Signal to noise ratio: more than 100 dB
- THD: less than 0.005% (50 W, 8 ohms, 1 kHz)
- Intermodulation distortion: less than 0.01% (19kHz + 20kHz)
- Damping factor: more than 4,000
- Analog inputs: 2 x balanced (XLR), 2 x unbalanced (RCA)
- Digital inputs: 1 x coaxial (BNC) S/PDIF – 24/192, DSD64(DoP), MQA 8x, 1 x coaxial (RCA) S/PDIF – 24/192, DSD64(DoP), MQA 8x, 3 x optical S/PDIF – 24/96, MQA 8x, 1 x USB-B – 32/384, DSD256(DoP), MQA 8x, 1 x Ethernet RJ45 – 24/192, DSD64, MQA 8x
- Analog outputs: 1 x single-ended fixed (RCA), 1 x single-ended adjustable (RCA)
- Digital outputs: 1 x coaxial (BNC) S/PDIF – 24bit/192kHz
- Streaming: AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, Roon Ready (pending), Tidal Connect, UPnP
- Streaming formats: MP3, WAV, FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, DSF, DFF, AAC, PCM, MQA, Ogg
- Dimensions (W x H x D): 43 x 17.1 x 44.5 cm
- Weight: 22 kg