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Article: Hegel Music Systems HD30 DAC Review


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Hi ST - You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but I think your opinion drives consumers in the wrong direction and can even push manufacturers to design inferior products.

 

You say this isn't a high resolution DAC. What is your definition of high resolution? Mine is anything greater than 24/88.2.

 

You say this DAC throws away bits of resolution. The DAC does nothing with the bits while resampling the frequency.

 

Based on your comments it seems like you'd rather have a DAC with impeccable specifications and measurements than a DAC that sounds good. What if Hegel said this DAC sounds best when the frequency is resampled to just above 96 kHz? My guess is this is exactly what the company would say. Would you still argue that Hegel should not resample just because you don't like resampling?

 

Hegel designed this DAC to sound the best it could. That meant resampling everything. Hegel could have designed the component simply to suit those more interested in specs, but that would be so unsatisfying for almost everyone involved, including those of us who like good sound quality.

 

This is very strange phenomenon where people want certain things from a component, even if they have no idea what the outcome would be with that certain thing. For example, I remember when people expressed similar concerns about the AudioQuest DragonFly because it "only" supported up through 24/96. However, if people realized that the radiation pattern of the RF noise increases immensely when going to 24/192, they may have changed their minds. Yet, others still would rather have 24/192 support and worse sound than 24/96 support and better sound.

 

If I may ask, what is your experience designing DACs?

 

hehe you nailed it entirely! Listening to HD25 atm, with LCD3.. it sounds amazingly..

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  • 5 months later...

Finally got to audition this DAC at the same time as the PS Audio DirectStream.

I liked the DS, and was very impressed by its detail retrieval.

 

However, to my taste, the Hegel HD30 sounded better - I would describe it as a more "holistic" presentation, where it sounded as if the musicians were playing together, as opposed to individual instruments in the same place. Both DACs revealed lots of low level detail.

 

I'm sure many audiophiles would have preferred the DirectStream.

 

I'm going to try and audition one of the Simaudio models also. The 380DSD or possibly also one of the even more high end ones.

 

As far as the Hegel "not doing hi-res": yes, it internally downsamples higher res to 100K, apparently. But it sounded great playing hi-res to me. Hegel says they determined that the chip sounded best at that resolution. I'd assume they at least have a valid basis for that conclusion. I'm not worried about the technology. I just go with what sounds best to me.

Main listening (small home office):

Main setup: Surge protector +>Isol-8 Mini sub Axis Power Strip/Isolation>QuietPC Low Noise Server>Roon (Audiolense DRC)>Stack Audio Link II>Kii Control>Kii Three (on their own electric circuit) >GIK Room Treatments.

Secondary Path: Server with Audiolense RC>RPi4 or analog>Cayin iDAC6 MKII (tube mode) (XLR)>Kii Three .

Bedroom: SBTouch to Cambridge Soundworks Desktop Setup.
Living Room/Kitchen: Ropieee (RPi3b+ with touchscreen) + Schiit Modi3E to a pair of Morel Hogtalare. 

All absolute statements about audio are false :)

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