HiFi+

H
ere is the big one: Hegel’s top of the tree. The
H590 from Hegel Music Systems is not only
the biggest integrated amplier the company
has ever produced, it’s the most connected,
the most forward-thinking, and – in outright
performance terms – probably its best yet. Granted there are
a couple of pre/power combinations in the line-up that might
have something to say about that (especially the 1,100W H30
mono brutes), but I’m holding to that statement.
The H590 is the synthesis of the best of the latest line
of integrated ampliers (such as the innate exibility of the
Hegel Röst and later designs), coupled with the most up-
to-date versions of all the amplier technologies Hegel has
incorporated into its ampliers for the longest time. Now mix
in the kind of ‘best in show’ components and technology so
new it gets its rst outing here and you have an unbeatable
combination.
The Hegel H590 adds more power to the likes of the Röst,
H90, and H190, and it brings more power and connectivity to
the H360. With its strangely precise 301W per channel, you
could be mistaken for thinking the H590 occupies the top slot
of Hegel’s integrated amp line-up simply by virtue of power
delivery. If you need a bigger amplier and the H360 won’t cut
it, then the H590 is all you need. While true on the surface,
this is too simplistic a reading of the situation. Interestingly, the
price of the HD30 agship DAC from the company and the
H360 is not that dissimilar to the full-up H590, and until this
model shipped, this was probably the best Hegel set-up you
could buy. The H590 effectively obsoletes that combination,
as you won’t buy both when the H590 performs this well.
Like the other integrated models in Hegel’s line-up, the
H590 features an extensive on-board digital audio section
and analogue inputs. Unlike those other integrated models,
however, the H590 does not place limits on either in order
to t on the back panel. So, you get a trio of stereo RCA line
inputs, and two sets of XLR balanced line inputs (as well as
xed and variable RCA stereo outputs) on the analogue side,
and two coaxial (one of which uses BNC), three optical, USB,
and Ethernet digital inputs, and even a BNC coaxial output.
That is an exceptionally comprehensive line-up for
an integrated amplier, reecting the does-it-all nature of
the Hegel H590. There are a couple of obvious omissions,
however; no phono stage and no headphone socket. The
rst is perhaps more understandable than the latter, as Hegel
has long eschewed turntable as one of its regular sources,
preferring instead to allow the end user to specify their
own analogue front-end. While those seeking an all-Hegel
electronics solution that includes turntable replay might want
a standalone phono stage from the brand, the on-board
equaliser in an amplier is now a rarity.
The absence of a headphone socket is more odd, as
Hegel makes an extremely good headphone amplier circuit
in its own right on all the other integrated models in the line-
up. Hegel is extremely adept at reading the demands of
its customers, however, and I suspect the absence of an
headphone amplier is no accident.
Hegel’s design criteria is reduced to a series of pithy
names that aptly describe aspects of the technology,
including the localised feed-forward amplier circuit called
SoundEngine, DualAmp (which separates out the voltage
and current gain stages) and the related DualPower (which
provides specic power supply feeds for those separated
parts of the amplier circuit), and nally OrganicSound that
requires careful voicing of the amplier against a known
reference of acoustic instruments and vocalists not known for
their love of AutoTune. There are a similar group of names
for the digital audio side of things, including SynchroDAC
(synchronised – as opposed to asynchronous – upsampling)
that goes with the company’s LineDriver technology (high-
frequency ltration), a similarly synchronous USB technology,
all controlled by pico-second accurate MasterClock. All of the
technologies underlying these names have been improved in
the process of developing the H590, and you can hear this.
Stepping out of HegelWorld for the moment, the nuts
and bolts of the H590 are extremely impressive. That power
amplier stage delivers its 301Watts in Class AB, but it’s a
high-bias Class AB making it run in Class A for longer. The
power amp’s output is achieved by using 12 output devices
Hegel Music Systems H590
integrated amplifier
by Alan Sircom
EQUIPMENT REVIEW
Reproduced from HI-FI+ Issue 163 www.hifiplus.com