HEGEL H150 > A fantastic integrated amplifier, Stereoplus

A Lot of Hi-Fi Fun for the Money - Hegel H150
With the development of the H400 and H600, which are integrated amplifiers in the absolute top class, Hegel has clearly learned even more about how to make amplifiers sound right. This time it’s about the H150. Among friends also called Prodigy.
Hegel is a real success story. From a rather modest start, Bent Holter and the rest of the team in the research park have built up a company that is mentioned in virtually every context where hi-fi is discussed, especially when it comes to their integrated amplifiers.

The sound

Hegel’s strength has always been bass control, and you immediately notice this with the H150. In fact, so much so that I can understand why some people think Hegel is a little lean in the bass, but it doesn’t lack anything at all. It just removes a lot of sonic debris that people are used to hearing in the bass region and that many stereo fans might call “fat bass.” It takes a little time to get used to the bass being this tight, controlled, and precise—not just in the attack but also in the decay of the deepest frequencies. Still, after listening to the H150 for a while, it’s clear that this approach to the lowest frequencies brings extra life, precision, and dynamics to the mid-bass and midrange. It is simply incredibly open, detailed, precise, and transparent for an integrated amplifier in this price class. Of course, one is free to like whatever one prefers, but you still can’t escape the fact that the Hegel H150 exudes quality—no matter what you feed it with, whether analog or digital signals, or even a turntable. I, and probably others, might miss an MC input for turntables, but that’s a demanding and costly need to satisfy.

Conclusion

Despite competitors such as Yamaha, Rotel, Cambridge, NAD, Rega, Musical Fidelity, and many others having products in roughly the same price range—all with feature sets that are at least comparable—the Hegel H150 does very well against all of them. The drive and weight it delivers are highly impressive, and when it combines that with very high precision and clarity usually only found in higher price classes, this becomes a product that delivers a tremendous amount of hi-fi fun for the money.
The amplifier is also well-balanced in terms of both sound and features, and it’s hard to find anything in the overall experience that could realistically be much better without the price shooting up dramatically. Most likely, an audible improvement in all parts of the electronics would end up in an amplifier at least twice the price—and then we’re talking about the Hegel H400.

If it weren’t for the fact that I’m constantly accused of favoring Norwegian manufacturers, even though Hegel is praised internationally, I’d simply say that the H150 is a fantastic integrated amplifier.

Hegel H150
Stereoplus