Hegel h360 dac

steve59

steve59

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The dac in my h360 is limited to 24/96 and I'm considering a stand alone hi rez 24/192 and mqa as an alternative to trading up to the h390. A practical price new or used wouldn't exceed $1500.
 
I wonder if the slight increase from 96 to 192 would be worth the expense.

Adding the DAC opposed to moving up seems to make sense, I hear from a dealer and some others who have compared 360 to 390 and there isn't much difference.

I haven't shopped or heard much new lately to make a recommendation. One thought though, have you checked used pricing on the Hegel HD30 DAC.
 
TMR has a used hd 30 for a little over $2k but I could probably sell the h360 and pick up a 390 for less. As to 24/96 vs 24/192 having audible differences? wishful thinking maybe. Supertramp, crime of the century at 24/192 made a believer out of me.
 
I just bought the project s2 for $500 It'll be here the 12th and i'll see what's what. I generally don't refer to stereophile's recommended components for purchase, but I don't really know enough about digital to know where the audible price tiers lie, and I mostly stream tidal so the little s2 should be an upgrade to the built in dac.
 
The H360 owners manual suggests using its coax out to a outboard dac and then the balanced inputs to make a bypass loop. I just unplugged the usb from the h360, plugged it into the dac and used the analog coax outputs to the unit. Is there anything to be gained or lost either way?
 
I would think the internal DAC should be still better than the Pro-Ject, but I am interested in your comparison to see if my guess is correct. The sound should be different.

I never tried that looping thing.
 
The Project is pretty good. Of coarse tidal is giving me fits tonight but there’s def more energy in the treble and on the verge of 62 I think I may need it. I will follow up once I’ve had some time with it.
 
steve59 said:
The H360 owners manual suggests using its coax out to a outboard dac and then the balanced inputs to make a bypass loop. I just unplugged the usb from the h360, plugged it into the dac and used the analog coax outputs to the unit. Is there anything to be gained or lost either way?
Click to expand...

I would suggest you keep your current configuration: USB to the DAC, analog output to the amp.
 
Keeping current configuration 1. USB is the only way to get 24/192 mqa and 2. with usb into the pre box s2 digital the el cheapo power supply isn't needed. Early in I am a little concerned with the s2 volume control. The h360 has 1 analog variable input and 1 HT bypass and I still like the fm tuner for easy listening leaving only hegels digital loop or the bypass. Using the roon variable volume interferes with MQA, hence my concern with the s2 volume control longevity. More to follow. I have the apodizing filter set now and once I get a feel for it I'll try another filter until I get comfortable enough to judge it. A day in and I can say I'm not returning it to crutchfield for a refund.
 
My suggestion would be to not worry about it, and enjoy your wonderful Hegel. The quality of the mastering matters way more than the "resolution", e.g. 24/96 or 24/192, MQA, etc., etc. My recommendation would be to source well-mastered recordings instead of buying a new DAC.

The best-sounding digital recordings I own, hands down, are the Audio Wave Blue Note series re-mastered by Alan Yoshida and the classical recordings from Linn, and they're all Redbook 16/44.
 
I won't kick a great recording out of bed just because it says 16/44, likewise I want to hear an MQA recording if it's an improvement over the redbook version. Once I get an ear for this dac i'll start doing back to back mqa or 16/44. This dac has 8 filters so for all I know the right filter could make a previously poor recording decent, idk but I will keep enjoying the hegel. tks
 
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