Hegel P30A/H30A Pre/Power Amplifier £7000/£17,000 Review

https://www.hifinews.com/content/hegel-p30ah30a-prepower-amplifier

Looking past the Sopra No2’s own sound signature, the P30A/H30A made a striking show of rendering these recordings as they are, with only a fleeting touch of added colour. This is what the H30A, in particular, excels at: not over-embellishing, but letting excitement come from the music at hand. This might strike some listeners, used to amps that tend to embroider, as a bit dull at first, but to my mind there’s more long-term joy in listening to music than to apparatus.

Folkesange [Relapse Records RR7426; 44.1kHz/16-bit], the last album from Danish performer Myrkur (née Amalie Bruun), combined traditional Scandinavian folk and instruments, such as the nyckelharpa, with more modern sounds. No challenge there for the P30A/H30A, with Bruun’s singing on ‘Ella’ airily arranged on top of powerfully driven percussion. The preamp, helped along by the capable Musical Fidelity DAC, showed off its chops on the ‘Leaves Of Yggdrasil’, dextrously weaving the background choral singing with the main vocals, and the sparse piano notes with the strings.