Hegel H600 Streaming Integrated Amplifier Review by TAS
If you are considering the purchase of the flagship Hegel H600 integrated amplifier ($12,500), there is a very high chance you already know what it is, what it can do, and how many published reviews already out there have raved about its prowess, sonic attributes, and phenomenal flexibility. A virtual Swiss Army knife of features and capabilities has been incorporated into Hegel’s top-tier integrated.
About Hegel H600
And why does it need all that ventilation? Because inside is a warp core (or a transformer, I always get them mixed up) feeding a dual-mono Class AB MOSFET amplifier producing 300 watts per channel into 8 ohms (doubling to 600Wpc into 4 ohms and stable to 2 ohms) with a damping factor of 4000. What this means is that this integrated can power and control any speaker you may decide to connect to it. The design is heavily based on principles implemented in Hegel’s well-respected H30A reference amplifier. The power and control this integrated offers cannot be understated or underappreciated. It is an incredible achievement, and proper kudos must be given to the engineers at Hegel.The preamp section utilizes the volume-attenuation technology of Hegel’s reference P30A preamplifier and shares several of its circuit topologies. Hegel implements its proprietary SoundEngine 2 correction technology, described as using local and adaptive feed-forward technology to cancel crossover distortion and remove high-frequency distortion inherent in Class AB designs. The intended result is a much cleaner music signal with a larger dynamic range and reduced noise. Without the ability to turn SoundEngine 2 off and on, there is no real way to say how well it performs. But I had no complaints with what I heard, and I guess the proof is in the proverbial pudding.
If the 300Wpc amplifier is the heart of the system, then the DAC is clearly the brain. This is what one would describe as a feature-rich integrated. The built-in ESS 9038Q2M D/A converter is a bit-perfect design that can handle MQA 8x, 32/384 PCM, and DSD256, avoiding upsampling or resampling entirely (my personal preference). Utilizing a large dedicated power supply well shielded from the remainder of the internals, the DAC is fed by an internal server with built-in Spotify, Tidal Connect, UPnP, Qobuz Connect (pending), Chromecast, and Apple AirPlay; it will also soon be Roon ready. All are easy to set up and use via the associated tablet app. Of course, the digital inputs on the back also allow the use of any external source, and my Extreme music server fed it some sweet ones and zeroes to see what the H600 could really do. Playing this 300Wpc behemoth through my Wilson Alexx V loudspeakers let me see what a twelve thousand dollar integrated could deliver, and I was not disappointed. Which finally gets us to the creamy filling of this tasty treat.
Conclusion
The H600 isn’t the type of component you rave about. Not because it doesn’t deserve it, but because it is above that. I respect the fact that it knows what it is and what it is supposed to do. I admire the absolutely incredible value it represents. I appreciate all that it can do and the fact that nothing seems to suffer to get it all done. I recognize that it may be the only product of its type in the price class it is in and that it represents a truly high-end component while sitting at a mid-level price point (compared to the $25k–$45k integrateds now filling the market). And, most importantly, I truly enjoyed my time with it.Bravo Hegel. Bravo.
- Matthew Clott, TAS Jun 28, 2024