So I just bought a Hegel H390 and

usually, the overarching principle in system building (short of the user having a clear preference towards a non-neutral tonality -- there are some people who like a bright, highly detailed, ’super hifi’ sound, while others may prefer a darker, warm, rolled off, bottom heavy sound) is to have chosen components offset each other in how they deviate from neutrality

so for example, traditionally harbeth speakers are rather warm and luscious in their sound signature, with a full midrange, midbass presentation, and reticent treble -- a smart user would then use a solid state amp that has a little extra treble energy and high dampling factor to counteract those inherent harbeth qualities, and give the speakers a little extra touch of sparkle and life

conversely, the better klipsch loudspeakers tend to be highly energetic and forward, a touch grainy, easily excited into harshness by a signal fed to them that is in itself sharp... thus most experienced users of klipschs drive them with tube amps, which provide a warmer, sweeter, smoother, sound, a richer tonality

so the question to the op is, what is your purpose of trying to find warm to neutral speakers driven by a warm to neutral hegel?... i guess neutral is neutral, so no problem there, but otherwise, ’doubling up’ on a particular sonic quality can often lead to ’too much of a good thing’

hope this little informal primer helps in your speaker selection...

the hegel h390 and 590 are voiced a touch warmer than the lower hegel integrateds... different circuitry in the preamp section developed for those higher models shape the tonality a touch

i would agree that most hegels, from the last gen h160 h300 h360 to current gen lower models up to the h190 are very very neutral (and that means no treble emphasis that many if not most other ’good’ solid state class ab amps still have...), but the h390 and h590 were built to offer the listener a bit more ’luxurious sound’ than their junior siblings

many good speakers have been named, i won’t add further to the list... given op prefers to err on the slightly warm side rather than the bright side, i would lean towards harbeth, vandersteen, spendor classic, and lean away from focal, magico, spendor d series, top tier kefs... but given the basic neutrality of the hegels, it may well the source and the room the op uses that dictate where he lands on the warm vs cool spectrum in making the speaker selection

wish the op good luck in auditioning and finding what works for him

i would agree the h390-590 are voiced slightly on the warm side of neutral (but without tube-like midrange ’bloom’, just smoothness and luscious tonality), and the treble is definitely on the restrained side but still with excellent detail and vivid spatial representation, heard through a deep dark background (similar sound profile as pass and ayre, but hegel does bass better than ayre imo) ... thus folks with highly resolving systems seeking a more natural (rather than a ’super hi fi’) presentation love the hegels

h390 h590 have a super smooth super suave sound compared to h160 h190 h360 gen... bent holter and crew voiced the preamp section differently in these current top models, it is almost a tubey treble quality, no loss of inner detail or blackness but an even more sophisticated sweet sound

My understanding is that the new 390 is essentially the same as the top dog 590.

 

 

depends on how one defines ’essentially’ -- useful information on the differences (but bear in mind their findings are using the dac + amp sections of each unit)

 

 

i would only say, to what troy posted below, that in my experience owning and comparing the 190, 390 and 590 units, that the 390 and 590 played music with a noticeably more refined, and laid back treble response, and with even more command/richness/tightness in the midbass and bass relative to the lesser 190 model (and rost, which i also still have)

this comparison and observation running through the balanced xlr analog inputs of the amps, with outboard dacs (sonnet morpheus and audio note dac 4.1 tube dac)

the 390 is the richest sounding of the three, the 590 had a touch more treble energy and the 190 the most

this perception may be due to how relatively forward/recessed the rest of the frequency range played in relation to the treble, but that was my impression

hegel says publically that they made adjustments/refinements to the preamp section of the higher 390/590 in relation to the lower units in the line (which by the way, are still absolutely excellent)