CD/SACD-проигрыватели и транспорты — Hegel Viking

The Viking is a CD player from Hegel, the Norwegian electronics maker from Oslo, and it replaced the Mohican as the company's CD player around 2023, at a price of USD 5,000. It plays Red Book CD only, at its native 16 bit and 44.1 kHz without upsampling, a principle Hegel summarises as No Tricks, No Upsampling, No Compromise. It is designed to match the P30A preamplifier and H30A power amplifier visually.

Key specs that matter

Hegel uses a slot-loading mechanism with its own laser, accepting 12 cm CDs. The DAC chip is an AKM AK4493SEQ. Outputs are one balanced XLR pair, one RCA pair and one BNC digital output with a true 75 ohm impedance. Output level is 2.5 V RMS, and output impedance is 22 ohm unbalanced and 44 ohm balanced. Frequency response extends from 0 Hz to 22 kHz, and THD is below 0.0015%. The player measures 430 x 99 x 305 mm and weighs 7.3 kg, finished in black.

Engineering and use context

A single Hegel master clock with a low-phase-noise quartz crystal controls both the CD drive and the DAC, so the reading of the disc and the conversion share one time reference. Hegel's patented SoundEngine technology is also applied to reduce jitter. Playing the data at its native rate avoids the digital filtering and interpolation that upsampling adds, which is the reason behind Hegel's no-upsampling principle. After the DAC, a custom low-pass filter removes out-of-band noise, and Hegel's Line Driver technology buffers the analogue outputs so they can drive long interconnects. A slot loader draws the disc in without a tray, so there is no drawer mechanism to open and close. The OLED display was chosen for its low electrical noise compared with other display types. The BNC output lets the Viking feed its digital data to an outboard converter, such as Hegel's own D50 DAC. The player switches to standby automatically when not in use, and an aluminium RC8 remote control is supplied. The aluminium case matches the proportions of Hegel's separates.

Pairing

The Viking is intended for the Hegel P30A preamplifier and H30A power amplifier, as well as Hegel integrated amplifiers, connected through the balanced XLR outputs. The BNC output feeds an external DAC when a different converter is preferred. The standard output level and low output impedance also suit amplifiers from other makers.

Alternatives

The Hegel Mohican was the brand's previous CD player, using an AKM AK4490 converter in a slimmer case.