Hegel H190 Amplifier Review 

Tarun is the gold standard of reviewers. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, he’s the only reviewer I trust and his style of reviewing is perfectly genuine. Thanks for doing what you do Tarun. Stay well.

Been into high end audio since 1974---- best channel on you tube in detailing the differences among our gear-Thank You

Thank you Tarun for another informative and entertaining review. And everyone else, this guy provides so much information, clearly presented in an entertaining manner, do the Patreon thing. It's worth it.

Great review, friend. I love the detail and thoroughness!!

Hi Tarun, really enjoyed that video, and your channel in general. Very interesting to see the comparison of the amp interiors too. Keep up the good work!

Thorough and comprehensive as always! I particularly enjoy your deep dives 'under the hood' as it were. Excellent.

As always so informative and clear.

Great review as always Tarun! Thank you:)

Hi I wanted to say I really enjoy your reviews and the way they are presented, Thank You.

Please carry on with the comparisons. Another thought provoking video.

Thorough review as always Tarun.

Once again, well done Tarun! Please continue with the comparisons. This sets you apart from many audio reviewers. I appreciate the fact that there is no “best” and the gives and takes then allow the consumer to make a judgement call on what’s most important to their system (or budget). Keep up the good work! While I do like to hear a several takes on products, I have found that I listen less to some channels and will keep those that challenge the product and me. Cheers!

Awesome review and comparison. I liked the audio quality of your recording more in previous videos. It showed more enthusiasm.

Hey Tarun, great videos recently. I haven’t been commenting much, but watching them thoroughly. I’ll be writing more soon. But you keep topping yourself, congrats!

Terrific review! Very helpful to someone actually trying to make a purchase decision!

Hi Tarun. You stick to the way you do your reviews, as it is by far the best way so the likes of myself can get a better understanding of how something might perform. You are up there with the best of the reviewers. Interesting review and shows that Hegel are listening to their customers. I also like the way you recommend system matching. Keep up the great work my friend. 😁

Thanks for another in depth review tarun. Very interesting amplifier.

Great review Tarun. You are spot on..(as always) Your style coupled with information and logical comparisons separate you from the rest (thousands others)

Thank you very much for this review. We really enjoy watching your videos and of course it is extra special when it is one of our own babies.

Well Done! I really enjoy your approach and opinion. Always offering a wealth of knowledge!

Love the comparison review, very insightful. 👍

Great video! Very articulated and informative.

Excellent as per usual!

Great review and honest reliable opinion on products.

Deferred gratification. Sir, my respect and regard for you grows.

Great video, very professionally done. You were one of about 3 reviewers who convinced me to buy the H190 and so happy I did. The Hegel DAC made a large improvement to my otherwise great sounding Marantz CD player. Didn't think it could sound any better but the improvement was very noticeable. I'm using the coaxial cable. When I did an A/B comparison for my wife who does not care about sound quality, she picked the Hegel's DAC every time. I'm using the Hegel on Arendal 1723 Monitors and what a great match indeed. On a side note, I really like your listening room, very elegant looking.

I always look forward to and appreciate your reviews, Tarun. I'd love to hear your take on the H390 or the H590!

I do enjoy your reviews.

Highly informative review, thanks

Great review. Very comprehensive thanks.

As usual great review.

Thank you Tarun for your detailed review. I am looking to upgrade my entire system that I have had since 2002. It was good gear for early 2000's but technology has moved on. It is amazing the number of choices in the integrated world. Today a lot of talk about the purify amps that some manufacturers are deploying in their gear like NAD. As an engineer I tend to have analysis paralysis and tend to over research things. One thing I notice is I wind up seeing and hearing a lot about Hegel. I am not familiar personally and have never had the opportunity to audition their gear. No local dealer so it would be a leap of faith. I have watched many Hagel reviews online, yours being very good, and they all have very positive things to say. What I have not heard is a negative review of any Hagel which tends to make me feel better about considering them without being able to hear them. I am looking at the H190, which is how I found your channel, and the H390. My new speakers are a fairly easy load at 8 ohms and 87db sensitivity. Looking forward to your review of the H390. Thank you for your in depth review of the Hagel line.

Very nice, this review i waiting to hear as i had my h190 for a year, got mine at very good price €2800, i really like this amp and the perfomence it has, thanks again for anoother good review

You explain in more technical terms than U.S. audio enthusiasts. This is better for me.

Wow....hot & fresh from the oven....thanks Tarun, been waiting for this for quite sometime. Happy to finally hear your expert viewpoint on the H190 vs some of its younger siblings!

Best reviewer on youtube

I just started following you and it call my attention your description of Hegel. I just purchased a used H360. You are completely right. I also saw you review of the triangle genese trio ( I already owned those) Im enjoying it very very much. Thank you,

I am liking the Hegel range very much, I have picked up the H95 and am running this with an Audiolab 6000CDT, Rega RP3 and soon to arrive some ATC SCM 7's, currently using the dealers pair - thanks guys. There was an opportunity to audition the H120 but I couldn't get enough of a difference to justify the extra expense, in all honesty I couldn't hear any difference. The remote that comes with all the Hegel Amps above the 95 is a beast, but in all honesty there isn't much you need to do once you have set the music playing other than increase or decrease volume, if I change sources it is easy to do this on the plastic remote that comes with the H95. Great review, keep them coming, a brilliant channel with good honest advice, thank you.

Strongly considering one of these with some Harbeth monitors. Thanks for the review!

Deferred gratification, those were the days. Excellent video!

very nice clear review!!

Master Tarun, concise and a pleasure to watch. Thank you.

Wouldn't mind listening to this one. your description of the high end is intriguing. The extra bass current and control sounds like it makes it worth a try.

Excellent review. The thumbs up comes easily, especially after the delayed gratification comment, spot on.

Great review yet again Tarun! 👏👏👏 Your no BS no buttering up views are what makes your channel so very highly regarded I’m certain! You are spot on always and your command over the English language is enviable not that it should matter to most on an audiophile platform but your choice of words and precision diction is the icing on the cake! “To the Manor Born “ kind of polished approach to everything ‘sound’😉…( But hey that’s Y it’s called a British Audiophile right!)besides your in-depth and thorough views it brings that extra to the table…A learning experience nonetheless in so many ways! One can see this channel going only one way … 👍👍👍 Awesome stuff Tarun! Truly 🍻🍻🍻 Keep growing Sir! Best Regards

Hi Tarun, recently got into your reviews which are excellent. Its great getting practical comparisons and good technical explanations. Just starting on my quest to replace my hifi that I bought in the 1990s and really enjoyed. I always advocated that the best investment was more music but having great equipment can really enhance the music and the emotional response. Really deliberating on whether to go new retro, Hegel 190 with Amphion Argon 3S or plunge into valve amps. I have not even started to think about turntables to replace my old Rega planar2. I guess I have a lot of videos to watch! Any advice always welcome and thank you for doing this.

Love your channel! Delayed gratification!

What a great review! It's the first time I stumbled upon your channel. Thank you very much. I'm thinking of buying a Hegel amp and was looking at the 190. I'm using Dutch built MC M1.3 speakers (4 Ohm and sensitivity 94 db). You probably don't know them. Anyhoo, thanks again for your review.

I love your reviews. After finding your channel, i have made my way thru all of your videos and have learned a lot. I find myself waiting for your next review, a bit anxiously! Thank you so much for your posts. Have you ever dealt with any headphones, headphone amps? For the first time in my life, I am in an environment where I need to be sensitive to others, and require a quieter way to listen to music, particularly at night!

Thank you Tarun!!!!

Early thumbs up to show my appreciation for your opening statement, thank you!

Great review! And good advice. I'm still a proud owner of a Hegel H100 and having heard some demo's from the newer gen Hegel amps I don't feel the need to upgrade yet. That says something about the qualities of these amplifiers. I've heard my amp combined with far more expensive speakers than what I own, like in the 7-8k range. And the result was incredible! (I believe it was the PMC's twenty5.24i, might even have been the 26i's) I'll change my speakers before my amp. And if I do change from the H100 I would go for a H360, H390 if funds permit.

I'm always been a big Hegel fan, i went from H160 to H360 and now H590 with Focal Kanta 2, sounds awesome!👍

Good review Tarun. Hegels are great performers.

Another great review! And a rating consistent with it. I’d probably be sceptical if you kept handing out Outstanding. Keep up the straight shooting.

I wish you'd have spoken about the headphone outs as well. You'll of course need two sets of headphones to do that. A low impedance phone like the Focal Clears and a high impedance pair like say a Hifiman Arya or a He1000se. A lot of people are ditching headphone amps for these more powerful setups. The headphone world deserves your crystal clear reviews!

Thanks for the content Tarun... I have the H160 that I feed from a Holo Spring KTE r2r dac and pair them with Magnepan LRS speakers. I thought about upgrading to the H390 + Maggie 1.7i but have been hesitant to spend a ton of $$$ chasing a 1% improvement.

Love the "deferred gratification" quip at the end...

My experience with a Hegel Rost (predecessor of H120) in comparison to Marantz receiver with KEF speakers was that Hegel completely removed the 9 to 3 o'clock imaging around and above each speaker, but in it's place it created a dead center powerful soundstage focused on vocal frequencies while leaving bass notes out of soundstage. It's like listening to a 5.1 setup Dolby movie where almost everything is in center but some effects come out of left and right speakers.

‘Deferred gratification’ is almost my middle name and is almost impacting every facet of my existence at the moment 😂 Great review!

Back in the 70's and early 80's, (In the military) I bought a Yamaha M-80 Amp, Preamp & Tuner. Back then it was under $800. The rest of my system is all mix matched high quality.It all still works and only upgraded my Speakers and Woofer.I did buy NADS & a Surround Reciever in the 90's. My passion is complete for me.

Great Tarun for letting us to peek inside of those black boxes. By the way your reviews are similar to the Hegel sound signature, uncolored

Thanks to rich for my blood but I do like how you give it a review helps in determining what will work for me. Keep up your style I think it is a plus.

Fun to hear a good Comparison of the tier on this company. The only time I got to hear a similar comparison was up the road at PS Audio. Those speakers however are beasts, being nearly the biggest Arnie N. (Infinity) ever disigned.

Great review thanks for putting it together! I have the H95 myself. I’ve tried the h120 and some higher end Yamaha amps but for my speakers (KLH 5s at 90db sensitivity - filling a pretty big room at 55% volume hitting 85db) there is no different in sound quality to my ears. I think you’re right you’d need some pretty intense / resolving speakers to utilize the extra power and cost of the H190

Thanks Tarun .

I liked what you mentioned about capacitor size even though they possess the microfarads in quantity. This is a logical piece of information for those who try to dive into capacitance in amplifiers from other countries. In the case of the CHoco Sound Emei, you find far less in 6800 x 2 per side.

Just perfect review! You just miss to review the Hegel H120 and the job is done 😉😉👍

Hi Tarun, would be great with a Hegel 190 vs Naim Supernait 3 review please 👍🏼 Thank you for a great review as always. All the best Peter

I have an AV receiver that I wanted to replace with a new stereo amp. I had just started saving for a Hegel H190. But I came across a used NAD m10 that was such a good price that I got it instead. It arrived on Friday. It might seem a strange alternative to some, but I was replacing the amp hooked up to my TV, and the NAD is TV-friendly, and despite being Class D, it isn’t as dry as I thought it would be. It doesn’t seem that loud, despite being a 100W amp - the Cambridge Audio CXA81 in my bedroom seems much louder. I think I will get a Hegel one day, but it’s probably wise to be happy with what I have for a while. Thanks for your review - it only reinforces the gear lust I have for Hegel

Might be the most “complete” review regarding the H190 in RU-vid. Great job! As far as I know, Hegels and especially 190 is one of the recommended amps for the new Kef LS50 metas. I have already ordered the speakers and now trying to decide between the H190 and Luxman L505UX II to use with my Gold Note DS-10. Decisions… Decisions…

Very good comparison and clear explanations. Amazing BTW how demanding those little ProAc speakers are. I would be almost worried to blow them up with the Hegel 190.

Thanks Tarun! Interestingly I did an H120 vs. H190 test a few weeks ago. I found the same conclusions as you... I was expected to be blown away but the soundstage expansiveness was maybe 5-7% different (it was there but very slight), but indeed the bass was tighter and more dynamic. I think as you get into these power levels with quality amplification it’s about system matching. Many speakers can deal with an H95 and sound just fine. Many floorstanders need an H190 minimum. It’s really about how much power you need. The digital section of these amps is excellent - hard to beat unless you’re spending north of 1,000 EUR/GBP/etc. on an external DAC. It’s all about knowing your speakers (current and future) and matching the input. Manufacturers love to sell us much more power than we need, but having enough is important.

Great review as always. I also think the H190 and KEF LS50 meta's would be a cracking combo. And the LS50's would even probably benefit from a H390.

Thank You!

when the opportunity came, I recently bought the H80 second hand. I really am enjoying the sound (big upgrade coming from audiolab 8000a) and I find that it plays well on low volumes. I even play at lower volumes then before most of the time.

Video and sound set up is great now

finally a future review of a loud speaker having a non dome based driver. When will you review a dipole speaker you know the type of speaker having the best imaging of all loud speaker types

Another great video! And my take away is H95 punches up darn close. Close enough.

I really appreciated the amplifier comparisons, particularly with the speakers. Once again, you have explained WHY some speakers require more power (current) available. I just wish impedance curves were available for speakers, both current generations and vintage units. I managed to blow the front surround channels on my Yamaha HTR-5730 Home Theater Receiver by hooking up some Acoustic Research AR-2 speakers to it and streaming Stevie Ray Vaughn on RU-vid (too) loudly. The speakers were rated with 8 Ohm impedance, but certainly must have dropped lower playing the bass notes on ‘Voodoo Chile.’ There needs to be a better way to match speakers to amps than just stamping “4 to 16 Ohms” at the output jacks. Detailed specifications help, but until I hear someone like Taurn ( did I spell your name right this time?) tell me, “I’ve played your speakers with the amp you’re contemplating the purchase of” (or vida-versa), I’m very leery of making the investment. The lessons learned in this area (matching speakers to amps) can be quite expensive, and, I believe, have cut short the career of many an aspiring audiophile. Please keep making your significant contributions to the audiophile community’s continuing conversation about the gear and the sound. I seem to learn something from each of your posts. Thanks!

I own the H95 (for near field on a desk in an office bedroom) and the H190 (for the loft). Typically, I play music from my iPhone (alac lossless format) which goes thru the home network via wifi from the iPhone's airplay feature into the Hegel via its ethernet jack. One of the characteristics that attracted me to Hegel integrated amps was the effort that Hegel put into fine-tuning the iPhone airplay codec in the Hegel. A Hegel employee during an interview commented that Hegel took Apple's 1500 page document on airplay to thoroughly understand how airplay works, and then Hegel designed its own airplay protocol to optimize airplay performance. When I compare a CD being played thru the H190 with the same song from an iPhone being played thru the H190, there is barely any difference, and I can't tell that one source is better than the other. Tarun, it would be great if you're able to perform a similar comparison to see how your result compares to mine.

Nice point regarding upgrading and deferred gratification. Young or old, it’s something we should all think about.

Another excelent review Tarun! But if you like so much Hegel products, I think it´s time to review Dynaudio´s speakers, because like Amphion´s, they are great matching combos!! Thanks and cheers from Argentina!!

Comparison based is the way to go👍👍👍👍

I still have an h80. I don't feel the need to upgrade, yet. Lovely amp.

Great review, and fully agree re needing comparisons. They seem all a bit pointless otherwise.

Excellent review yet again Tarun! I wonder it the Hegel H120 would set a cat amongst the pigeons? What I pick up from various other reviews is that the H120 has a more dynamic bass than the H95, but also a clearer midrange than the H190 which supposedly has a degree of bleed through from an 'overactive' bass into the midrange. Jay's Iyagi has rated the H120 very highly Studio Incar rates the H120 as sonically superior to H190, with the bass of the H190 being "too bombastic". In sound demos the H120 comes across as being very proficient across the full frequency range to my ears as well.

Thanks for an excellent review Tarun. It's disappointing that the DAC does not do 24/192 over USB and that would be a deal breaker for me.

Hegel needs to show that they can deliver on their roon ready promise, and that their upgradable software is more than a marketing gimmick. That is currently the main complain against otherwise very good amps (I have one). Though I understand the purpose of the video was not to compare with competition or point out where Hegel prop is a bit lacking. Great review BTW.

Great review.. This was really helpful for me. I wasnt sure wich amp to buy but this was a decider. Since this i ve been saving for this amp for a looong time and now i finally get it. I pair it with Audiovector R1 Signature.. What is your opinion on this combo/speakers? Thank you again very much and keep doing an amazing work!!!

Thanks for this timely (at least for me) review. Great work as usual. What did the H190 miss that would have earned it an 'outstanding' recommendation?

Would love to see a review of the H390 now :-) Br:Kris

Love your reviews Tarun, would appreciate your comments related to the H190 compared to the Atoll in200se with a Lumin D2

I had bought H190 month ago but it is without second small toroid. They had to redisgn it reacently.

Great review Tarun. I’ve been hoping you’d do a Hegel comparison- this was super informative, thank you. By the way, are those Elac Vela floorstanders in the background? 407 or 408? They’re a bit blurry and difficult to see. If so, VERY interested to hear your thought on those - they are on my potential list of compact floorstanders to possibly replace my Graham LS6 bookies.

Great comparison, Tarun. That power transformer in the 190 is impressive! I have been casually shopping around for a power amplifier (not integrated), to replace/accompany my 40 year old Bob Carver C-500. Your praise on these Hegel integrated amps is influencing me to research The Hegel H20 Power Amp.. Now, THAT would definitely have to be a case of delayed gratification for this audiophile! 😯 Hmmmmmmm..... Tarun...have you had an opportunity to listen to any of the many Purifi 1ET400A-module amps that abound right now? I am so curious to hear a mainstream review and comparison of one of those power amps.

Thank you Tarun for another great review. Please keep on doing what you're doing. Is there any possibility of a detailed review on the Rega RX-5 Floor standers. I see that they run around the $1700 mark where you are, but here in Canada they MSRP for $4000! Rega electronics are gaining in popularity here, but their speakers are so expensive and aren't anywhere to be found in stores to demo. That makes it hard to consider buying a pair, since they cannot be demoed. I also haven't seen any real reviews on the web either. If you can get your hands on a pair of RX-5s for review, it would be greatly appreciated by a bunch of us especially here in Canada. I would be using a Yamaha A-S2100 integrated amp, an Audiolab 6000 CDT transport, and a decent tube dac with them. The Regas have really got my attention. Thank you very much for great work. Stay safe. Cheers from Canada.

Thanks for the very useful and well done review. We have some Dynaudio Evoke 30 hooked to a Atoll IN200 signature. You did a good review on that one also. We always found I little something missing in richness and bass performance. Do you think the Hegel H190 can bring more presence and punch to our Evoke with it’s different design and greater power ? Thanks a lot

Thank You for this great review. I did not realised the sound quality from such small box like Mojo 2 can compete with internal DAC of a big amplifier. I have Mojo 2 and I will be soon in posession of Marantz 40n. I am now very curious how Marantz internal DAC will compare to Mojo 2.

Hello and thank you as always for the review. Is the headphone section ok on the H series ? I have the H90 and i find it a bit humming/buzzing on quiet part/silences on headphone listenning. I ve read that the H95 is upgraded on that matter