Hegel launched the H590 integrated amp five years ago, which won the coveted EISA Award, among other accolades. After three years of development, the Norwegian manufacturer now present the successor: H600. According to Hegel, it offers a variety of new features, new design, a new DAC, an improved amplifier section, and a significantly superior streaming engine. In addition, it is supposed to be truly powerful in order to cover all audiophile needs, as Hegel has also added a few more watts of power.
The H600 is said to deliver a good 300 watts of continuous power into 8 ohms per channel, offer a damping factor of 4000 as well as the possibility to operate the amplifier stable at loads of two ohms. The amp is built in dual-mono design with channel-separated power supplies, aiming to come close to the performance of two mono amplifiers in a single housing. It is also said to feature a state-of-the-art preamp part with extremely precise volume control taken from Hegel's reference P30A preamplifier. The entire electronic circuitry comes from in-house development using the highest quality components, which aims to ensure optimal control over the entire setup.
A key part is the SoundEngine 2 – a patented electronic circuit-based error correction system – which is supposed to ensure that the audio signal delivered by the H600 is as close as possible to the original recording. As a result, the manufacturer reports an enormously wide and deep sound spectrum with incredible dynamic range and top-notch bass control.
Equipped with numerous analog as well as digital inputs and featuring the common streaming services, the H600 will be available at retailers from September/October* at a price of €11,495*, according to Hegel.
*Availability and price for Germany.