Question Hegel H80 is it powerful enough

bruny

Established Member
Joined
Nov 27, 2003
Messages
618
Reaction score
151
Points
198
Location
Northumberland
Hi all

I've got some Monitor Audio Silver 6 front speakers as part of 5.1 set up, see signature below. Currently connected to my AV receiver (Yamaha RX-V2065). my listening is about 70% music 30% films. I'm thinking of adding a stereo amp with HT Bypass. At the moment I use Pure Direct on the Yamaha. does sound pretty good. I was hoping that by adding a decent stereo amp I can hopefully improve the SQ during stereo only playback. would the Hegel H80 (75watts into 8 0hms) be powerful enough to run my speakers rated at 60-150 watts, sensitivity 90dB. I did read somewhere that these speakers thrive on a decent amount of power. I don't play them loud. occasionally i do like a bit of volume but nothing overboard. I have a budget of £1500. other amps I've looked at are Peachtree nova 150, Creek 100a, and Exposure 3010s2d (over budget). Any thoughts and other suggestions welcome

thanks bruny
 
Obvious question is how do you listen mainly to music, is it through music on your dune routed through to your auralic streamer then using the optical out into your Yamaha. Also CDs using your Sony blu Ray too? How are things connected up?

As both these source units have in built dacs I guess you don't necessarily need an amp with inbuilt dac?

If so how about the rega elicit r. Within budget as a stereo amp and lots of power. Also won lots of awards. Worth listening too against the competition perhaps. This might work because it's described by what hi fi as often bright with the wrong kit (another word for lots of treble), and reading the review of your speakers the suggestion is that they don't have that great detail, compared to competition, which I've been inclined to agree with having owned monitor audio. Therefore this type of amp might give your speakers a kick in the teeth for more detail, particularly if using a receiver which isn't going to get you best detail over a hi fi amp, which I suspect is what is making you upgrade with an amp?

I know cyrus work too with lots of detail so a good one to try. You could trial an cyrus 8 dac at £1500 which has lots of detail. This is an intergrated with a dac so might suit if you are looking for an amp with dac. 70w but I don't think the power issue is massively important to you. Cyrus are good because you can always upgrade and then add on power amps (eg x power)for bi amping so long as your speakers have terminals and can do this, also adding a Qx dac card later for more resolution.

Power is not the be all and end all of an amp as a selection for which amp to choose. All speakers thrive on a bit of burst power and power in reserve but it's nothing if the quality of any power is not up to it i.e. Low distortion etc giving detail etc. I wouldn't therefore just choose an amp on power and would probably be one of the least important issues especially for an amp at £1500.

Hope helps
 
All equipment is connected to router via a gb switch. Auralic connected to NAS by Ethernet then into AV via rca therefore using Auralics DAC. Dune and Sony bluray connected via hdmi only used for watching movies. As I have my Cd collection on the NAS. Don't bother much with CDs. Only if I buy something new to have a first listen then it's ripped to NAS. No the amp doesn't have to have a DAC. Some good recommendations there with the rega and Cyrus. Does the rega have HT bypass. Not sure. Yeh they have the terminals for bi amping.

Cheers
 
I checked it out for you on the rega, looking at the manual and your home cinema amp manual. You will use 'pre outs' on your home cinema amp for the front channels, so left and right phono cables for the fronts. These will just go into the 'direct input' (left and right) on the rega and you wire your speakers up to the new amp of course. The manual says the direct input is for home theatre bypass so you can control the volume on your home cinema amp. I know the cyrus can do this bypass too as I had it set on my old cyrus pre Qx dac pre amp, when I was into home cinema - you set it on the display. You can also do it for all cyrus intergrateds too.

I'd get a device with a dac if you do plan on adding or upgrading sources later as I doubt the auralic dac will be up to one of a dac in a dedicated amp or pre but I might be wrong.

I sold my old cyrus pre Qx dac pre amp to a guy who had monitor audio speakers and he liked the more detailed sound having had the cyrus pre dac without Qx card. The pre2dac now sold is the upgraded new model of the old pre dac, hence number 2.

If thinking cyrus, another option is to buy a new cyrus pre 2 dac (£1k) which is a pre amp and dac box in one, and add on a used cyrus 'x power' power amp which are £1k new but can be bought used for around £500. I sold one only 5 months old for that price. I'd have a guess the sound would be better than the rega. It's 70w per channel but with the added separation of pre and power parts you could get better sound quality benefits and easily add another x power and use them as monoblocks (flipping mono switch on the backs), taking power up to 140w per channel. Cyrus is good as you can add all sorts of upgrades like the Qx dac card to the pre (or intergrateds), and power supplies for the pre or power or both which can take performance up a notch too.

A benefit of buying a pre with a dac could mean that you get a better dac than in your streamer, so since you are spending a good amount you can get this as well. That would be my preference than buying a stereo amp like the rega. Future proofing.

You might be able to get a deal near £1500 on a new pre 2 dac and x power spending a little bit more than budget. This would give guts to your front channel too.

If cyrus doesn't suit your tastes then you could look at other brands where you can possibly buy a new pre amp with dac, and add cheaper used power amps and then another power amp later, which even with one power amp will very likely give you better sq than an intergrated at your budget. I'd look at roksan, and arcam too. These brands and models mght suit the quality of your speakers I think. I think cyrus would but I'm biased of course.

Maybe test to see if a pre and power set up is better than a stereo amp like the rega without a dac, but I'd guess it will be a no brainer particularly with a better onboard dac, and if you get a combined pre and power deal or buy used on one item, or maybe get from a dealer a new pre and their shop demo unit power amp with all the warranty for a similar price to used, considering the amount you are spending and the fact the dealer will want to offer some discount on the demo unit to sweeten the deal.

As always I'd make sure you trial before you buy. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks very much Pipercub. Some excellent advice. The DAC chip in the Auralic is ESS Sabre ES9018K2M which I think sounds very good. Not sure if a dedicated DAC would sound better, suspect it may. Now I guess it's time to go out and arrange some demos.
 
Last edited:
My experience is that dacs in my pre amps are very good and mesh together well but I hear people raving about standalone dacs eg chord Hugo, which I know people have used with cyrus to good effect.

I think what you need more than anything is a good pre/power set up with inbuilt dac in pre and to concentrate on the amplifier side within your budget. A very decent standalone dac as one box and a decent pre/power or intergrated as another box, is possibly out of your budget. I think the gain in sound will come from better Amplification more than anything, tied with a better dac in a pre or Integrated, than you'll get in your streamer, but amplification is most important for stereo. I wouldn't for your kit go all out spending on dacs at the cost of amplification at this stage.
 
Also to say that bear in mind too the dacs in a dedicated audiophile pre /dac or intergrated are going to sound an awful lot better than the dacs that are in add on box devices like your auralic, or streamers like the bluesound node, or sonos connect etc.

They will probably have better power supplies and just be better designed circuits. It's not just the chips in a dac as to how they sound, power supply and design are all important. My pre/dac has a dac for each channel for example whilst most of these boxes will be stereo dacs. But there are other design features that would make it sound better. Also the dacs in a streamer are a compromise as part of the overall streamer design with all the tech that goes into designing streamers with apps etc, the dac circuit part isn't normally much cop and is probably very basic (and off the shelf). accordingly as part of total cost the dac will be limited. On the other hand a dac/pre with decent power supply, toroidal transformers etc will be less of a compromise and be designed mainly with sq in mind not as a streamer but as a dac and pre.
 
I understand about decent power supplies. when i bought the Auralic Aries Mini I also invested in a decent Linear Power Supply(SBooster BOTW P&P ECO 15V - 16V) made a big difference to the sound from the mini. I've decided not to invest in DAC at this point, going to get the amplification sorted out first.
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom