I am sure it's a good sign, but I have been crossing paths with Hegel amplifiers a lot this last year. And, all of these encounters have featured a testicular upper bass and lower midrange coupled with a hyper-colorful upper midrange. No matter what loudspeaker they are powering I always think, Hmmmm. . .maybe here's a solid-state amp that plays like the proverbial tube amp—but without that old "MOSFET mist."
My CES encounter featured the 75Wpc Hegel H80 integrated amp ($2000) driving (are you ready?) the Magico S-1 loudspeakers ($12,900/pair). The source was Tidal streaming. This surprising combination played music with relaxed detail, naturalness, openness and body.
