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.
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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@stuartk Cost, simply put. Separates cost a lot and with cables, add up fast. However, a gentleman above just solved my problem with the Unison Research Due. Italian sound and heart, A/B amp with plenty of I/O and at the right price point. Done. |
I recently picked up a M12 and M22 used. For the system I’m using it in - movies & streaming - it’s fantastic, and I really enjoy it. When I tried them both in my #2 pure 2-ch rig (not the main 2ch but still nice): the M22 fared extremely well, paired with a VAC tube preamp and tube phono. It’s not an amp that will add sweetness, but it’s super dynamic, punchy, and powerful. The combination with upstream tubes & vinyl is great. I might actually "borrow" this amp once in a while for the 2ch, when I want a different sound. The M12 didn’t fare nearly as well. It’s clearly "solid state" sounding (or is that "digital" sounding?). This unit can’t hack it in one of my pure 2ch systems. That said, I absolutely love the thing in my living room system for its convenience and rich feature set. So while your M33 is newer and higher class than my M12 + M22, I think the pre section of your M33 (newer M12) might be what’s holding the amp (newer M22) back. And I think I understand why you might say this sounds "grey". Unfortunately, I don’t think the pre section’s influence is bypassable in your case - it converts all inputs, even analog, to digital and runs it through the processor and DAC :( |
