Ayre v Hegel sound

kef and harbeth are just two well established successful speaker makers that consistently use big hegels at shows

my sense is that this is because they feel hegels control their speakers very well while not otherwise editorializing on the music played through them, even at significant show demo volumes, thus allowing the speakers to be at their best for demo listeners

not to say hegel is the only amplifier line that can do this, but it is instructive for amplifier buyers to note this fact

i have a different point of view... in the h390 and h590 i feel the dacs are quite good, especially the 590, where they integrated the sound quite synergistically with the pre/power sections ... to my ear, certainly as good as the better stand alone dacs up to roughly $1000 (which is a pretty high standard sonically these days)... my experience is based on running roon, using the streaming function, with a well cleansed lan feed (good switch, well filtered, linear power supplies)

in my opinion one has to spend more than $1000 to noticeably better the sonics of the internal dacs in the upper hegels... (think modded mhdt orchid, dena pontus/venus, chord qutest and higher...)

slightly off topic to the op's query, but i would agree, a used h590 at a good (current) price is an excellent buy if you have the budget

the used price delta between the 390 and 590 currently makes the 590 well worth having -- by my estimation, it is better by about 10-15%, so not really worth what was the 2x msrp difference, but at $4500 vs $6500, the 590 is compelling imo, it is simply superb

very similar sonic profiles up the frequency range, smooth refined well detailed treble and silky yet textured voices and mids, both are holographic and well defined with soundstage/imaging -- hegel will have superb bass control (among the very best out there), ayre a touch looser, boomier in midbass, hegel will dig deeper into deep bass but the overall bass presentation will be a touch drier... so preferences and speaker/room choice will dictate what sounds better