"Blown away by KEF/Hegel combo!!!!"


The other day, I visited my local Magnolia Home Theater at Best Buy.  At the far  end of a large room, was a very simplified audio system, which consisted of only one component and a pair of speakers.  The speakers were KEF Blade One Meta, and the lone component was the newer Hegel H600 integrated amp.  I have owned a Hegel H590 integrated for several years now (I us an outboard DAC with it), which drives an incredible pair of Revel Salon 2 speakers, with phenomenal effect, so I was fully aware of how wonderful Hegel products are capable of sounding.  But now, I got the chance to hear the H600 (as an all-in-one using it’s internal DAC) with a pair of the world-class, IMHO, KEF Blade One Meta speakers, and I was extremely excited about it.  The source was Roon/Tidal.  As I sat there and the music of  my choosing began to play, all I can tell you is that this was one of the most incredible sounding audio systems I’ve ever heard, and I've heard quite a few in my day!!!!  The sound was super dynamic, wonderfully detailed and transparent, the bass was phenomenal, the soundstage was tall and wide with much depth and separation and coherency, beautifully natural, smooth, lush and full sounding, and it was also easy on the ears, and not in any way bright sounding.  For me, it was pure heaven!!!  I could’ve sat there all day long and listened to that incredible system.  I was absolutely blown away by that simple (but expensive) audio system!!!!  Happy listening.                    

kennymacc

Sounds about right.  The consensus seems to be the KEF Blade meta set the measurable sound performance bar these days and I would expect the Hegel to be a very good match.  They are the current favorite to replace my big Ohm F5s perhaps if needed someday. Not many out there under my consideration at present for that particular honor. 

I’m not surprised that the combination of gear sounded great, but I am surprised that you heard a great sounding combo at Magnolia. Any time I’ve walked in there for fun while shopping for something else, I’ve been surprised at how they can take really quality gear and make it sound not so great. Glad there are exceptions!

I’ve heard the Blades - and they are very good. Not to everyone’s taste, but I think they’re fantastic. I haven’t heard the Hegel unit, but I have a small one in a TV system and the difference in sound quality over the Marantz unit it replaced (same price class) was significant. The Hegel is vastly better in every way.