The D50, also called by the more colorful name “The Raven” by Hegel, goes about its mission of “music first” by eschewing a network connection, streaming capability, preamplifier functions, and a volume control. It has a purity of purpose; deliver the best sound possible at the price. The D50’s connections and use are simplicity itself, with the usual array of digital inputs (see Specs & Pricing), balanced and unbalanced analog outputs, and an IEC power input jack. The unit is Roon Tested, MQA compatible, and decodes DSD up to 256. You can customize how the D50 behaves, such as automatic standby after a set period, or automatically selecting the active input. The chassis work is classic Hegel; nicely finished, functional, and without costly bling. A machined metal remote control rounds out the package. 

Hegel saved the build budget to focus on sound quality. The company is particularly proud of the filtering on the AC input that keeps noise out of the D50. When connected to a grounded AC outlet, Hegel claims that the D50’s power-line filtering is so powerful that it improves the sound of other components connected to the same AC line. The focus on low noise is reflected in the dual toroidal transformers, one for the housekeeping functions and one for the digital and analog audio circuits. The audio circuitry is shielded from the transformers by a thick steel structure, with the transformers located as far as possible from the audio boards. The D50 features 20 independently regulated power-supply rails—a lot in a product of this price. Stable and quiet power supplies are crucial to avoid adding phase noise to the clock that controls the digital-to-analog conversion—a factor that designers are increasingly focusing on. To further ensure clock integrity, the master clock is located right next to the DAC, which itself is isolated on its own circuit board elevated above the main circuit board. The DAC chip’s differential output is buffered and amplified with a true balanced signal path from the DAC to the XLR jacks. In short, the D50 is filled with performance-oriented design techniques. Designer Bent Holter was a semiconductor physicist before founding Hegel in 1988.

A remarkable demonstration at the recent AXPONA show motivated me to review the D50. Hegel’s integrated amplifiers with integral DACs, which I’m very familiar with, have rear-panel jacks that allow the amplifier’s DAC section to be bypassed in favor of an outboard DAC. The demo consisted of playing a track through the integrated amplifier’s internal DAC and then again with the D50 replacing the amp’s internal DAC. The difference was far greater than I expected, with the D50-augmented integrated taking a huge step up in timbral liquidity, clarity, soundstaging, and sonic realism. Hegel’s H300, H360, H390, H590, H400, and H600 integrated amplifiers can all be upgraded in this way. 

This ability to replace the DAC section of any Hegel integrated amplifier made reviewing the D50 doubly compelling. There are lots of Hegel integrated amplifiers in the field (including two in my own family, purchased at my suggestion), and the possibility of unlocking much better sound simply by adding a component enhanced the D50’s allure.

Listening

Setting up the D50 couldn’t have been easier. After feeding it a USB signal, Roon recognized it as a Roon Endpoint and I was off to the races. The D50 was put under a microscope, its balanced outputs feeding the four-chassis CH Precision L10 linestage, M10 power amplifiers driving Wilson Chronosonic XVX loudspeakers and a pair of Wilson SubSonic subwoofers through AudioQuest Dragon cable, with Shunyata’s top AC conditioning and power cords, all in a ground-up acoustically designed room built with the Acoustic Sciences Corporation’s Iso-Wall technique. 

The D50 had a quality that struck me immediately—a gentle, relaxed, and expressive rendering that instantly made me ease into the music. The D50 isn’t a DAC which calls attention to itself through a forward and incisive presentation that adds a bit of exaggerated detail. Such a DAC can sound impressive initially but quickly wears thin because of its lack of tonal warmth and body. We’ve all heard digital that sounds like that—a bit of metallic sheen overlaying instrumental textures, unnatural sizzle on cymbals, threadbare and bleached tone colors, and a hard edge to transients. Such DACs may have an open and airy treble, and the hyped transients give the impression of increased resolution, but they ultimately fail to communicate musically. 

The D50 is the antithesis of this type of sound. It had an ease and warmth that fostered immediate engagement. Music had a wonderful flow and pace, not in an upbeat and driving kind of way, but rather through revealing subtleties of expression in each instrument that, together, make the music cohere into an organic whole. One of the first tracks I listened to was “Harvest Moon” by Neil Young. The gentle, loping, almost hypnotic rhythm and flow of this piece was beautifully rendered by the D50. The multiple acoustic guitars had a tonal warmth and body rather than a jangling character, Young’s voice was smooth and liquid, and the background vocals had a gossamer-like delicacy. The intimate Melody Gardot track “If You Love Me” from Sunset in the Blue was similarly expressive, the strings lush, her voice smooth and free from grain, and the trumpet reproduced without any metallic hardness and nicely set back in the mix.

I heard many DACs in the 1990s that attempted to sound “musical” by softening the sound to avoid the brittle treble that characterized the technology of the era. These DACs certainly achieved their goal, but at the expense of treble openness, life, immediacy, resolution, transient speed, and engagement. They didn’t offend sonically, but neither were they musically expressive. They were, frankly, boring. 

The D50 at first listen made me think back to those DACs and that type of sound because of its smoothness and absence of metallic sheen. My first reaction was that the Hegel sounded a bit subdued, unexciting, and mellow. But that’s because I approached the initial listening session as a reviewer analytically judging and characterizing its sound. But very quickly into the first listening session, the D50 seduced me out of the analytical mode and into listening for pleasure, which is where I discovered the D50’s expressive musicality.

The D50 has the kind of sound that invites you into the music with its relaxed presentation and timbral liquidity, and then fully grabs your attention with how it reveals subtleties of the performance and musical meaning. It is highly resolving, not by hyping transients, but by delivering a subtle and sophisticated rendering of musical interplay that coheres into a satisfying whole. The album Like Minds is a perfect example. This all-star ensemble features Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, and Roy Haynes at their peak. The playing is never less than inspired throughout, with fabulous solos, Chick’s incomparable accompaniment, and the great Roy Haynes’ drumming anchoring the whole thing. The D50 had a remarkable ability to convey the group’s cohesion, how each musician reacted to the other, and the exuberant music-making of these consummate musicians. The D50 brought the music to vibrant life with its coherence and clarity. The D50 impresses not with its sonics, but with its musical expression.

But what about high-energy music—big band, Latin jazz, rock, fusion? The D50’s great achievement is sounding smooth without diluting musical energy. The Latin jazz of pianist Eddie Palmieri on his album Listen Here (with guest appearances by Michael Brecker and jazz violinist Regina Carter) bristled with rhythmic drive and power. I particularly enjoyed how I could turn up the volume without feeling as though my ears were being assaulted. Trumpets on this album had a full measure of treble energy yet didn’t have the harshness in the upper register that is so common in digital. In fact, I noticed this quality on many other recordings with trumpet—Freddie Hubbard on Cables’ Vision and Roy Hargrove on the outstanding release Earfood, for examples. In each case, the instrument had a burnished quality with a greater density of tone color in the lower harmonics rather than emphasizing the sheen at the top end—almost the way a flugelhorn has greater warmth through the midrange than a trumpet. Think golden-hued rather than silver-hued. But significantly, the instruments didn’t sound dull, rolled off, or overly romantic, just devoid of metallic edge.

These qualities also benefited vocals by deemphasizing sibilance and the thinness of vocal texture so common in many recordings. Paul Simon’s vocal on Graceland is marred by excessive sibilance and a whitish noise on “s” and “sh” sounds. The D50 didn’t eliminate this character of the recording, but neither did it emphasize the unpleasant sound as many DACs do. 

The D50’s bass was outstanding, combining excellent pitch articulation, density of tone color, and a wonderful weight. I thought the D50 had a touch of extra warmth in the bass and midbass, but that character infused acoustic bass with body and textural density without adding thickness or bloat. Ray Brown’s famously well-recorded bass on Soular Energy perfectly illustrated these qualities of the D50. The D50’s slight bias toward instruments’ lower rather than upper harmonics gave the entire presentation a relaxed warmth, dense tone color, and ease that I found greatly appealing.

Finally, the D50 had an outstanding spatial presentation. It had the ability to present each instrument as a separate entity, whether on small-scale music with a sparse arrangement or full orchestral spectaculars. Speaking of which, The Arnold Overtures in 176/24, Keith Johnson’s fabulous recording of the London Philharmonic, was rendered with a tremendous sense of depth, space, and tangible air between instruments. I’ve heard this track on many different systems; it immediately reveals a product’s resolution of spatial detail, transparency, and soundstage depth. The D50 rendered this recording with all the hallmarks of a much more expensive converter. 

Conclusion

The new Hegel D50 is a wonderful DAC that extends the company’s long history of delivering great-sounding products at fair prices. It achieves this through its “music first” design that puts the build budget into parts that matter sonically rather than features such as network streaming, preamplifier functions, and a volume control. 

The D50’s sound is characterized by a smoothness, liquidity, and relaxed ease that are typically only found at much higher price levels. But unlike DACs that are euphonically colored to gloss over the digital nasties, the D50 doesn’t sacrifice resolution, transient speed, or a sense of life. At first listen, the D50 may sound a bit subdued, but it delivers the kind of sound that pulls you deep into the musical expression by favoring real musical resolution over hi-fi fireworks. The D50, however, isn’t the last word in treble openness and extension. I, for one, would gladly trade a bit of top-end air for the D50’s gorgeous rendering of tone color, overall liquidity, and sense of ease that fosters musical engagement. 

The Hegel D50 is a flat-out bargain, and just what the world needs: a really good $5k DAC. 

Specs & Pricing

Inputs: AES/EBU, SPDIF (BNC, RCA), TosLink (x2), USB
Outputs: RCA and XLR
Dimensions: 17″ x 3.9″ x 12″
Weight: 14.55 lbs.
Price: $4900

HEGEL AMERICA INC
Fairfield, IA
usa@hegel.com
(413) 224-2480

Associated Equipment

Analog source: Basis Audio A.J. Conti Transcendence turntable with SuperArm 12.5 tonearm; Air Tight Opus cartridge; Esoteric E1 phonostage; DS Audio ST-50 stylus cleaner, DS Audio ES-001 Eccentricity Detection Stabilizer, Levin record brush, Degritter ultrasonic LP cleaner
Digital source: Wadax Reference Server with Reference PSU
Amplification: CH Precision L10 Dual Monaural linestage; CH Precision M10 Dual Monaural power amplifiers
AC Power: Shunyata Everest 8000 and Shunyata Typhon 2 conditioners, Shunyata Omega X and Sigma NR V2 power cords, Shunyata AC outlets, five dedicated 20A lines wired with identical length 10AWG
Support: Critical Mass Systems Olympus equipment racks and Olympus amplifier stands; CenterStage2 isolation, Ayra Audio RevOpods isolation, Wilson Audio Pedestal
Cables: AudioQuest Dragon interconnects, AudioQuest Dragon Zero loudspeaker cables
Grounding: Shunyata Altaira grounding system
Accessories: The Chord Company GroundArray noise reduction
Acoustics: Acoustic Geometry Pro Room Pack 12, ASC 16″ Round Tube Traps
Room: Purpose-built; Acoustic Sciences Corporation Iso-Wall System