Hegel DAC

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Fretless
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Re: Hegel DAC

Unread post by Fretless »

_D_S_J_R_ wrote:'Ask the designer' or trawl though that 'room' on here, as he's explained it enough.
Thanks again, spotted several descriptions of hum and related situations.

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Re: Hegel DAC

Unread post by Fretless »

Will somebody please put a notice in large letters on the top of the Portal page:

"Warning - membership of HiFiSubjectivist is addictive!
Visiting here will turn you into a HifI obsessive
Spending all your time, energy and money
In the search for the perfect sound."

Now I've got that off my chest. Yesterday I wandered into one of the local thrift shops, looking to see if there were any reasonable speakers as a summer-holiday mod project. Then I saw a big black 'thing' sitting on the top of the shelving. A Kenwood CD player. Now I have had mixed experience with Kenwood - they used to be Trio and my very first player ever was a DP-1100 MkII, a great machine. But I had another cheapo Kenwood in the 90's and that was a complete clunker.
The 4090 was only €12.50 (that's about 8 quid in UK money) and it had a remote - usually they have been lost along the way - AND it had digital outputs, coax and optical. That did the trick, it was soon in the car and on the way home.

This thing is big, it's certainly the biggest CD player I have ever seen

Image

Here it is sitting under the Arcam CD62T while I did a few A/B comparisons. I've had the Arcam for about 15 years and it has always been a supremely pleasant player to listen to. But of late it's polite, restrained performance has begun to become a negative factor. My tastes have changed and I want 'more' from the music.
Using the Arcam as a transport through the Musical Fidelity M1DAC worked well as they are both polite and gently detailed. But the Hegel DAC is far more revealing and dynamic aand shows up the 'too soft' sound.

Image

The Kenwood goes into place, connected to the Hegel HD12 by a Beresford Toslink cable.
jammy395 wrote:(Scuse the Americanisim)......"It Walk's the Walk, can it Talk the Talk". :shifty:
Well Jammy, The answer is a resounding yes! From the first moment you know that this is a big, black, mean machine that sounds as serious as it looks. The audio is clear, punchy, big dynamics, VERY deep bass, crystal imaging. A totally different experience to Mr-nice-guy Arcam.

Now I have only listened to it via the DAC, so I cannot comment on the players own sound, what I have read is that the next model up, DP-5090, has three different DAC chips running at 24-bit resolution and apparently sounds quite phenomenal. But this baby has the same D.R.I.V.E transport and power supply.

What it also has (and this solves my previous problem) is a variable-output headphone socket, levels controlled from the remote, this drives Grado SR80's with ease and gets a reasonable sound out of my AKG K601's .

This Kenwood is a better partner for the Hegel DAC as it's clarity and range correspond better to the DAC's strengths.

Just to close - I was a quietly happy little music buff, who never felt the need to change anything, until I started here on HFS - in less than a year I have changed my entire system (except the speaker stands) and have a growing collection of vintage CD players.

Happy Weekend everybody. :guiness; :dance:

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Re: Hegel DAC

Unread post by jammy395 »

Cheers for the write up Fret...Have a musical weekend. :dance:

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Re: Hegel DAC

Unread post by terrybooth »

Fretless wrote: Just to close - I was a quietly happy little music buff, who never felt the need to change anything, until I started here on HFS - in less than a year I have changed my entire system (except the speaker stands) and have a growing collection of vintage CD players.
Ah but are you now listening to more music?
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Re: Hegel DAC

Unread post by Fretless »

Quantity is the same.
But the quality is sooooo much better. :grin:

Upstairs:
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DigiVolumio PC + Kiss DP-500 + Sabaj A20d
NVA: P50sa - Cube2 - SSP - LS6+ Sabaj A10a (x2)
Downstairs:
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HP: HifiBerry Digi+ PRO + Sabaj A10d
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Re: Hegel DAC

Unread post by Fretless »

It looks like I might have to amend my standpoint in the CD-player vs. File-based audio debate. Been spending (finally) serious time with the new Hegel DAC and the DP-4090.

The musicality of this combo is awesome. Did some comparing between Toslink and SSP coax, where the optical was brightly detailed and full of energy, the coax link was darker, richer and pulled me into the sound. One ECM disc of Dave Holland playing solo gave me the idea that I was inside his contrabass - The Toslink portrayed it perfectly, but drier and more 2-dimensionally.

Unfortunately the Kenwood is displaying a tendency to skip, sometimes quite severely. Best to clean the laser head, I thought. So I opened it up and was surprised by how little there was to find inside. There are interior photos of the DP-5090 with its 3 DAC stages where multiple print boards are stacked in. The top model DP-7090 has no less than 8 Burr-Browns running (God alone knows what they all do), but the meagre 4090 only has one board and enough interior emptiness that I could probably install the Hegel in there and have room over for a football pitch.

With the lens cleaned we were back in action. Skipping is almost eradicated. If it keeps doing that then I can get the laser realigned, no great expense considering how much (little) I paid for the player. The SQ seems to be even fuller, richer and subtler. So, for now I am leaving the Kenwood on the SSP and putting the Pi onto the toslink input. Which leaves the two running pretty evenly on accuracy and detail - but at this moment in time the CD player is ahead on musicality.

Upstairs:
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Pro-Ject 1.2 + Grado Sig Jr + Cambridge Alva Duo
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NVA: P50sa - Cube2 - SSP - LS6+ Sabaj A10a (x2)
Downstairs:
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Logic DM101 + Syrinx LE1 + Grado Sig MCX
DigiDenafrips Ares II + Volumio PC + Cambridge CXC
NVA: P50 - BMU+ Aiyima A07 MAX (x2) + Arcam One
HP: HifiBerry Digi+ PRO + Sabaj A10d
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Re: Hegel DAC

Unread post by terrybooth »

I presume the Pi is running from a 2 amp wall-wart?
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Re: Hegel DAC

Unread post by Fretless »

Terry, I am using one of these, a Sony PRSA-AC1

Image

On the box it says 2A - but on the charger itself only 1.5A.
i'll have a look around see if I can find one a bit more powerful.
Good tip, Thanks.

Upstairs:
Vinyl
Pro-Ject 1.2 + Grado Sig Jr + Cambridge Alva Duo
DigiVolumio PC + Kiss DP-500 + Sabaj A20d
NVA: P50sa - Cube2 - SSP - LS6+ Sabaj A10a (x2)
Downstairs:
Vinyl
Logic DM101 + Syrinx LE1 + Grado Sig MCX
DigiDenafrips Ares II + Volumio PC + Cambridge CXC
NVA: P50 - BMU+ Aiyima A07 MAX (x2) + Arcam One
HP: HifiBerry Digi+ PRO + Sabaj A10d
Office:
Allo DigiOne SIG + SMSL M300se + Douk G4 (x2)
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Re: Hegel DAC

Unread post by Fretless »

A dire warning from the Doc about direct input from DAC's to NVA amps left me wondering/worrying.

The HD12 has variable RCA & XLR outputs which are controlled remotely and the volume levels go from 0 - 100. With the DAC connected straight to the power amps a level of 50 is good enough for me to get things running quite loudly. So that if by some 'glitch' the DAC should suddenly jump to 100 - then I can see the amps frying (and taking the speakers with them)!

The Hegel's output automatically sets itself to 40 on power-up as a precaution, but still ....

There is NO input protection on NVA power amps, as a way of minimising any unnecessary components in the signal chain. But in a 'good' NVA system there is protection - and that is provided by the volume pot in the pre-amp, that is a resistor that allows only a certain amount of voltage to get through to the power amps and makes sure that they don't start acting like toasters.

So the P50sa has been reinstalled between DAC and the A40's using the 'direct' input on the pre-amp and SSP Mk1 interconnects. And it sounds if anything a tiny bit better. I had noticed a (severe) earthing problem with the amps when connecting headphones to the HD12 - but this is now completely gone and I can make use of the DAC's inbuilt headphone amp. The earthing effect of the P50 seems to make the sound more stable. I'll have a serious listen this evening.

Hegel recommend that when the HD12 is run via a pre-amp that the volume level is set to 100, and this means that if any strange things should happen, the output voltage is already at maximum level and cannot do any harm to unsuspecting power amps.

Upstairs:
Vinyl
Pro-Ject 1.2 + Grado Sig Jr + Cambridge Alva Duo
DigiVolumio PC + Kiss DP-500 + Sabaj A20d
NVA: P50sa - Cube2 - SSP - LS6+ Sabaj A10a (x2)
Downstairs:
Vinyl
Logic DM101 + Syrinx LE1 + Grado Sig MCX
DigiDenafrips Ares II + Volumio PC + Cambridge CXC
NVA: P50 - BMU+ Aiyima A07 MAX (x2) + Arcam One
HP: HifiBerry Digi+ PRO + Sabaj A10d
Office:
Allo DigiOne SIG + SMSL M300se + Douk G4 (x2)
Mission 760 + Monolith THX AAA 887
Headphones: German Maestro, Monolith & AQ

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Re: Hegel DAC

Unread post by johanjongstra »

I have a lampizator dac with a built in volume control. My plan is to connect them directly into the power amp. I consider the a80's. I guess that will work very well.
Still I have my good old rega p3 turntable, and however I am a big DSD fan, I love playing my vinyl once and a while.
Problem in this set up: I would have to switch the interconnects from the dac to the phone stage. Not good for the interconnect and a bit troublesome for me.
So the P50 sounds like a plan. Now my question: I could put the dac straight to the direct input of the P50. Does this input bypass the switch and volume control? Or only the switch? In other words does the direct input go straight to the output connectors?
DAC: Lampizator Amber
Streaming: homemade fanless computer, i7, Windows Server 2012, HQPlayer, Bug Head Emperor, JRiver, Audio Optimizer.
AMP: Rega elicit-r
Speakers: Magnepan MG1.4, Totem Rainmakers
Turntable: Rega P3, Rega exact cartridge
Cables: NVA SSP interconnects, audio quest power chords, Totem Tress Loudspeakercable
Headphone: audioquest nighthawk with rega ear amp

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