Hegel H590 with BW 800D

That should work fine. You could do a lot worse. 

Got it, thanks for the quick response!

 

Completely depends on what sound characteristics you’re looking for.  Without that info, this post is useless and you’re just gonna get individual opinions that may have nothing to do with your own.  Just sayin’.

Completely depends on what sound characteristics you’re looking for.  Without that info, this post is useless...

Sorry, not musically sophisticated enough to articulate sound characteristics.  I'm new to this, and appreciate it when music sounds nice/full--but I am not qualified to start parsing it with any further descriptors.

In the past, I had read about how the BW800D's "love power" to get the most out of them.  In the context of that type of a statement, I wasn't sure if something like the H590 would have sufficient "power" to meet that standard. 

I wasn't sure if something like the H590 would have sufficient "power" to meet that standard. 

It's a good stout amp, no worries. 800wpc is a whole different deal but that type of system is for the seriously dedicated guys. 

@orthoblock 

B&W's need high current delivery to tame the woofers. I would consider Gryphon Diablo 300. 

 

Best of luck!

The H590 will drive those speakers without even blinking. It doubles down from 301wps @8ohms to 600, 1200, etc. The neutral nature would be a great mix with B&W’s. The Gryphon Diablo 300 will drive them nicely as well, but is significantly more $ and has an entirely different character than the 590, which I’m not sure would play particularly well with the B&W’s. Both are STELLAR amps and you cannot go wrong with either one, it would boil down to preference. Another one to consider is the H390, plenty of grunt to drive those as well. 

Thank you for the responses.  It's helpful to get some additional perspectives.

In my research, I see a lot of posts about how these speakers play very well with various mono-block setups with 600+ Watts per channel (e.g., MC601/611 or Classe CA-M600, etc.)  Which made me wonder how much I would be "leaving on the table" by using an integrated like this (with "only" 300 Watts per channel.)

I haven't had the privilege of hearing these speakers with various different amps, so have no idea how much of a difference we're talking across different amps. 

I was using a Classe 2300, which is a stereo amp providing 300 watts per

Channel  at 8 ohms, and 600 at 4 ohms.  It drove my B&W 803D3’s fine.  

What amp are you using now, and what kind of improvements are you looking for?

There's a good chance the 390 would drive those speakers without the benefit of a cable!  Enjoy!!

A related question to the H590 -- I just realized that it doesn't have a headphone output.

Is there a clean way to utilize the DAC/pre-amp on the device with headphones?  My concern is that feeding the variable-output/fixed-line output from the H590 to an external headphone amp would leave the speakers in the H590 on.  Does anyone know if "muting" the H590 will leave the variable-output/fixed-line outputs active (there by allowing me to mute the speakers while still driving the headphone amp.).

 

Good question, I think hegel's have a ht pass thru if that helps?

I have the notoriously inefficient and hard to drive Revel Salon 2 speakers. After needing to move from my much larger room to a very moderately size room, I decided to downsize and go from separates to an integrated. My first amp was the Hegel H390, which drove the speakers well enough, but not up to their fullest potential. Then came the H590. There was a big-time difference between to H390 and the H590. The H590 drove my speakers with much more power, dynamics and authority. The H590 was an upgrade to the H390 in every parameter. If you can't have separates and need lots of power, the H590 is one of the absolute best alternatives to separates, in my view. The H590 is a very special and magnificent integrated, and it's also a much greater value compared to way more expensive integrated amps out there. For it's asking price, I think that the H590 is the best integrated amp on the market.