KLH Model 5 $2000 Per Pair: Price Includes Risers
Walnut or Mahogany Finishes
(34.25h on riser, 13.73w, 13d, 52 lbs, 6 ohms, 90.5 dB)
A new KLH-5 has just been introduced to the market. What is different about KLH-5 vs a zillion other speakers?
First of all, it uses a SEALED cabinet- there’s no port. This helps tighten the bass. It doesn’t have the FAT sound most speakers have. If you prefer bass definition to thud, consider Model 5.
A sealed speaker has “air spring” within the cabinet. The drivers have to be solid to behave properly under this pressure wave. Of course KLH has paid attention to this detail with cast drivers.
It isn’t coupled to your floor. It comes with riser stands (5% tilt). The acoustic suspension design and inclined risers create well delineated bass. Both techniques are employed to achieve taut, vs sloppy bass.
It is a legit 10” 3-way. You have a dedicated midrange driver to help purvey clear vocals.
The tweet is a 1” aluminum dome. The 4” mid (housed in its own enclosure) and 10’ woof (with 6 pound magnet!) are comprised of pulp fiber. The cabinet is internally braced just above the woofer within the enclosure. Most are not! There is a 3 position acoustic balance control to allow you to tune the timbre to your room.
The crossover is sophisticated with Mylar caps.
The warranty is a generous ten years!
The grill that comes with the walnut version is an off white linen design. The mahogany finish comes with wheat colored grills. You can buy linen grills a la carte for the mahogany finish, but it’s an upcharge of $200. The grills are magnetically attached and affix easily.
The essence of this new speaker is to present sound with plenty of presence and taut
bass. While KLH-5 is efficient enough to be driven by any amp, it will reward you for using something special. How about Hegel for example?
Hegel H-390 Integrated Amp $6000
(250×2, 5.71h, 16.93w, 17.32d, 44 lbs)
Hegel’s H-390 integrated amp is among the smartest purchases in high end audio!
First of all, it is a great integrated amp by any measure. It has enough power to drive any speakers quite well. Beyond having a lot of power, more importantly, Hegel has prodigious damping factor. To compete with H-390, you’d need to buy a stack of separates that will run you about $12-15k from anyone else.
H-390 delivers a damping factor of over 4000. You’ll find most 250×2 amps have a damping factor of about 250-500. What does this mean? Damping factor is like torque. A VW Beetle with go 70. So will a truck. Which will pull your boat? H-390 will control your speakers as a lesser amp cannot.
Hegel has a patented technology called the SoundEngine 2. Why?
Amplifiers have output transistors. They are not exactly alike. In fact, with mass production of thousands being built, the dozen or so transistors that end up in YOUR amplifier, are likely to be quite varied in performance.
Think of 6 transistors for the R channel, and 6 for the L channel. All 12 are essentially tuning forks- that don’t play the same frequency. Instead of having 12 identical “tuning forks” you have 12 different ones. The frequency they’re playing is slightly blurry as they work as a group. The more you have, the louder, and more fuzzy the response.
Old guy audiophiles (guilty!) remember that when a company made a monster power amp, the same company’s smaller power amps sounded more detailed and less gritty. This was primarily because the less expensive amp only had a plus and minus transistor per channel. The big boy amps might have used a dozen per channel. Sure, they played louder. But they also sounded more harsh.
Back to the point… SoundEngine2 is Hegel’s patented control system to ensure that the output transistors WILL work in precise harmony. Your tuning forks will play the pure frequency desired. They won’t be smeared.
H-390 uses a DISCRETE preamp. The preamp section of H-390 is comprised of hand matched components in Norway. Hegel insists this is vital to attain its pristine clarity and vivid colors of sound. Op amps simply can’t perform as musically. By the way, all the Hegel integrateds, even entry level H-95, have these matched parts in the preamp.
H-390 has a SyncroDAC on board that is as good as you can get. Hegel shakes hands with the native digital signal and does not upscale or bugger with it. Hegel feels SyncroDAC sounds better than trying to process the sound. Traditional asynchronous DACs upscale or PROCESS the sound. In so doing, the result is typically the same as the output transistor discussion above. Or, another analogy would be… back when TVs had relatively few lines, you could see the lines in the picture. If you employed a line doubler to soften the lines, the device tried to fill in information between the lines. Of course it was somewhat artificial. While the line intensity was softened- so was the picture.
You’ll love the SynchroDAC’s high resolution.
Hegel H-190 Integrated Amp $4000
(150×2, 4.75h, 16.93w, 16.45d, 42 lbs)
Fortunately, everything you read above this for H-390, holds true for H-190 as well! H-190 is a less powerful little brother. It uses a bit smaller transformer, caps and fewer transistors. It has the same sound, sans a bit of the weight that big brother has!
Hegel H-95 Integrated Amp $2000
(60×2, 4h, 17w, 13d, 25 lbs)
We just got another batch of H-95s in! This is the entry level Hegel integrated, yet it still has SoundEngine 2 and the SynchroDAC. H-95 has a more immediate and dynamic sound than main stream brands like Yamaha, Denon etc. Buy it before the price hike!
Steve Moore “The Mad Drummer”
Wipeout!