Well I pulled the trigger and ordered a marantz pm7000n from my local dealer. Opportunity arose with a “virus” sale right before state locked down for several weeks so I won’t get it until the shutdown order lifted but excited for it to replace my Powernode 2 in my third (office) system.
With the craziness of the last few months I never got the chance to do a head to head comparison with the Hegel, which I do regret. But in the end, it came down to opportunity and small window to pull trigger, and in end I’m better off going with the economical option anyway given these uncertain times.
Final office system will be:
marantz pm7000n
Spendor SA1, with Sunfire SDS8 small sub
Signal speaker and sub cables
Pangea power cords
W Audio W-3900 conditioner
Amazonbasics Cat7 Ethernet cable.
Will be exclusively streaming Tidal.
Powernode 2 will be bumped down the lineup to a newly created “portable” system and drive some Paradigm micro v2 speakers for impromptu tune setups in garage or workshop or in hotel rooms while traveling.