Hegel HD10 versus HD11

To Doug Schneider,

I have owned a Hegel HD10 DAC for about a year and a half now and I'm really very satisfied with it. I have read your review of the HD10 and saw that you listened to both the HD10 and the HD11 at one hi-fi event in 2011. So, in your opinion, what would be the advantages for me to change my HD10 for an HD11, sonically speaking?

Rene Lapierre

I heard the HD11 at last year's Rocky Mountain Audio Fest and wrote about the demo, but I've never reviewed it, so my listening impressions should be taken with a grain of salt, given that I only spent a short amount of time in the room. Still, the HD11 certainly did sound a bit better than the HD10. The biggest advantage that the HD11 appears to have over the HD10 is that it can accept 24-bit/96kHz signals via USB versus 16-bit/48kHz for the HD10. Both units accept up to 24-bit/192kHz signals through the other inputs. The higher-resolution USB input will be significant if you connect your DAC that way, but irrelevant if not. . . . Doug Schneider