Hegel H300 still worth getting?

Depends on how good the H300 price is.  I have experience with H200, H160, and H360, and if you are using the amp for 2-channel listening, then I would strongly suggest H160 for around $1,700 used.  If you read the Hifiplus review, you will see that H160 actually sounds better than H300.  

Hegel makes awesome sounding gear, especially for the price. I have owned multiple Hegel integrated amps and 1 of their preamps. I still have their h300. With my Usher Mini Dancer ii’s, the Hegel was a great match for them. I went up the usher line to the x-towers which needed more power, so I went with high powered monoblocks.
i have compared the Hegel 160 to my h300 and I would keep the h300. The newer 160 has new features that might entice you to buy it over the h300. Also, when I bought mine from the dealer, I asked Hegel to convert the hot passthru to an extra rca input which they did.
if you decide you want a h300 let me know I might be selling mine

Thanks for all the feedback...!!

If its just a slight difference then I prefer to have 250 watts on tap... one of these in future days I may swap mine for a heavier load speaker... Was thinking to get a powerful amp and live with it for years.

@phil9624 I realized the H300 does not support DLNA/Airplay, how do you connect the H300s? To get the best quality 24/192 I think it has to use the optic in... 

No doubt Hegel makes good products. I was especially impressed with the H160 though. It had no trouble driving my Von Schweikert Endeavor E-3 mk2 speakers. There was never a time that I felt there wasn’t enough power. Then I tried the H360 which puts out 250wpc, and of course it sounded better than the H160, but it is twice as good as the H160? No, I didn’t think so. My only guess is that Hegel really did wonderful things in these 2 amps with the SoundEngine2 technology. The newer line of H160/H360 does sound significantly better than the H200. That’s why I wouldn’t recommend the H300. But again, I’ve never heard the H300 before, so I can’t comment on the H300. For the price/performance ratio, H160 is hard to beat. I also don’t use the internal dac because I have a Lampizator Lite 7 dac.

The internal dac in the h300 is decent. I had better external dacs so I used them instead of the h300's. Hegel does offer the DAC loop wherein you connect an external dac using the output and inputs on the h300 and it does make the sound better. I did use it this way for a little while. If you are new to digital audio, i would have no problems using the internal h300 dac but knowing in the future, I would be getting a more up to date/better external dac. Even the dac in the h360 when it came out was much better than the h300 dac, but didn't compare to hegel's standalone dacs or other 3rd party dacs. I did have the older hegel integrated amp and the h300 blew it away. The H160 is a nice unit, but I think the H300 is a better unit except the H160 has newer bells and whistles that the H300 doesn't. Hegel did some weird things by crawling on top of itself. Take the Rost, which was a very nice integrated, then they came out with the H160 and it trampled the Rost. The H360 is a better unit power wise and has a better dac than the H300, but the H360 dac is not as good as many other external dacs

Hi All,

Just an update, I finally managed to find a H360. It is amazing so far, sounds really nice when warmed up.

@rbstehno , which DAC would you recommend to pair with the H360? Will it be a big improvement?

I have been playing with it using DLNA (Audirvana streaming) and also airplay. DLNA drops sometimes and is not very stable, I tried to look for a firmware update in the Hegel site but don’t see any.

Airplay does not seem to work from my macbook, could possibly be due to Airplay2 introduced. But in any case, DLNA streaming is better with less loss of data/quality.

At RMAF in the Hegel room a few years ago, I had them compare the h360 dac to their standalone dac, and their standalone dac was much better, and they will tell you that. 
After I looked at many dacs, I ended up getting the ps audio DS with the bridge. Highly reviewed, FPGA, free upgrades that improve performance every 6 months, can handle any format out there, no need for a dedicated music server since it has the bridge, top SQ, and more.

Hey guys,

Been playing around with my H360 and so quite happy with it.

However, I found a few issues with it. I am hearing a slight hum (60 hz) when I come close about 6 inches away. Apart from that I don't hear the hum, is this normal on your Hegels?

I also found the DLNA to be a bit sketchy, using audirvana... sometimes it loses network connection. But comes back after a few seconds...

Finally, using USB connection from my macbook, I find that it also loses connection for like a second or 2 and resumes playback. It fails to my macbook speakers and resume on the Hegel. Ok, I'm using some generic USB cable and that may be the reason. I've ordered some audioquest cables and waiting for delivery...

Did you guys notice any of these issues on your Hegel?

Thanks again...

It's not the DLNA causing the problem. That is as stable a platform as their is.

The problem is elsewhere, router, switch, service, cables, etc...

or it sounds like you need set a larger buffer via audionirvana


USB from Macbook is total garbage and Airplay is even worse garbage and I say this not to be critical at all but to help you out.

Ethernet is by far superior to either of those. If you must use USB and many prefer this then do yourself a favor and pick up a cheap used microRendu and a power it with a cheap used Uptone LPS and it will be 1,000 times better but better yet iron out that Ethernet DLNA because Ethernet is vastly superior. Like 100 to 1 better. Good luck...   

Hegel is nice and a quality product for sure but it's a little laid back, I used to own the H30 and was always looking for the volume knob but you can kick it in the pants a bit with some super revealing IC's which helps or a AC cable with some pop. The Higher end Nordost stuff for example could work well if you like that sound. Don't use Cardas or the like or anything warm unless your speakers are super revealing then you maybe good to go as is. 

I had the intermittent transformer hum when I had my H160 and H360.  The humming would go away after a while.  I believe that's normal.  If it stays humming all the time, then it may be AC line issue.

@fsmithjack , yea I experimented with the LAN cable and it is better than using wifi. USB connection somehow is a bit sketchy when playing dsd64 files but is ok streaming Tidal/Spotify.

@respected_ent,Possibly its the AC. I tried turning off every thing but still the hum exists. Probably I have to get the Emotiva CMX-2, but I suppose there is no harm to the system or the sound quality?

i had a lot of drop outs streaming tidal from my laptop so I bought a music server, got my laptop back and no more drop outs. the h360 doesn't decode mqa so the highest res we can get from tidal is 24/96 still very good.

Just thought  I would throw in my 2 cents. I recently replaced a NAD M3 Master Series dual mono integrated amp with a used Hegel H300 integrated. Both sound superb, but I would give a slight edge to the H300 due to its amp section. It works very well with my Mag 1.7s. The NAD does not include a dac, but has way more features than the H300. And speaking of dacs, the one in the Hegel is ok if you don't have a separate one lying around, but my Schiit Yggdrasil just blows it away.

I guess I didn't answer the original question when posting my previous message. Yes, if a good amp/preamp with a lot of power suits your needs the H300 is absolutely worth getting. I am not impressed much by its dac, and if features like tone controls, balance, phase, etc. are important to you look elsewhere. But a H300 is quite a good sounding unit. If features matter check out the NAD M3 and supply your own dac of choice.

While this is probably too late to help the OP maybe it will help someone else. I've gone through various speakers, SS amps and tube amps over the last 40 years.  The only constant piece I've had is a Rotel rcd 1072 CD player and I love it.  I recently purchased a Hegel H300 after selling my last tube amp.  The way I'd describe the Hegel as is very balanced instrument wise.  For example, my last tube amp did really well bringing mid-range forward.  Vocals, guitar, piano etc sounded great but it lacked in lower mid/bass and cymbals weren't always clear.  The signature sound of this tube made many recordings sound bad and as a result I haven't listened to some of my old rock and roll recordings in years.  Id say in comparison the Hegel is non description and doesn't have a sound signature.  While some recordings may sound better then others none sound bad.  I'm now jamming to Zeppelin, Allman brothers, CCR and God I forgot how good Rush can sound. Cymbals are also about the best I've heard and my older blues music is very enjoyable again Personally I can't stand most of the music that is used to demo high-end audio gear so if that's what you like my opinion may be worthless to you.  As someone mentioned above, I agree the Hegel is laid back but to me this means I can just sit and listen to the music and not feel the urge to be critical of it.  Speakers I have are acoustic zen Adagio and I use a small sub.
Hope their is helpful to someone.