Electrocomp. vs. Hegel -The battle of Norway

Bumping this up…has anyone heard Hegel vs Electrocompaniet recently and was swayed to one over the other?

Very true Bill_k. My Hegel H10 was outstanding for it's price to performance ratio. The whole Hegel line is quite a modern day bargain. I only went up to the amazing Burmester 911 MK3
because I wanted to get the best amp in the world.

I would like to add my experience to the other users above in praising the exceptional sonics of the Hegel power amps. I recently replaced Cary Audio CAD-500MB mono amps with the Hegel H20. I'm driving Piega C-10 Ltd. speakers which utilize a coaxial ribbon driver for the midrange and tweeter. These speakers can be a bit ruthless in revealing any flaws in the amplification being used.

With very familiar recordings I was immediately struck by the much more natural and organic sound of my system compared to that with the Cary amps. There is an effortless quality along with more natural musical decay, resulting in a much greater sense of reproducing the acoustics of the original venue. Each instrument is now being presented in its own space on a even blacker background. The soundstage is much larger than with my previous monoblocks, which was a surprise to me going to a single stereo amp. Most importantly with my speakers, there is absolutely no edge or grain to the sound. It is exceedingly smooth and musical. It is also much easier to follow bass lines, as the dynamics also seem to be improved with the H20 power amp.

I've had many power amps in my system over the years, more than I'd like to admit. The Hegel H20 is an absolute standout in performance and provides an exceptional value as well. I predict that the rave reviews will continue as this product line gets more exposure in the US market.

audiofreakgeek is spot on regarding Hegel products. I have the Hegel H10 and it performed as well as my friend's Mark Levinson N053 mono amps at $55,000. The Hegel h10 is powerful, dynamic and throws a 3D wide soundstage. It loves to be pushed hard. But, it is extemely transparent and allows one to emtionally feel the music. In short, it is truely state of the art, and a world class amplifier. It also goes to 1,000x2 watts into 2 ohms

I had an Electrocompaniet on my 10Ts. It sounded very good. Electrocomp has been one of my favorite amps of all I've owned but I was a little concerned about reliability. The volume control was not digitial so more moving parts to fail. I haven't heard Hegel's performance. The name is less well-known than Electro so consider that if you think you might resell it at some point.

Both are good integrated amplifiers, however there is where the similarity ends.

Hegel uses a revolutionary patented circuit which Hegel calls the "sound engine" which is a feed forward error correction scheme, Solution uses a similar circuit although executed to an insane degree.

This technology gives the entire Hegel line an incredibly high damping factor of over 1,000 across the line.

When you listen to a Hegel amplifier you will be amazed at the tight, punchy bass which makes you believe you are listening to a much more expensive amplifier.

Another advantage of this circuit is a cool running amplifier.

Aside from the bass, the Hegel has a very three dimensional soundstage and is quite liquid sounding.

Check out the current reviews of Hegel products on enjoythemusic.com and soundstage and Tone audio.

Every reviewer is freaking out over how good the Hegel's perform and are comparing Hegels products to other devices which cost to two three times their price.

The only problem with Hegel is that they are brand new to the US.