Hegel H190v integrated amplifier

REVIEW
Alan Sircom
Feb 06, 2025

Here’s a ‘fourth wall’ secret: all audio reviewers have a Pile of Shame. Our equipment racks are filled to burst with benchmarking products, devices under test, and products running in before their test. Then, there’s the room full of boxes and crates, some empty, some not. And when this Pile of Shame gets to heroic proportions, there’s a burning desire to throw everything out. And with that comes the inevitable philosophical noodling: if you stripped everything away, what would we be happy with? What is your ‘desert island’ audio system, the no-fuss product you’d happily switch on time after time? For me, when it comes to electronics, that’s the Hegel H190v integrated amplifier. That’s the original H190 integrated amplifier with a built-in phono stage.

A what? Hegel crossed one of its own ‘no-no’ lines with the H190v. Until a few years ago, the company said, “Hegel will never put a phono stage in an integrated amplifier. It’s just not the Hegel way. If you want a phono stage, buy someone else’s phono stage. We’re just not that into vinyl.” That started to change with the V10 phono stage. And now, there’s the Hegel H190v integrated amplifier, a direct replacement to the H190, now including an MM phono stage. The reason for this is more than to reach the vinyl market. Although, admittedly, that has become such a fixture in modern audio. Demand for excellent phono replay circuits inside and outside the integrated amp has recently seen a renaissance. Hegel has an exemplary phono replay circuit.

More Beef

Here’s the thing, though. In transitioning from the original H190 to the H190v, Hegel needed to do a bit of housekeeping. A beefier power supply and a minor re-think of the board layout are required. The result is a better-integrated amplifier all around. Adding that phono stage upgraded the line inputs, the DAC performance, the power amp stage… the works. So sometimes, if it ain’t broke, update it.

The Hegel H190v integrated amplifier retains the company’s pithy descriptions of technologies that underline it’s unique way of making an amplifier. There’s the crossover-distortion cancelling ‘SoundEngine’. Then, there’s the physical separation of voltage and current gain stages known as ‘DualAmp’, each with separate ‘DualPower’ power supplies. It also features a ‘SynchroDAC’ (as opposed to asynchronous digital conversion, which Hegel suggests has lower resolution and more distortion). There is also a low impedance balanced linear phase ‘LineDriver’ circuit in the analogue side of the DAC.

Hegel H190v rear close-up

There’s also an optimal sampling frequency for that DAC (known as ‘Hegel Optimized Clock’). This keeps the signal precise without the open-wallet surgery required to include a high-precision Master Clock. It has a ‘USB’ circuit that acts more like a computer’s sound card, all wrapped up in the company’s ‘OrganicSound ethos. OrganicSound treats the signal to minimal change and, therefore, sounds more like the recording and more ‘natural’ in the process. While these audio aphorisms are best considered ‘gnomic’, they at least point to what they relate to and do so far more elegantly than a collection of Three three-letter acronyms. It also means we can describe most of the inner workings of this 150W Class AB amplifier in a single paragraph.

Swiss Army Knife

I’ve described Hegel amps as audio Swiss Army Knives, which still holds with the H190v. There’s not much this amp can’t do in real-world terms. It supports AirPlay, is Roon Ready, likes almost anything with the word ‘Connect’ in the title (such as Spotify Connect) and will support UPnP local storage. There is a Hegel app (Android and iOS) for remote control and set-up, but it’s not used in the H190v, and the amp is one of the more ‘agnostic’ in terms of third-party apps. In a way, I prefer this approach to a more rigidly controlled app ecosystem because it allows the end user more flexibility. I also like that setting up is less ‘kid gloves’ and more ‘child’s play’ as you can get the amp up and running in minutes without a problem.

The amp sticks with Hegel’s well-known minimalist approach, although the H190v is available in black or white finishes as a concession to wild and crazy Nordic eccentricity. Two knobs, a central display and a headphone socket on the back, a good array of balanced and single-ended analogue and digital audio connections at the rear, and three feet and a central standby switch on the underside.

Wake up!

Hegel has made the H190v quick to wake up; play something from Tidal or Qobuz apps on your phone or tablet, and by the time the online service starts streaming the track, your Hegel amp will have woken up and be ready to play through the network connection, using a blisteringly fast ‘Wake on LAN’ approach. Couple that with an ability to work with standard TV remotes and IP control for smart home integration with brands like Control4, Crestron, and Savant and this amp becomes something custom installers looking for a good hi-fi system room can get behind, which no doubt contributes to the H190v’s success.

Of course, there are those two little phono sockets with a ‘GND’ terminal. The onboard phono stage is MM only, so most people using a £3,250 amp as the nerve centre of their system are likely using turntables with decent moving magnets or high-output moving coil cartridges. Few are going to use a cartridge that costs more than the amp—hopefully!

Writes itself

A Hegel amplifier review almost writes itself, and the Hegel H190v integrated amplifier is no exception. The company is highly consistent in its designs. If you like the cheapest Hegel amplifier in the line, the more upmarket designs consciously add or subtract nothing but more power, authority and grip over the loudspeakers and a little more transparency. The tonal balance doesn’t change; adding the phono stage and headphone circuit highlights consistency.

The amp is powerful, controlled, detailed, well-balanced, and neutral in the treble if slightly forward-sounding. This is not a treble ‘lift’ or even an ‘accent’, and that top end is refined as it is extended into the bat-eared regions of a recording. It’s more accurate to say the Hegel H190v has an otherwise black and rich presentation, and the treble matches modern loudspeakers well. ‘Detailed’ without being ‘forthright’ is probably the best way to describe it.

The part people latch onto first is the bass because it’s got the right combination of power, control, and rhythmic ‘bounce’. Playing ‘Hollow (16-Bit Remix)’ from Björk’s Bastards album [One Little Indian] is sensational, even on relatively small speakers. The amp’s incredible grip over the loudspeakers (thanks to that damping factor of over 4,000) means those almost unplayable low-frequency tones are kept in check and make some rhythmic sense. Neighbours thought I was trying to inflate an angry goose, but the track’s pace and depth were abundant.

Speaker-mashing

This holds outside of speaker-mashing dance music. As a complete contrast, the same bass control and top-end extension also made Pablo Casals playing Bach’s Cello Suites [Archiv] spring to life. In fairness, this recording has excellent potential to sound good. Still, the benefit of image solidity and space and the all-round ‘first, do no harm’ tonal balance turns this superb recording into a blood-pressure-lowering musical event. And, given the probable loudspeaker matches the H190v is likely to see, this makes that musical experience even more striking. I also have this recording on original pressings from the early 1960s, and the H190v’s phono stage nails it. As the Boy Scouts say… Job Done!

This track also shows how much the slight changes to the circuit to add that phono stage pay dividends in the Hegel H190v integrated amplifier. I would put the amp at the top of Hegel’s ‘entry’ range but some distance from the big-hitter H390 and H600 integrateds. The H190v closes the gap a lot.

The big question

The big question, however, is whether an existing H190 owner should upgrade to the H190v. The OG version of the H190 was – and remains – an excellent performer. The H190v is more dynamic and detailed, but not so much that it will force your hand here. The one exception is if you have a record collection. Then, the H190v is all you need.

That ‘all you need’ is the core of the Hegel H190v. It’s such an obvious and elegant solution that meets most people’s audio electronics requirements. It’s hard to think of something with a better balance of price and performance. Sure, you can spend more, and sure, you can get more. But this does everything most people want or need from their audio equipment.