Another Hegel H390 vs H590 Thread

Many dealers were selling new 390s for around $5k last year. It’s worth asking your dealer for a better price before you consider the 590

thanks. I did ask for his best price on it but haven’t heard back. I don’t want to work him over too hard though because he’s a pretty reliable dealer who delivers to my home an hour away, comes out to troubleshoot for free, reprograms my Savant remote when I need it, and will respond to a text day or night. (He has a ton ear though lol). 
 

Meant to say tin ear 

the 590 is better but it is not alot better I would go for the 590 at that price it is a no brainer

at this point h390s are hard to get right no hegel probably offered your dealer a better price on the 590

Dave and Troy

Audi9o intellect NJ

Hegel dealers

I'm just curious and a tad off your topic but why did you decide to move away from tubes..I did a few years ago and as it's said never looked back.

Thanks Audio Troy. That’s what I thought. He’s a new Hegel dealer (actually picked them up because I asked him if he could get Hegel). I think you’re right that  he got a better price and he also dropped a bit as well because he felt that the 590 simply wasn’t worth that much of a premium over the 390. Incidentally I’ve been lurking here for a while, and I just love your posts and your information. I think it was you that caused me to buy the Innuos Zan streamer last year. Love that thing. (But I am curious how it will compare to using the Hegel streaming capability. We’ll see. 

Hi Missioncoonery, I like the primaluna a lot but there are two reasons to move on: 

1. I just replaced my Maggies (1.7i) with Duevel Venus omnis. They work ok with the prima but need more power I think. They’re fairly inefficient. 
 

2. Tube amps can’t be left on all the time. This system is in a vacation house which gets a lot of use by my adult children. More than once I’ve come back after one of them has been up here to find the amp left on for several days or even as much as a week. Ugh. It’s bad for the amp and it’s using like 500 watts continuously just sitting there doing nothing. 

I understand totally. I ran with tubes for the longest time, mainly Jadis then several other including Prima Luna for a couple years. I prefer the faster attack ,better bass control,wider sound stage I get with solid state...i was curious, thanks

The 390 is an excellent piece, but the 590 just does everything a bit better. The 390 is the sweet spot, but the 590 is worth it IMO over the 390. 

i agree w @geof3

590 subtly but noticeably better sounding than 390 -- if the system is quite resolving

that said, the 390 is very very very good sounding, well above its price point (~5 grand) ... only in direct comparison, immediately switching over to the 590 (or an h20) will one hear that the 390 is a touch smoother, duller, less ultimately transparent -- the 590 has more pure, more specific image focus, better retrieval of detail without any added solid state harshness... but the other side of this same coin is that the 390 can be somewhat more forgiving sounding if the particular setup can benefit from this based on source material or rest of the system

finally, the 390 has a specific functionality that the slightly earlier-released 590 lacks, and that is the 390 can fully decode/unfold tidal mqa through all its relevant digital inputs, whereas the 590 can do so only over its usb input

power wise, pretty much any speaker that one unit will comfortably drive, so will the other (one must have a pretty darn inefficient/reactive speaker load, or huge room, exhaust a 390 where a 590 will hold it together... in my use, the 390 never even remotely breathed hard...)

to me, these are the salient differences between the two... the op can determine one his/her own whether the price difference is worth spending in the specific application

Thanks all, great input. I appreciate it. I’ve actually managed to arrange an im home demo tomorrow between the 590 and the 390 so we’ll see. 
 

@jjss49 thanks for your excellent take!  Btw, the MQA decode through only USB has apparently been solved for about a year. The newer 590s with a standby function also will decode MQA through all inputs, just like a 390. (Not that I really care, as a Qobuz user…) 

Btw, the MQA decode through only USB has apparently been solved for about a year. The newer 590s with a standby function also will decode MQA through all inputs, just like a 390.

@mikezuk 

that is good to know... i sold my 590 over a year ago... did hegel handle this via firmware update so all 590's can gain the added mqa functionality, or are only newer shipped 590's able to do this?

@jjss49 my understanding is that it is a hardware implementation in the 590 from late 2020.  They came out with a new version  that had power standby as well as MQA on all inputs:  

Direct quote from a Hegel employee on the hegel Facebook page: 

 “MQA is a hardware feature, so this has nothing to do with firmware upgrades. H590 with standby has the same DAC implementation as H390 with MQA on all inputs.”

I chose the h590 because of the control they have over the blades. 

I have a very moderately size room that I currently use an Hegel H390 to drive a pair of, not so efficient, Revel Salon 2 speakers. The H390 does a great job of driving my speakers and also sounds outstanding paired with my Ayre Acoustics QX-5 Twenty DAC. However, because of the relative inefficiency of my speakers, I just recently order an H590 to replace the H390. I decided to upgrade so I could get that extra power that the H590 will provide, as well as, a pretty significant upgrade in sound quality. So, as much as I love the sound of the H390, I want to maximize (as far as Hegel integrated amps are concerned) the Hegel sound and power in my system. I can’t wait for the H590 to arrive!!!

I just upgraded from the H390 to the H590.  The H390 is an amazing integrated, in it's own right, but when I purchased very large, inefficient speakers, I needed even more power then what the H390 had to offer, so I decided to upgraded to the H590.  The H590 was a pretty significant upgrade to the H390.  The H590 put the vice-grip to my speakers to a greater degree than did the H390.  There was just more of everything with the H590.  The H590 provides improved and increased: power, dynamics, detail, transparency, control, soundstage and palpability.  I don't use the H590's internal DAC.  The H590 combined with my reference level outboard DAC is a spectacular combination.  If I got a larger room again, I'd go back to separates again.  Until then, I believe that the H590 is one of the very few, marquis integrated amps out there that will make you not miss having big-time separates.