Hegel H600 Integrated Amplifier Announced

All Image Credit: Hegel

Norwegian audio specialist Hegel has announced their latest reference Integrated Amplifier-DAC, the H600. It is to replace their previous reference amplifier, the H590, that was launched five years ago. The Hegel H600 amplifier has many new features including; a new chassis design, a new DAC, an improved amplifier section, a superior streaming engine and a small increase in power over the H590.

Like the H590 this new reference amplifier is a dual mono design with SoundEngine2 feed-forward correction technology to eliminate Class AB crossover distortion and a state-of-the-art preamplifier with the extremely precise volume attenuator found in the reference P30A pre-amplifier. This revised pre-amp design is said to use upgraded components and new transistors. The Class AB power amplifiers that contain twelve power transistors per channel, can provide 303 watts in 8 ohms with a damping factor of 4000 and being stable down to 2 ohms, it should drive virtually any speaker. Analog to digital conversion is handled by a new DAC, the 32bit ESS Sabre ES9038Q2M. It’s a bit-perfect design that does not use any resampling or upsampling, it is fed by its own power supply and sectioned off from the rest of the amplifier’s internals with a thick steel plate to reduce the negative effects of electrical and magnetic noise.

Streaming support has reportedly been totally rebuilt, is quite extensive and includes; UPnP/DLNA, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, AirPlay 2 and is Roon Ready (pending approval). This new advanced streaming engine can have more features and improvements added, such as Qobuz Connect, in the future via automatic firmware upgrades.

User features include; an aluminum RC8 remote, user-specifiable and lockable volume limits, auto-sensing digital inputs that bring the amplifier out of standby to the active input (not USB) and the ability to be controlled by third-party TV remotes, Control4 and other smart home 2-way IP control systems.

The chassis is made of aluminum with a solid bottom chassis and a top cover with vents milled in two layers for rigidity and airflow. Big “anti-scratch” aluminum feet provide stability and reduce the negative influence of vibrations. With the front panel sporting two large tactile control knobs that double as touch controllers.

The amplifier features a wide range of hard-wired analogue and digital audio connectivity similar to the H590. Analog inputs include; two pairs of balanced XLR and two pairs of RCA connectors. With digital connectivity including; a LAN network port, a USB 32/384 input (supporting DSD256/DoP), three optical inputs, a coaxial input and a BNC 75-ohm input. Output is available via; a pair of RCA fixed-level outputs and a pair of RCA variable-level outputs, plus a BNC 75-ohm digital output.