Daneway
Novice Member
Hello All!
I've been meaning to register for ages and have now been prompted to do so for help with my newly acquired Hegel H200. I'm hoping there is someone on the forum who has a Hegel, to help me determine if I have an issue with this unit or I need to ship it off to Holland. (Unbelievebly Hegel's nearest agent)!
The story so far ...
Up to the purchase of the H200 I have been using my trusty Musical Fidelity A3CR Pre/Power combo. I bought myself a pair of ATC SMC11s to replace my aging Quad 11Ls and absolutely love them. When I set up the Hegel all sounded fine until I turned up the volume. Turned up to 70 on the display it was loud but nowhere near ear-shatteringly. (Maximum on the Hegel is 99 - apparently 86-99 kicks in an additional 6dB gain stage). It was at this point I became concerned that something wasn't right. Using the Musical Fidelity amps with the majority of music types I Iisten to, volume settings above 1/2 way are excessive in my room. I have a few other amps which I set up with the same source and speakers and they too, despite being significantly less powerful in wattage terms were capable of driving my SMCs to excessively high levels. Now, I am not a "loud is best" kind of person, not at all, but if this is a hint that the Hegel is faulty I will need to sort it out one way or another.
TEST 1 - non-scientific!
I connected my Exposure 2010 CDP to my Musical Fidelity combo and turned the amp to maximum. (I used an attentuator to keep volumes down). A reading of 85dB max was achieved. With the identical source the Hegel at maximum achieved just over 70dB, (which is less than half the volume, (given that every 10dB is perceived as twice as loud). I'm lucky enough to have a few other amps too which performed similarly to the Musical Fidelity gear.
TEST 2
I connected the MF preamp to the Hegel Main in (Home Theatre input) and the volume was as I expected.
TEST 3
Then I connected the Hegel preamp out to the Musical Fidelity poweramp. Volume was significantly reduced as it was with the Hegel on its own.
Hummm. Does this mean I have a poorly Hegel pre-amp stage?
I have spoken to Hegel which wasn't very helpful so I am hoping someone out there has a similar amp and experience. The bottom line is I will get someone to look at it, but I want to establish that this is not just a 'Hegel-ism', (though I don't buy that), as a few people have suggested to me!
Any help, gratefully received!
All the best.
Daneway
I've been meaning to register for ages and have now been prompted to do so for help with my newly acquired Hegel H200. I'm hoping there is someone on the forum who has a Hegel, to help me determine if I have an issue with this unit or I need to ship it off to Holland. (Unbelievebly Hegel's nearest agent)!
The story so far ...
Up to the purchase of the H200 I have been using my trusty Musical Fidelity A3CR Pre/Power combo. I bought myself a pair of ATC SMC11s to replace my aging Quad 11Ls and absolutely love them. When I set up the Hegel all sounded fine until I turned up the volume. Turned up to 70 on the display it was loud but nowhere near ear-shatteringly. (Maximum on the Hegel is 99 - apparently 86-99 kicks in an additional 6dB gain stage). It was at this point I became concerned that something wasn't right. Using the Musical Fidelity amps with the majority of music types I Iisten to, volume settings above 1/2 way are excessive in my room. I have a few other amps which I set up with the same source and speakers and they too, despite being significantly less powerful in wattage terms were capable of driving my SMCs to excessively high levels. Now, I am not a "loud is best" kind of person, not at all, but if this is a hint that the Hegel is faulty I will need to sort it out one way or another.
TEST 1 - non-scientific!
I connected my Exposure 2010 CDP to my Musical Fidelity combo and turned the amp to maximum. (I used an attentuator to keep volumes down). A reading of 85dB max was achieved. With the identical source the Hegel at maximum achieved just over 70dB, (which is less than half the volume, (given that every 10dB is perceived as twice as loud). I'm lucky enough to have a few other amps too which performed similarly to the Musical Fidelity gear.
TEST 2
I connected the MF preamp to the Hegel Main in (Home Theatre input) and the volume was as I expected.
TEST 3
Then I connected the Hegel preamp out to the Musical Fidelity poweramp. Volume was significantly reduced as it was with the Hegel on its own.
Hummm. Does this mean I have a poorly Hegel pre-amp stage?
I have spoken to Hegel which wasn't very helpful so I am hoping someone out there has a similar amp and experience. The bottom line is I will get someone to look at it, but I want to establish that this is not just a 'Hegel-ism', (though I don't buy that), as a few people have suggested to me!
Any help, gratefully received!
All the best.
Daneway