Hegel H360 vs Separates

Next youll be on here asking about cables to connect the two! LOL. Seriously, it should be a large improvement in sound Q. Better everything.
I'm sure anything you can do to improve the signal going to those Focals will be rewarded :-)


Matt M

I heard both the H360 and the H30 at the LA Audio Show last June. They were driving the KEF Blades. The goal of Hegel at the show was to show how close the Rost | H360 | H30 sounded on the great KEF Blades. Most people thought the H360 was a fine piece and was not too far behind the H30. You could hear a bigger bolder sound from the H30 (and some other audio words) but I would reckon if you have the H360 and did not hear the H30 you would not feel like you were missing all that much. Law of diminishing returns applies here. 

I was just trying to decide a few days ago between the H360 | Bryston 4B3 | Benchmark AHB2 and created an A'Gon thread for this question. I would have chosen the H360 for my office system if not for the fact that the AHB2 was smaller and also quieter. The smaller form factor being a bigger deal for my situation.

I cannot say much on the H360 - only heard it on show rooms and it always shines. Couple of years ago I did try the H20 on its own and along the P20 preamp for about a week or so. I was mightly impressed by the H20 driving Magnepan 1.7. Not sure about the preamp which i think is pretty expensive for the features it gives. Perhaps it is a lateral move from the H360. However I have been told by dealers that the H20 uses higher spec parts than the integrated despite the lower power so that could explain why it sounded so polished. Some folks with the higher up model the H30 match it with tube pre’s. From memory the only thing that the P20/H20 combo didn’t quite achieve for me was a continuous 3d soundstage. However, as sound it was very very good, liquid and very deep and controlled bass. Perhaps with a tube pre it may have worked fine and gain some more soundstage. Little low input impedance though through the XLRs if thats important.

Just for perspective.
I recently "downgraded" from seperates to a Hegel H300, then H160 ( needed headphone capability).
Imho the DAC onboard is very good and I really miss nothing.
The H360 should be even better still.
I honestly do not think you are missing much of anything apart from the flexibility of only needing change one component when upgraditis strikes.....

Thank everyone for their responses! So I made the jump and ordered the separate components. I’ll definitely report back with my findings as soon as everything is nice and broken in!

I have an h360 driving a pair of salon2's and think sometimes if I win the lotto i'll buy the h30 (used) and use my h360 pre and dac.