Hegel Design Flaw?

So your dealer not only would not help, but only offered you partial money back? Why aren't you outing the dealer's name in addition to Hegel?

I tried to work with Hegel and the dealer for months. They would not budge. Both insisted there must be something wrong with my system. They insisted I eliminate whatever was preventing the H20 from integrating with my system. The only problem is there is nothing wrong with my system. This was a Catch-22 for me. There was really only one possible decision.

Sabai, did you try H20 with another preamp, bypass pre and go direct from DS to the amp or not run your ICs in a series? Probably just an incompatible with your pre ...

I am completely puzzled that you have sold back the amp at a huge loss without bringing it back to be hooked up in the dealer's system to show that it was the amp itself and not your system that was at fault. Incredible, man!

+1. If purchased from a dealer, just return it so puzzled with HUGE LOSS.

Sabai, some questions, which regardless of the answers should not be interpreted as any kind of excuse for the poor behavior of the manufacturer and dealer. I see that you use a Rel T3 sub in your system. How did you have it connected when the Hegel was in the system?

The Hegel is a fully balanced amp, and its negative output terminals therefore have a full amplitude signal on them, as opposed to being grounded. Therefore if you connected the T3's speaker-level inputs to the amplifier outputs, including the ground wire from the T3, it could very conceivably have caused the symptom you have described, depending on the internal grounding configurations of the sub and the amplifier. It might have even caused damage to the amp.

Also, if you connected the sub at line-level, what preamp or other component were you connecting it to, and were the connections between that component, the sub, and the Hegel balanced or unbalanced, and by any chance did you use an XLR to RCA adapter or adapter cable for the connection to the sub?

Regards,
-- Al

Almarg,

The REL was connected to the speaker binding posts via the Synergistic Research REL cable.

My system is fully balanced from wall to speakers.

Jon2020,

I live in a remote part of Asia. It was shipped to me here and I had no alternative but to ship it back and take what they would give me for it. They would not give the 30-day guarantee that is usually standard with Hegel dealers.

P59teitel,

The dealer did as much as he felt he could under the circumstances after claiming there was nothing wrong with the unit. I was between a rock and a very hard place. I really had no other choice but to take what he would give me.

Knghifi,

I tried bypassing the pre. No luck. I do not run ICs in series anymore. So that was not an issue.

The dealer claimed there was nothing wrong with the unit. He claimed there was something wrong with my system. Hegel claimed the same thing. The only difference here was that Hegel was abusive where he was never abusive. There is nothing wrong with my system. There has never been a single glitch with my system in all the years. It runs flawlessly.

I have replaced the Hegel H20 with my Atma-Sphere S-30 that was unavailable for a while. No problem with Ralph Karsten's great product. Ralph has always backed his product 100% and has always been a terrific gentleman -- in contrast with Hegel. When you pay that kind of money for a component you expect, at the very least, that the company will stand behind their product and that you will be treated well.