Nad M33 vs Hegel H390... old question with a bit of a twist (ethernet and headphones)

I agree with your assertion that none of these amps really sound like the others.  I think that delta grows, even more, depending on speaker choices and that the amplifier/speaker match is what's really important here.

As far as the videos, the Audio Excellence crew have always been more or less Hegel fanboys to some extent.  I get it, the Hegels are excellent amplifiers and AE sells a ton of them.  I hear them all the time and enjoy them as well. 

I don't think you can draw anything from their discussion about the M10, however.  The M10 has a Hypex nCore amplification stage while the M33's Eigentakt amplification stage is just at a completely different animal.  At some point, I'll borrow my local dealer's H390 to compare with the M33 but based on what I've already heard I would be very surprised if the Hegel throws a larger soundstage than the M33, just to pick one of the points they made about the M10 in the video.

I've already mentioned that the M33 drives my Studio Electric M4s as well as anything I've heard, equal to the giant Bryston that I first heard them with, but it's also light years ahead of the Hegel in both feature set and appearance.  The NAD M33 won Stereophile Product of the Year for 2020 so you might surmise a lot of other people with a lot of experience listening to gear also think that the M33 is pretty special, so I'd be careful with assumptions about how NAD's digital amps sound because this one is quite a bit different. 

Just wanted to jump in as someone who has actually heard the M33 and I have serious doubts that the Hegel H190 is any better.  Sure some folks on here will wax poetic about Class D sound, but until you hear what the M33 can do I would not sell it short--and this is coming from a guy who has a bunch of class a/b stuff in the house, that currently includes amps by Linear Tube Audio, Naim & Manley.

I've been looking for something to drive a new pair of Studio Electric M4s and am looking for a one-box streaming/amplifier solutions and have been really blown away by the NAD.  As a pairing with the M4s, it's much better than the Naim Uniti Atom, which I own, and also better than my Naim Supernait 3, which on most music is dark with those speakers.  There is a difference in tone between the Supernait and the NAD and there are some songs in which the Naim seems fuller.  But plenty of others were it is not.  What the NAD does better than the Naim is the size of the soundstage, the detail retrieval, and the iron grip on the bass.  It's not particularly close.  For my speakers, the only other one-box I would consider is the Gold Note IS-1000 but it's lack of an HDMI input is a strike against it as this unit is going into my family room and I would like to use it with the TV.  I have not directly compared it with the Hegel, but have heard the Hegels a whole lot at my dealers, I don't think it's the slam dunk others seem to sound wise, and as far as the feature set the Hegel is like a Norwegian grandmother compared to the M33.

A former AE guy's video on the M33 seems pretty reasonable.  He compares it with both the Hegel H390 and the Naim Uniti Nova, which I think are the right comparisons for this.  While I generally agree that the Hegel is usually better than NAD on sound quality, I think that when it comes to the M33 that comes down to personal preference and I don't think there is a "better".  The important thing is how it does with your speakers (and in my case, it lights up the M4s).  As a reference for you, my main rig is a pair of Volti Audio Rivals with a Linear Tube Audio Z40i, so one might think that the M33 is pretty far from that sonic signature (which it is).

I actually listened to a pair of the KLH Model 5s last weekend when I was picking up my M4s.  Only spent about 30 minutes with them but they seem like they do everything really well at that price point--I think you will really enjoy them.  My dealer was running the Gold Note IS-1000 with them, which was excellent.  That particular dealer doesn't carry Hegel, NAD or Naim so can't add anything there.  Just to throw out another thought, based on two different YouTube Model 5 reviews, they both seemed to end up on the Yamaha A-S1200 as their favorite integrated with those speakers.  Never heard it and I have no idea, but you can Google Zero Fidelity and Andrew Robinson if you are so inclined. 

My entire point with posting was a) that the M33 is really good so don't dismiss it and b) if it's at all possible to hear any of these with your speakers before taking the plunge, make every effort to do that.  Ultimately the only person who needs to like the combo is you :-).

BTW, very jealous if you are living in or near Vancouver, it's my favorite North American city.  It just wows me every time I'm there.  Here's the link to Jay's video comparing all three that I mentioned above.  Good luck!  Come back and let us know what you decided and how you like it when it's all set up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A3g2ZpgiXA

I agree with this except I think it's really difficult for some folks to spend the money just to find out.  Given the decline of Audiogon over the years (as far as number and quality of listings), it's just not as easy to flip equipment at a fair price as it once was.  So if folks use videos and reviews (and I would add advice from a good dealer) to come up with a shortlist to audition that makes a lot of sense.  But as you say, nothing is going to be a substitute for time in your system working towards your sonic goals.

@atanarjuat99 Congrats on the Hegel purchase.  I'd love to hear how things are after you have everything set up and have listened for a while.  The difference in the 190 & 390 is really interesting, I'll have to check that out at my local Hegel dealer next time I wander in.

Not sure what you decided to do with the Headphones end of this, but if you are looking for a stand-alone headphone amp, my favorite (by far) for not a huge outlay is the Linear Tube Audio MZ2.  If you were drawn to the tone of the H390 over the H190, I'm guessing the MZ2 will make many other headphone amps sound broken.  

https://www.lineartubeaudio.com/products/mz2mz2-s

@atanarjuat99  The LTA does not have its own DAC.  I'm guessing you would connect the fixed output of the Hegel to the headphone amp (you can actually connect up to three devices to the headphone amp) and use the volume control on the LTA.  What I'm not sure of is it the output coming out of the Hegel is post or pre DAC processing.  If the outputs are signal that has not passed through the internal DAC then you may want to add a DAC in between the amp and the headphone amp.