Any Hegel H390 owners using Hegel D50 DAC?

Good luck, @stuartk.  If you aren't committed anywhere yet, check ListenUp...Hegel authorized on-line dealer.  

@ghosthouse 

Thanks!  As it happens, I bought my H390 from Listen Up! and will follow suit with the D50. 

@stuartk 

Listen Up customer here as well.  Good luck with the D50.  I hope it brings what you are looking for.  

How long have you had your H390?  FWIW - A'gon member Nutty sent me an SR Purple Fuse for the H390.  I honestly wanted no part of that stuff.  Some of the fuse threads here just seemed delusional to me.  Eventually, however, I tried it.  I can tell you, I was pleasantly surprised.  The change was immediate and positive.  I paid him for the fuse.  To my ear, it opened up the sound of the H390.  That was back in June 2023.  Haven't looked back.       

@ghosthouse a

Thanks.

I don’t recall, exactly. 5 years? 

I’ve never played with fuses. 

Right out of the box, the D50 was very smooth and tonally, pretty much identical to the H390’s internal DAC. Fairly quickly, the D50 became much brighter and  vocal sibilance is the worst I’ve heard. I’ll let it accumulate 100 hours and re-evaluate. 

At 100 hours, sibilance and brightness have subsided. This DAC is very smooth sounding. Detail, soundstage height, width and depth are all clearly better than the H390’s internal DAC. 

Having never heard an ESS DAC before, it took me awhile to digest and assess what I was hearing. Ultimately, I found it’s not my cup of tea. It’s as though the sound is "manicured" to such a degree that all the emotion has been lost in the process. For me, emotional engagement is the top priority and no degree of audiophile attributes can compensate for its absence. Perhaps this would sound more appealing to me if paired with tubes but I have no desire to go that route.

At this point, I’ve auditioned three DACs at the 4K to 6K price point (one was used -sells for 8K, new) and have preferred the H390’s DAC in every case. Perhaps it’s time to just stay with what I like and stop paying attention to Mr. FOMO.