$1100Latest offering from Hegel. EXCELLENT DAC, even at double the price! And I've tried a bunch.
PERFECTLY balanced; revealing and detailed...but just a touch of warmth, so it's very musical and non-fatiguing.
Also...I'm not a big DAC-as-preamp guy; I usually find the sound too thin, with not enough meat on the music. But a friend asked me to try it for him, and give my impressions; and I have to say...it wasn't half-bad at all! Maybe it was just the synergy with my Pass XA-30.8, but this DAC sounded better in that way...than some other, even more-expensive, units that I've tried it with.
I was definitely prepared to put this into my Main rig, and move my current Oppo HA-1...to a dedicated headphone set-up. But there is a slight problem, in my particular system (please read carefully)...
To do DSD, the HD12 (at least as of now)...needs a driver installed at the player end. This would be no problem, with most streamers; any Mac or Windows-based PC streamer, would easily accept the driver and be no problem. This is how I was streaming myself, and how most still do.
But I just switched to an Aurender N100. It's is a Linux-based, stand-alone player...and as such, it and the HD12 can't do DSD together (again...as of now; maybe Hegel will do a firmware update in the future, to resolve this niche issue). That's why this unit, is still as new!
SO LET ME BE VERY CLEAR: IF YOU HAVE A MAC OR WINDOWS BASED MACHINE, DSD IS NO PROBLEM. IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT DSD; THIS MACHINE EASILY HANDLES UP TO 32/192 BEAUTIFULLY...AND YOU HAVE NO ISSUE.Just let me know if you have any questions. I wish I could have kept this; but DSD playback is very important to me (and I like the Aurender as well...so it stays). My loss, your gain.
It's priced to move. Buyer to pay actual s&h; PayPal fees, if any (though I prefer FnF). Note perfect feedback, etc, etc.
