Hegel Röst (Rost) review

[newlash09]

Many thanks for your kind words.

Newlash, I've not heard the Parasound. It could've been Al as I know he did mention it a few times and all was positive indeed positive. I wish I could offer up a comparison for you.

And indeed please bear in mind that it is in relation to my speakers. And in fact I'm quite curious to hear it on the end of other speakers so watch this space. Not had another pair of speakers in 3 months and that's a long time. Quite unusual for me to only have my main speakers and nothing else.

I am afraid it was me that mentioned the Halo Integrated but as I haven't heard a Rost, or any of the newer Hegels, I couldn't comment further, and it would be pointless anyway because you have to audition these things for yourself.

Point noted

 

[Romulus]

A great review on the Hegel Rost from Insider9 and quite insightful on specific areas. I was interested to learn OP's approach to music and that he has used Naim on his journey. My question to OP is what in his opinion was the different presentation of music from Naim and Hegel and why he preferred the Hegel sound?

 

[rainsoothe]

A great review on the Hegel Rost from Insider9 and quite insightful on specific areas.  I was interested to learn OP's approach to music and that he has used Naim on his journey.  My question to OP is what in his opinion was the different presentation of music from Naim and Hegel and why he preferred the Hegel sound? 

Well, I think he got a sh Nait 5i2, which is the previous generation of Naim's entry-level integrated, which went for less than half the price of a new Rost. Still, my feelings are that Hegel sounds cleaner, and does better in the soundstage department, as everything is airier. Naim has a better "togetherness" in the music (which I like) and stronger forward momentum (which I also like). Ofc, 600 pounds for the Rost (or even H80) is a no-brainer imo.

 

[insider9]

Thanks very much Romulus. I'll type it up as soon as I'm in front of a PC. A little bit much to type on a smartphone.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

Hi insider

the hagel Rost it says 75 Watts into 8 ohms but will dip down to 2 ohms but doesn’t talk about 4 ohm load so I take it does ? So I would be getting 150 Watts ?

and how much class A would the Hagel give me before class B kicks in ?

 

[insider9]

This is measured by Hifi News (not specs that are often not accurate)

Continuous power (

 

[Blacksabbath25]

This is measured by Hifi News (not specs that are often not accurate)

Continuous power (<1% THD, 8/4ohm) 90W / 135W

Dynamic power (<1% THD, 8/4/2/1ohm) 124W / 225W / 59W / 6W

As you can see it will handle a 2 Ohm load. But I don't think anyone who thinks to drive 2 Ohm loads will look to buy this amp. Or anyone who's speakers dip this low will be considering 75Wpc amp.

I didn't come across an answer to your other question anywhere regarding bias.

If your comparing it to your Yamaha remember your comparing an amp one off the top of the range for Yamaha to one off the bottom of the range for Hegel.

Looking at original RRP you should really be considering H190 or previous gen H160. Both by RRP cheaper than Yamaha. If you want to compare performance.

And this is how Hifi News measures H190 for comparison.

Continuous power (<1% THD, 8/4ohm) 175W / 280W Dynamic power (<1% THD, 8/4/2/1ohm) 230W / 412W / 692W / 60W

However proof is in the listening. So if your speakers are not a pair with crazy impedance dips (yours aren't) and the amp can drive them with ease (it can we didn't even push it that much). You should really decide on sound quality. And it was very good indeed.

I am not sure why I am thinking of buying the hagel Rost not to replace my Yamaha but to try a different amplifier and the fact at that price I’ve got nothing to lose just a different angle .

but saying all of this I wouldn’t mind trying the sugden 21se class A amplifier at home as I was very impressed with the sound quality but they are not selling at £700 more like £3000

 

[insider9]

I wouldn't decide for too long. Know quite a few guys who lost out due to stock availability. Early bird and all that.

 

[drummerman]

I wouldn't decide for too long. Know quite a few guys who lost out due to stock availability. Early bird and all that.

I think all Rost's in stock are unsurprisingly already spoken for when I talked to Rick yesterday.

Still worth to give the fella a ring though.

 

[insider9]

It's been about 3 months and I still got the Rost. Still impressed with it on a daily basis. And most importantly it gets me to listen to music. On a good day, this week it was Monday. I've listened to 4 new (to me) albums.

One thing I would like to clarify though is my statement regarding USB input sounding congested when compared to SPDIF.

Not long after I posted my review a mate of mine said

"I've got this fancy USB cable you should really hear it."

He knows my position on cables. But since he was so enthusiastic I tried.

First test was to compare it to SPDIF. I made sure I level matched it properly. A lot in the line here and I'm not having any claims unsubstantiated. AB comparison showed no difference. But how could it be? Using a cheap cable "USB felt congested". It must be the fancy cable. Surely!

So I started to research why it could be. With Hegel USB DAC being synchronous there could be an instances that a cable makes a difference. Interesting

After a few days I decided that since I heard such difference I should be able to measure it. Unfortunately no luck. Both cables measured the same...

I popped the cheap printer cable back in compared it to SPDIF... No difference. Tried the fancy one... Also no difference.

So is there any explanation to this? There is about 1dB difference in levels when comparing USB and SPDIF. Not sure it is in any way related to a player I used but I had to attenuate SPDIF more than USB when level matching. This is the only reason why I think I could've heard USB sounding congested.

So if you fancy using Hegel Rost via USB input go right ahead. I've been doing this for the last 6 weeks. And since it's synchronous you may even benefit from a cable upgrade *biggrin*

 

[CnoEvil]

I have heard a USB cable make a difference (not in my system). I have also tried an expensive Digital Coax (Atlas Mavros) in my system and found no difference vs my cheap Ecosse "The Producer" one.

 

[Andrewjvt]

It's been about 3 months and I still got the Rost. Still impressed with it on a daily basis. And most importantly it gets me to listen to music. On a good day, this week it was Monday. I've listened to 4 new (to me) albums.

One thing I would like to clarify though is my statement regarding USB input sounding congested when compared to SPDIF.

Not long after I posted my review a mate of mine said

"I've got this fancy USB cable you should really hear it."

He knows my position on cables. But since he was so enthusiastic I tried.

First test was to compare it to SPDIF. I made sure I level matched it properly. A lot in the line here and I'm not having any claims unsubstantiated. AB comparison showed no difference. But how could it be? Using a cheap cable "USB felt congested". It must be the fancy cable. Surely!

So I started to research why it could be. With Hegel USB DAC being synchronous there could be an instances that a cable makes a difference. Interesting

After a few days I decided that since I heard such difference I should be able to measure it. Unfortunately no luck. Both cables measured the same...

I popped the cheap printer cable back in compared it to SPDIF... No difference. Tried the fancy one... Also no difference.

So is there any explanation to this? There is about 1dB difference in levels when comparing USB and SPDIF. Not sure it is in any way related to a player I used but I had to attenuate SPDIF more than USB when level matching. This is the only reason why I think I could've heard USB sounding congested.

So if you fancy using Hegel Rost via USB input go right ahead. I've been doing this for the last 6 weeks. And since it's synchronous you may even benefit from a cable upgrade *biggrin*

I did think so but also have experience in this due to the synchronous nature of the dac.
If windows was performing an update or the processor is stressed it could indeed effect the performance of the playback. But it is in an extreme case and very rare.

 

[insider9]

I kept the cable.

 

[newlash09]

It's been about 3 months and I still got the Rost. Still impressed with it on a daily basis. And most importantly it gets me to listen to music. On a good day, this week it was Monday. I've listened to 4 new (to me) albums.

One thing I would like to clarify though is my statement regarding USB input sounding congested when compared to SPDIF.

Not long after I posted my review a mate of mine said

"I've got this fancy USB cable you should really hear it."

He knows my position on cables. But since he was so enthusiastic I tried.

First test was to compare it to SPDIF. I made sure I level matched it properly. A lot in the line here and I'm not having any claims unsubstantiated. AB comparison showed no difference. But how could it be? Using a cheap cable "USB felt congested". It must be the fancy cable. Surely!

So I started to research why it could be. With Hegel USB DAC being synchronous there could be an instances that a cable makes a difference. Interesting

After a few days I decided that since I heard such difference I should be able to measure it. Unfortunately no luck. Both cables measured the same...

I popped the cheap printer cable back in compared it to SPDIF... No difference. Tried the fancy one... Also no difference.

So is there any explanation to this? There is about 1dB difference in levels when comparing USB and SPDIF. Not sure it is in any way related to a player I used but I had to attenuate SPDIF more than USB when level matching. This is the only reason why I think I could've heard USB sounding congested.

So if you fancy using Hegel Rost via USB input go right ahead. I've been doing this for the last 6 weeks. And since it's synchronous you may even benefit from a cable upgrade *biggrin*

Like a snake oil salesman. I read that usb spdif converters like audiophilio used to improve the digital audio coming out of a pc's usb port. By eliminating power noise, and using their own internal clock. But that was in 2012.

Apparently the new ps direct stream dac2, and gen 2 auralic dacs already come with galvanic isolation and all that the audiophilio used to have at their usb inputs. So adding a external USB spdif convertor into their dac inputs didn't make absolutely any difference.

Now I don't think hegel went to the same extent in designing their usb input on the hegel rost. So the difference you are getting between the USB and spdif input on the rost, might be pc noise.

Skin the snake not the salesman

 

[newlash09]

It's been about 3 months and I still got the Rost. Still impressed with it on a daily basis. And most importantly it gets me to listen to music. On a good day, this week it was Monday. I've listened to 4 new (to me) albums.

One thing I would like to clarify though is my statement regarding USB input sounding congested when compared to SPDIF.

Not long after I posted my review a mate of mine said

"I've got this fancy USB cable you should really hear it."

He knows my position on cables. But since he was so enthusiastic I tried.

First test was to compare it to SPDIF. I made sure I level matched it properly. A lot in the line here and I'm not having any claims unsubstantiated. AB comparison showed no difference. But how could it be? Using a cheap cable "USB felt congested". It must be the fancy cable. Surely!

So I started to research why it could be. With Hegel USB DAC being synchronous there could be an instances that a cable makes a difference. Interesting

After a few days I decided that since I heard such difference I should be able to measure it. Unfortunately no luck. Both cables measured the same...

I popped the cheap printer cable back in compared it to SPDIF... No difference. Tried the fancy one... Also no difference.

So is there any explanation to this? There is about 1dB difference in levels when comparing USB and SPDIF. Not sure it is in any way related to a player I used but I had to attenuate SPDIF more than USB when level matching. This is the only reason why I think I could've heard USB sounding congested.

So if you fancy using Hegel Rost via USB input go right ahead. I've been doing this for the last 6 weeks. And since it's synchronous you may even benefit from a cable upgrade *biggrin*

Like a snake oil salesman. I read that usb spdif converters like audiophilio used to improve the digital audio coming out of a pc's usb port. By eliminating power noise, and using their own internal clock. But that was in 2012.

Apparently the new ps direct stream dac2, and gen 2 auralic dacs already come with galvanic isolation and all that the audiophilio used to have at their usb inputs. So adding a external USB spdif convertor into their dac inputs didn't make absolutely any difference.

Now I don't think hegel went to the same extent in designing their usb input on the hegel rost. So the difference you are getting between the USB and spdif input on the rost, might be pc noise.

Skin the snake not the salesman

 

[Andrewjvt]

It's been about 3 months and I still got the Rost. Still impressed with it on a daily basis. And most importantly it gets me to listen to music. On a good day, this week it was Monday. I've listened to 4 new (to me) albums.

One thing I would like to clarify though is my statement regarding USB input sounding congested when compared to SPDIF.

Not long after I posted my review a mate of mine said

"I've got this fancy USB cable you should really hear it."

He knows my position on cables. But since he was so enthusiastic I tried.

First test was to compare it to SPDIF. I made sure I level matched it properly. A lot in the line here and I'm not having any claims unsubstantiated. AB comparison showed no difference. But how could it be? Using a cheap cable "USB felt congested". It must be the fancy cable. Surely!

So I started to research why it could be. With Hegel USB DAC being synchronous there could be an instances that a cable makes a difference. Interesting

After a few days I decided that since I heard such difference I should be able to measure it. Unfortunately no luck. Both cables measured the same...

I popped the cheap printer cable back in compared it to SPDIF... No difference. Tried the fancy one... Also no difference.

So is there any explanation to this? There is about 1dB difference in levels when comparing USB and SPDIF. Not sure it is in any way related to a player I used but I had to attenuate SPDIF more than USB when level matching. This is the only reason why I think I could've heard USB sounding congested.

So if you fancy using Hegel Rost via USB input go right ahead. I've been doing this for the last 6 weeks. And since it's synchronous you may even benefit from a cable upgrade *biggrin*

Like a snake oil salesman. I read that usb spdif converters like audiophilio used to improve the digital audio coming out of a pc's usb port. By eliminating power noise, and using their own internal clock. But that was in 2012.

Apparently the new ps direct stream dac2, and gen 2 auralic dacs already come with galvanic isolation and all that the audiophilio used to have at their usb inputs. So adding a external USB spdif convertor into their dac inputs didn't make absolutely any difference.

Now I don't think hegel went to the same extent in designing their usb input on the hegel rost. So the difference you are getting between the USB and spdif input on the rost, might be pc noise.

Skin the snake not the salesman

No as the noise was not there in the end