with an automatic 30-50% power increase for your amplifier
That concerns me, some amps are running their output transformers very close to maximum current levels, frying a fuse or a resistor is one thing, but if you fry an output transformer on something with custom wound transformers thatās not in current production, it could be impossible/impractical to get fixed.
I guess that could be done just by increasing voltage gain for a give current, but Iād want to talk to a manufacturer before plugging one into anything I cared about.
While I understand the appeal of solid state slot in replacement options for non audio or non fidelity focused aspects, honestly if you bought a tube amp, just use tubes in it. Itās what the circuit was designed for, and the designer chose to use tubes for a reason (whatever reason, but I doubt it was one unrelated to fidelity). If you want a transformer coupled solid state amp youād be better off getting one that was designed as such like from grandinote. Or just get a good solid state amp which will likely end up better than a tube amp with solid state tubes. As mentioned I donāt know if itās a good idea to try to use this in any tube amp you can find as some really do push the tubes hard or are specd to where their tubes and transformers are in a tight balance, I would bet almost no manufacturer would offer any sort of warranty on your gear if it died because of a solid state replacement
Just my opinion, but in my experience with AIOās under 1K, Schiit (on the lower end) and Questyle (on the mid to upper end) both have been consistently pretty great.
Which suits 90% of perceived āhigher endā audio customers who in essence are just looking for better than Box Store brand audio quality. We are in the extreme minority as a group.
So far that has been my experience, but I havenāt hit the extreme high end tier of AIOās. But I have heard some really good chains with individual components. Hard to imagine an AIO sounding as good as my buddyās Totaldac d1-six > Pass Labs HPA-1. The thought of gear sounding better than that makes my wallet want to cry.
The Hegel integrated amps are a higher end AIO, but I canāt help but feel that at that 5K plus pricing, Iād rather a mediocre DAC and mediocre streamer not be added and have that money better put into the Integrated amp itself.
Iāve noticed that Hegel seems to make stuff that people either love or hate. My brother in law owns a Hegel CD Transport that he loves. But he is weird thoughā¦he loves his Martin Logan ESL towers and I think they are pretty āmehā sounding.
Other than that, I dont have much experience with their stuff. That is probably because I donāt focus on 2 channel gear, which is where the more highly praised Hegel gear seems to be.
I think that like with anything, if you try to cram everything into one box and try to build a lot of different products you canāt excel in all of them. Yes you can focus more on synergy but it doesnāt mean you need to add constraints like one case etc for it to work to its best.
At the end of the day itās about choice and priorities for the end user. When I had my Hegel H120 I loved how it sounded but I preferred it without a DAC because I used my own. Unfortunately the only thing they could offer was a pre+power which I didnāt want. So the company made some decisions and I did as well lol
I felt like Iām paying for the DAC elements as well and that money couldāve been used in other ways.
The value proposition in those products is ease of use and visual simplicity. You have one box and it does (almost) everything you need. It will look better, and will be easier to use. Less cables, less PSUs, less everything goes a long way for most customers.
Most companies donāt really excel at both the digital and analog side of things, so true AIO units balance and value tend to decline as mfg more specialize and the quality of the dac matters more and more in the higher end. Dacs with a built in digital source are typically fine though, and amps with a preamp (integrated) are typically fine as well since those are similar realm. Just having everything in the box makes it really hard to balance priorities in the higher end as things either lean heavily dac sided or heavily amp sided, lacking balance
Thatās likely a downside too, less space overall which might result in less than ideal isolation, less than ideal cabling, less than ideal layout, etc. Sometimes that can be a win with shorter signal paths and whatnot but of course equal potential downsides
Also, little to no upgradiblity without high value loss, you also canāt really fine tune the system either
I 100% agree and thatās why I think those products are intended for people with different priorities than most of us here (with our main systems at least). I think compared to most AIOs you can build a better separated sounding system for the same money so it definitely needs to be high on the priority list to pick one up.
Iām going to point out that the way most people compare AIOās to other gear is often flawed.
Itās like the Digital vs Turntable debate, people rarely compare at comparable total cost.
Same tends to apply here a $5000 AIO need to be compared with a system with a total cost of $5000, not an amp that costs $5000, and apples to apples comparisons are rarely done.
I still think for most people at rational spending levels Integrated amps are the way to go for 2CH.
Integrating a DAC into that the question becomes does the lower quality DAC you integrate impact overall quality more that say using an amp that cost 1/2 as much with a DAC covering the rest.
I do think most AIOās are really convenience pieces, though itās interesting to see traditional manufacturers like Naim go in that direction.
The are advantages with being separate boxes and with being in the same box, which is better is going to vary with cost, with one box solutions winning out upto some higher price point where separates start to win, and possibly for some component combinations always winning.
Iām at the point where I donāt even see a higher end integrated as a detriment in any way until you want more and the availability of integrated amps no longer exists after a certain price point. Manufacturers will then move to separates as a means of being able to provide more.
These days thereās a lot of surprisingly high end integrates that can make sense even when youāre really up there, although canāt say the same for AIO from my experience