Integrated amplifiers — Hegel H590

The H590 is an integrated amplifier and DAC made by Hegel Music Systems, based in Oslo. It sits above the H390 and H190, and every circuit board inside is specific to this model. One chassis holds a high-power dual-mono amplifier, an analogue preamplifier, a DAC and network streaming, and it is designed to drive almost any loudspeaker.

Key specs that matter

The H590 delivers 301W per channel into 8 ohms and stays stable into 2 ohms. Frequency response is 5Hz to 180kHz, signal-to-noise ratio exceeds 100dB, distortion is below 0.005% at 50W into 8 ohms, intermodulation is below 0.01% and the damping factor exceeds 4,000. Analogue inputs are two balanced XLR and three unbalanced RCA, with a home-theatre bypass mode available on one of the RCA inputs. Digital inputs are coaxial BNC, coaxial RCA, three optical, USB and Ethernet, and the outputs are a coaxial BNC digital output, a fixed RCA output and a variable RCA output. The DAC is based on an AKM chip, with MQA supported over USB. The chassis measures 171 x 430 x 445mm and weighs 22kg.

Engineering and use context

Built as a dual-mono amplifier, the H590 gives each channel its own gain stage and power supply, fed from a toroidal transformer 50% larger than the one in the earlier H360, and the output stage uses 12 transistors per channel against eight in the H360. Hegel's DualPower approach gives the gain and output sections separate transformer windings, so heavy current draw in the output stage does not disturb the voltage gain stages. SoundEngine2, Hegel's patented feed-forward error correction, measures the distortion produced in the Class A/B output stage and cancels it, removing crossover distortion and cutting other distortion by up to 100 times. It also gives a very low output impedance, which is the source of the high damping factor and tight electrical control over woofer movement. The Ethernet input supports UPnP, Apple AirPlay and Spotify Connect, and the amplifier is Control4 ready. A volume lock on any input lets a streamer app such as Sonos or Bluesound set the level. There is no phono stage, and the H590 comes with Hegel's all-metal RC8 remote.

Pairing

With its power reserves and stability into low impedances, the H590 can drive large floorstanders of low sensitivity and low impedance that most integrated amplifiers struggle with. Turntable owners need an external phono stage, and the home-theatre bypass lets the amplifier share speakers with an AV processor.

Alternatives

The Hegel H390 offers 250W per channel with a similar DAC and streaming features in a smaller chassis.