NAD M-33 or Hegel H190
I love the convenience of my NAD M-33; it is the Swiss Army Knife of integrated amps. But ignoring the convenience for a moment, I feel I'm missing something in the music. Sound stage and imaging to be exact. The NAD is technically amazing, but the music somehow sounds "grey". I'm told the Hegel H190 will provide what I'm looking for but there is no way for me to preview the Hegel at this time. Should I trade my NAD M-33 for the Hegel? The complication in trading means I must buy a streamer for Tidal and the I/O on the Hegel is very minimal when compared to the NAD. For instance, I have two sets of speakers and the Hegel has only one set of speaker connections which means I must find some way to split the signal... Any thoughts on these issues would be appreciated.
I have only seen the M33 compared to the Hegel H390. Based on price, that seems more logical. 13th note audio reviews did such a comparison, if I remember correctly. Also those guys in Canada -- Audio Excellence? Look for both on YouTube. I can’t advise you re: the wisdom of using one amp for 2 speaker pairs. Maybe others can
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I tend to agree with @grislybutter -- soundstaging and imaging with the H390 don’t disappoint me in my system (keeping in mind that I have stand-mounts) but I’ve yet to read or watch a review of the H390 (and I’ve checked out a lot of them) that lists these factors as particular strengths. Maybe look here for some ideas?
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While the Hegel is not lushly romantic, I definitely don’t find it "sterile". I don’t know what you mean about lacking in "robustness" -- that it’s "thin" , "dry", "wimpy" "lacking in authoritativeness" ??? Certainly not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2obzyH1F94
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You assert that "sound is really the point" yet you keep circling back to the need to run two speaker pairs. If in fact this is non-hegotiable, I don’t see how any amp will win you over on the basis of sound alone. Why not simply search for integrateds that provide for two speaker pairs and then research their sonics? This seems the most logical course to me. Why make this more difficult than it has to be?
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