HiFi+

per channel, and a huge power supply transformer (which
accounts for the height of the amp). On the digital side, this is
the rst domestic product in the audio world to sport the latest
AKM chipset and this meant a lot of coding performed by
Hegel’s team itself. The benet of this is it brings the second-
generation of MQA processing to the table, alongside PCM to
32-bit /384kHz and DSD 256 (on USB).
The coding part is really clever, because it allows the
user to very simply utilise Tidal’s services and leverage MQA
extremely easily. It allows true second-generation MQA unfold
internally, which means you tell Tidal (via your phone or tablet)
to send an authenticated MQA le direct from a router to full
decode inside the H590, with no intermediary unpacks or
handshakes. Making Hegel’s H590 the Steve Austin/Six Million
Dollar Man version of MQA decoding: better, stronger, faster
(although without the Bionic Eye and Power Arm).
Setting up the digital side is extremely easy now. The amp
has its own Network Conguration page and if connected to
a wired router, press and hold a button a couple of times
and up pops the name and IP address of the H590. Type
that into a browser on a computer and you can update
rmware, reassign the name and IP address for a more
complex multiroom system, or play dating agency between
the H590 (acting as media renderer) and a UPnP/DNLA
compatible media player. Similarly it’s easy to hook the H590
to AirPlay or Spotify Connect by adding an Ethernet cable to
the appropriate wireless router. Both AirPlay and Spotify ‘see’
the H590 as a compatible/available device, and you simply
connect your iDevice or similar to the H590 and away you
play. This is one of those installation concerns that is more
complex to describe in detail than it is to do in reality (rather
like making toast – imagine describing the process in minute
detail and it appears mindbendingly difcult).
I have a bit of a problem with ‘agships’. Sometimes,
they have an alarming habit of going for the impressive so
much that they undermine what was so good about the more
attainably-priced models. It’s a belt-and-braces approach
that makes for a bigger amplier, but not necessarily a better
one. It’s a problem in reverse, too; the company that started
out at the top of Mount Olympus often fails to make the less
expensive models live up to expectation. So, there was a
bit of a concern that Hegel might go a bit ‘ashy’ in making
TheBigOne.
I needn’t have worried. Given its northerly latitude (shared
with Disenchantment Bay in Alaska), it’s probably not that
difcult to retain a cool head in Oslo, and cooler intellects
than mine made the H590 retain the advantages of the
smaller Hegels, with just the right amount of extra heft and
all-important resolution to more than justify its position at the
head of the family. Just give it an hour to warm through.
There are a few electronics companies that gain a lot of
support and followers among loudspeaker designers because
these brand’s ampliers ‘do no wrong’; in other words, they
make a great neutral platform for the loudspeaker designer
to weave their own product, and a perfect demonstration
product for the company to showcase their new loudspeakers,
knowing the amplier will handle everything thrown at it. These
are ‘...just add loudspeakers!’ designs that dealers love, too.
Hegel is one such company and the H590 extends that ‘...just
add loudspeakers!’ ethos to some very demanding partners
and spaces. From the perspective of an audio reviewer,
there is nothing better than an amplier that I know will
satisfy the majority of prospective buyers regardless of their
tastes in music, the loudspeakers they currently use, or the
loudspeakers they might intend to buy next time round. And,
while Hegel gets demonstrated a lot of the time with Nordost
Reproduced from HI-FI+ Issue 163 www.hifiplus.com
EQUIPMENT REVIEW / HEGEL MUSIC SYSTEMS H590