Hegel H-120 Integrated Amp $3000 (75×2)

It Is GREAT, Not Just Good!

Everything we sell at Audio Emporium is good. Some products are conspicuously musically better than good. Let’s call them GREAT!

We can help you find the point of diminishing returns, where you’ll go from good to great most expeditiously.

Hegel’s H-120 is this product in an integrated amp! Hegel achieves a level of dynamics and precise resolution that you simply can’t garner from anything less.

There are plenty of fine products that sound good and hit even harder. For ex, NAD C-165BEE preamp and C-275BEE power amp will play louder than Hegel. But they just can’t reveal the nuance of overtone clarity/color that H-120 can purvey.

Hegel’s tricks of the trade amplify with less distortion than “the other guys.” You might wonder aloud, many brands have less than .05% THD. That’s effectively no distortion. Hence anything less is moot, correct? Nope. The delineation Hegel can deliver exceeds any THD spec.

 

H-120 Details

H-120 will take your sources:

Ex. Bluesound Node 2i streamer $550
Ex. Audiolab 6000CDT transport $550

You run digital out of these sources into H-120. You’ll be hearing the superlative SynchroDAC built in H-120.

SynchroDAC

H-120’s SynchroDAC is Synchronous, not Asynchronous. It does not PROCESS your incoming digital signal. It passes the signal in native form without adulteration. H-120’s SynchroDAC is derived from its newer bigger brothers, H-390 and H-590.

Have a listen to a talented acoustic guitar player like Kenn Fox of Spiritone Records. The plucks, attacks and overtone structure of his guitar are superbly intimate. The squeaks and articulate technique can breathe and flow through Hegel.

As you listen to anything less, all of these nuances are masked to a noticeable degree. This is a matter of resolution, not volume. While something less does not sound like distortion, it is indeed the lack of distortion that allows Hegel to scale to a higher level of performance.

Hand Matched FET Transistors In Preamp Section

Most preamp sections do all their work within a silicon chip that costs under one dollar. Not so for Hegel! Hegel painstakingly matches transistors by hand to diminish noise and distortion to a level that will let you appreciate Kenn’s fine playing better than anything less. It takes considerable cost, time and effort to hand match these components in Norway. It’s worth the trouble!

SoundEngine2 In Power Amp Section

SoundEngine2 is Hegel’s improved SE technology. By boosting current and voltage separately instead of in series, and canceling any distortion going forward with its proprietary SE2 circuitry, Hegel achieves feather like detail that the other guys out there soften or overtly blur.

The other guys use global feedback to reduce, but cannot eliminate distortion. Hegel uses a detector that dynamically detects and eliminates distortion. The result is that Hegel’s sound is free of fog and artifacts that get in the way of musical purity.

H-120’s damping factor is over 2000. This provides vice grip control so your speakers can start and stop nimbly. I want to make sure you don’t confuse the speed I’m describing with volume. Hegel provides superior mastery of driver travel to convey definition/flavors that are masked by less responsive designs.

Presentation

Hegel sounds more ALIVE than the gear sold by the big names. Transients start and stop with precision. The music breathes more realistically with Hegel than the other guys. You feel sticks against cymbals and hammers strike cords within a piano. Everything you ascribe to immediacy is what Hegel improves vs the big marketing guys.

Equate this description with video. If the background is pure black, colors can POP from the screen. If the background tends towards gray, the colors are more listless.

Once you hear Hegel precision, you can’t miss it. And of course we have demos set up where you can hear it in full glory!