Chandz Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 (edited) I couldn’t wait for my bluesound node to get here so I ended up hooking my Hegel h590 up as a preamp/streamer/dac to my new wilsenton R8 for now. All I can say is wow!!! How is it that a 25 watt per channel tube amp sounds better than a 300w per channel solid state. I’m in aww. the tubes are still breaking in so I’ll will see how the sound changes but so far I’m loving it! any comments or suggestions are welcomed! thanks for looking Edited November 13, 2022 by Chandz 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandz Posted November 13, 2022 Author Share Posted November 13, 2022 Ps: I’m going to eventually sell my Hegel to purchase another amp/preamp or integrated for my cornwall 4’s. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the real Duke Spinner Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 6 minutes ago, Chandz said: I couldn’t wait for my bluesound node to get here so I ended up hooking my Hegel h590 up as a preamp to my new wilsenton R8 for now. All I can say is wow!!! How is it that a 25 watt per channel tube amp sounds better than a 300w per channel solid state. I’m in aww. the tubes are still breaking in so I’ll will see how the sound changes but so far I’m loving it! any comments or suggestions are welcomed! thanks for looking Tubes do not " break in" The whole " break in ,* thing is for Audio Phools Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandz Posted November 13, 2022 Author Share Posted November 13, 2022 8 minutes ago, the real Duke Spinner said: 17 minutes ago, Chandz said: I couldn’t wait for my bluesound node to get here so I ended up hooking my Hegel h590 up as a preamp to my new wilsenton R8 for now. All I can say is wow!!! How is it that a 25 watt per channel tube amp sounds better than a 300w per channel solid state. I’m in aww. the tubes are still breaking in so I’ll will see how the sound changes but so far I’m loving it! any comments or suggestions are welcomed! thanks for looking Tubes do not " break in" The whole " break in ,* thing is for Audio Phools Good to know. This is my first tube amp so I’m just going on what I’ve read and what’s in the manual. I’ll have to see for myself I guess. I’m happy if it stays sounding the same regardless Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 32 minutes ago, Chandz said: I couldn’t wait for my bluesound node to get here so I ended up hooking my Hegel h590 up as a preamp/streamer/dac to my new wilsenton R8 for now. All I can say is wow!!! How is it that a 25 watt per channel tube amp sounds better than a 300w per channel solid state. I’m in aww. I'm not sure that the Hegal is 300 wpc. Look at the specs. if it goes down to 2 ohms, the output should significantly increase. Two times the power when you cut the impedance in half is a myth, but this thing should have 900 or more wpc at 2 ohms, they list nothing. The distortion should also be 300 wpc rated from 20 to 20K. This reads like a 50 wpc amp. https://www.hegel.com/en/products/integrated/h590 Power output: 2 x 301 W into 8 Ω, Dual Mono Minimum load: 2 Ω Distortion: Less than 0.005% @ 50 W/8 Ω/1 kHz I just refinished some speakers with grill cloth that looks like yours. Do you have any closeup photos of the grills? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandz Posted November 13, 2022 Author Share Posted November 13, 2022 4 minutes ago, tigerwoodKhorns said: I'm not sure that the Hegal is 300 wpc. Look at the specs. if it goes down to 2 ohms, the output should significantly increase. Two times the power when you cut the impedance in half is a myth, but this thing should have 900 or more wpc at 2 ohms, they list nothing. The distortion should also be 300 wpc rated from 20 to 20K. This reads like a 50 wpc amp. https://www.hegel.com/en/products/integrated/h590 Power output: 2 x 301 W into 8 Ω, Dual Mono Minimum load: 2 Ω Distortion: Less than 0.005% @ 50 W/8 Ω/1 kHz I just refinished some speakers with grill cloth that looks like yours. Do you have any closeup photos of the grills? I’ve read it goes down to 1100 watts into 2 ohms. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captainbeefheart Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 24 minutes ago, Chandz said: I’ve read it goes down to 1100 watts into 2 ohms. For how long? That's 23.5A of current per channel, or 47A total. It would require a 950VA mains transformer. That equates (with no losses BTW) to 18.33 amps of current from the mains. For RMS power of 1100 watts per channel the amp would require a 20A mains branch as it would trip a 15 branch circuit. My gut feeling with the amp is it will withstand 2 ohm loads for very short duration's, transient peak power compared to a true RMS power rating if you will. Small token from someone being lucky enough to work on, measure, and listen to so many different amplifiers is that the higher the output power the worse the amplifier performs in the critical 1 watt area, it's just how they work and there is no way around it. Almost always in the form of high order harmonic distortion that just sounds bad and has been proven in listening tests many times. A good sounding amplifier will have the distortion present in this power area all low order harmonics, preferably 2H only. I'd love to see an FFT plot of this amplifier at 1 watt, I bet it's ugly. If you don't require this excess of power I suggest getting a very high quality linear amplifier, almost all residential listening with even 5% efficient speakers will require at most 50 watts and many times much less with us horn speaker users where we are approaching near 50% efficiency. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shakeydeal Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 First of all, don’t listen to Spinner Head. Secondly, don’t confuse more power with more quality. Some of the best amps I have owned have been 25 watts or less. 8 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebse2a3 Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 2 minutes ago, Shakeydeal said: First of all, don’t listen to Spinner Head. Secondly, don’t confuse more power with more quality. Some of the best amps I have owned have been 25 watts or less. This ^^^^ miketn 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billybob Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 Lol, glad you are feeling good about it. That Hegel must be a decent preamp. Yes, can see you selling it. Maybe another can make use of that powerhouse. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandz Posted November 14, 2022 Author Share Posted November 14, 2022 15 hours ago, billybob said: Lol, glad you are feeling good about it. That Hegel must be a decent preamp. Yes, can see you selling it. Maybe another can make use of that powerhouse. That’s what I was thinking. The headroom is nice but I really don’t need all that power 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billybob Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 12 minutes ago, Chandz said: That’s what I was thinking. The headroom is nice but I really don’t need all that power Am sure someone there will be more than happy to have it. Thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OO1 Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 Congrats on the R8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandz Posted November 15, 2022 Author Share Posted November 15, 2022 (edited) New update my bluesound node came today. Super easy to set up and have it running as a preamp right now to the wilsenton as I don’t have high level inputs on my subwoofer and I’m using the sub out on the bluenode. compared to using the Hegel as a preamp it’s night and day. The Hegel sounds so much better. I have ordered a line converter so I can use the preamp in the tube amp to see how it sounds before investing into a new dac. any input on which dac to look at would be appreciated. I was looking at the denafrips Aries 12 I think it’s called. also if anyone has any experience hooking up a line converter any input would be great thanks for all the help Edited November 15, 2022 by Chandz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandz Posted November 15, 2022 Author Share Posted November 15, 2022 3 hours ago, OO1 said: Congrats on the R8 Thank you. I’m very happy so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandz Posted November 17, 2022 Author Share Posted November 17, 2022 (edited) Another Update: I Hooked up my turntable and phono preamp and using I’m the preamp in the wilsenton minus the sub for now the preamp in the wilsenton sounds so much better than the bluesound. A lot better. So far the bluesound has been pretty flawless. A couple glitches between the bluesound app and the Spotify app but a quick app restart and it sorted itself out. im really loving the sound of tubes so far! Edited November 17, 2022 by Chandz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shakeydeal Posted November 17, 2022 Share Posted November 17, 2022 The Node is using attenuation in the digital domain and throws away bits depending on the listening level. I'm not surprised that the Wilsenton used on it's own sounds better. Not sure what sub you have, but since the R8 doesn't have any outputs, you could always use the sub with it's high level connections. That works very good in most instances. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandz Posted November 17, 2022 Author Share Posted November 17, 2022 35 minutes ago, Shakeydeal said: The Node is using attenuation in the digital domain and throws away bits depending on the listening level. I'm not surprised that the Wilsenton used on it's own sounds better. Not sure what sub you have, but since the R8 doesn't have any outputs, you could always use the sub with it's high level connections. That works very good in most instances. Thanks for t he reply. I’m using an SVS pb-3000. It only has low level inputs. I ordered a line level input so I’m hoping that works. I’m not familiar how to hook them up thin I found lots of instruction on joking up a REL sub but not much on a regular tube. I did hear ocdmikey on YouTube mention it’s a horrible idea to use the speaker terminals for a signal. So I’m kind of lost Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shakeydeal Posted November 17, 2022 Share Posted November 17, 2022 I think in most situations either method of connection is fine. But since you only have low level inputs, the choice is made for you as long as you stay with that sub. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandz Posted November 17, 2022 Author Share Posted November 17, 2022 19 minutes ago, Shakeydeal said: I think in most situations either method of connection is fine. But since you only have low level inputs, the choice is made for you as long as you stay with that sub. It’s more so how to hook up the speaker line to the line converter. I read somewhere to tap the 4ohm leads feom the back of the amp for the signal. Then I read you could daisy chain from the speaker to the line level. I just do t want to damage anything. Is is my first tube and I’m a total newb thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.