Reviewing the Hegel V10 Phono Pre-Amplifier!

Hegel has entered the vinyl arena, and I take at look at their first offering. If that's your thing, you've found your place. Welcome to the Vinyl Attack!
0:00 - Intro
2:47 - Solving a Problem
4:05 - Options and Specs
5:44 - The Sound?
8:34 - Caveats
10:03 - VS. The EAT E-Glow Petit
11:05 - But is it Good?
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[@donaldchisholm9931]

Thanks for your great review Chris. Hegel makes some gorgeous gear. In July I purchased a Gold Note PH10 phono pre. and I love it. No fiddling with dip switches or disconnecting cables. Everything done with one button on the front panel and can be adjusted on the fly. It sounds fantastic! Thanks again for all you do!

[@thevinylattack]

Sounds nice. Hopefully I can take a look at one soon.

[@jasonturg2053]

Another great review!

[@thevinylattack]

Glad you liked it!

[@David-Ellis]

Nice review Chris. I bought a Hegel H390 a few years back so when I went looking for a new phono stage the V10 was on my list but more than I planned to spend. However when I heard the combination of the two I just had to dig a bit deeper into my pocket and buy it. My records have never sounded so good in every aspect. I use XLR cables which clearly out-perform than RCAs in this amp/phono stage pairing.

[@thevinylattack]

They really do pair very well together.

[@VMX1.]

Great review Chris. Looks like a nice piece of equipment and a great review. Problem I have is 40+ years in aviation my hearing isn't what it was and a nice piece of kit like this would be wasted on me. But to those who still have excellent hearing I bet this is something to add to their system. All the best and be safe man. Rod

[@thevinylattack]

Sadly, I hear things like that all the time. I'm glad you liked the review.

[@ReasonablySane]

Same here. In my case it's the time I spent on stage next to drummers...

[@pkats9093]

Nice job. I love the totally black background on my H360 integrated. This phono stage might be just the thing to pair with it and my Rega p6. I just happen to be in the market for a new phono stage in this price range

[@thevinylattack]

The Hegel products work very well together for sure.

[@brunohebert1351]

Thanks Chris for the honest review. I think for the RCA cables, they expect people to use separate ones (also in the cable world, it's considered to be better since left and right cables are not next to each other so less interference and better sound??). Since the Hegel is equipped with balanced XLR output and if I remember well, their amp has XLR input, it is probably the best connection to use to make this phono amp shine. But then again, it has RCA outputs so it should still be usable with those (otherwise they would have only put XLR outputs) And since you mention the EAT again, I really can't wait for that review now ;-)

[@thevinylattack]

I just don't think a manufacturer should expect people to use certain types of cables within a group (i.e. a certain type of RCA).

[@brunohebert1351]

@@thevinylattack totally agree, my post was ironic.. except for the EAT part ;-)

[@thevinylattack]

@@brunohebert1351 I do indeed have to get off my ass and do that review. I'm just catching up on so much work at the moment that I haven't had time.

[@QoraxAudio]

9:10 The spacing between inputs/ is no issue if you use cables that aren't paired together. Quality cables don't come paired, they're sold a piece. Just start making your own cables, it's provides way better results if you're good at soldering and it's also very useful if you change equipment frequently, since those cables can easily be modified.

[@thevinylattack]

But many people have cables that are paired. That was the whole point of the critique.

[@christian2123]

I heard this preamp at an audio show last year and it was stunning. Sounds like you need to do a review of some Worlds Best Cables or some other value brand so that you have a set of individual LR cables! I can't use the Audioquest stuff on my integrated as it has the same kind of layout, left and right inputs on their respective sides of the amp.

[@thevinylattack]

I like what I have is the thing.

[@cainpatrick2477]

Could you do a review on the Vincent Pho 701? Extremely interesting in the unit! Thank you for everything you do for the community!

[@thevinylattack]

I can inquire about them sending one for review, sure.

[@a3marketing991]

I owned the Vincent PHO 701 before purchasing the Hegel V10. The PHO 701 is a great preamp and would be my choice below $1K. I do recommend changing the stock tube in the PHO 701 to a better one. It made a big difference for me.

[@dburt0021]

Ha! Just got back with a bunch of loot from Dearborn Music today! Man, I love that place.

[@thevinylattack]

It's one of my favorite places to be.

[@attherockshow8902]

Hi thanks for this review. I'm curious when using the Ortofon MC cart what db settings did you use ? And what was your volume like on the Hegel amp ? I ask because unfortunately I don't get the pitch black that everyone talks about with mine. I have a Hegel H190 and that thing is silent. However when I switch on my V10 I find some noise getting through if I've got the Hegel H190 up past 65. I found this with both RCA and XLR cables. The noise is louder of course when I turn up the db settings on the V10 so I've got mine at the 2nd lowest MC setting right now. I'm curious if you've noticed something like that ? If not are you running some kind of power conditioner ? Using Blue Jeans cables myself and they fit well

[@jaapdevries3147]

Hi Chris, I’m the happy owner (thanks to you) of a Pro-ject essential turntable. I noticed an accessory: the q-up. Is it any good, are there better devices? Any luck you shine a light on this?

[@a3marketing991]

I'm using the Hegel V10 with a Hana ML cartridge and it's a nice combination. It does have a very low noise floor. I'm using balanced XLR into my Schiit Freya+ with the Hegel V10, but do know that the Blue Jeans LC-1 RCA cables work great and fit with no issue.

[@thevinylattack]

That sounds like a nice setup.

[@ReasonablySane]

I have a question. I have some absurdly quiet records, and hear "dead silence" until the needle is dropped in the groove. Then I can literally hear the needle rubbing against the vinyl. It's very quiet, but it is there. So I would assume the phono pre-amp I use (the one included in my Hitachi HCA 7500 has as low a noise floor as is necessary. Or am I missing something?

[@1mctous]

The Cheap Audio Man isn't cheap with his Patreon. Time to match his contribution!

[@thevinylattack]

That's very generous, thank you for your continued support!

[@harrisedgar]

The Dune soungtrack..??? What a wonderful idea...!!!

[@thevinylattack]

It's so good.

[@josefernandez2722]

Thanks, Chris. What are your impressions of the Eat E glo Petit vs the PS Audio stellar if you have listened to it?

[@thevinylattack]

I'm afraid I haven't heard the Stellar.

[@ianmacpherson8385]

Fabulous review, but you do need to invest in a set XLR's to provide a full and concise assessment. Keep up the great work!!

[@thevinylattack]

I really do.

[@richardelliott8352]

I was glad to hear some kind words about an interesting topic, and specifically this piece of equipment. I did become curious about the soundstage mentioned, because this is one of my great enjoyments when playing records, the illusion of space. I hope it is acceptable to ask a question about the height of soundstages mentioned, where you said one was taller than the other, but I was left wondering, how tall is tall? That is where I would have liked some details, was a saxophone life sized in the soundstage, or ten feet high? All I know is that one was taller than the other sound projection. perhaps this detail was intentionally glossed over, because objective superiority in one way might have misled, to avoid the which product is better question. Which. I agree, is sometimes better left unsaid. . Because matching the individual purchase goals a consumer might need satisfied, is much better than some advice given on the internet, given the cost of these products. Of course, the facts provided here will certainly assist forming that criteria of what features might need to be purchased. And this site does a good job with that, for which I am grateful.

[@thevinylattack]

There's no way to measure how tall, wide, or deep a sound stage is. Trying to do so would simply be misleading. Being that I reviewed the V10 a while back, I don't remember specifics of its performance at this point. My apologies.

[@MFDopey85]

What so youre saying that my expensive 5 meter long Audioquest RCA cable will not fit the outputs of the V10? good review thanks!

[@thevinylattack]

Probably not.

[@jeremyr722]

My Cardas Clear interconnects come as single run cables. But I agree it seems silly to have to buy cables to fit your specific audio component 🤷‍♂️ Also I feel like once you get to a certain price point having dials for impedance and gain should be mandatory, obvious that’s just my subjective opinion. Anyway, I’m still waiting for my DecWare to be delivered

[@thevinylattack]

That's kind of where I sit with it as well.

[@tiagoveras7065]

I currently have a Rega Planar 8 with an AT-VM740ML cartridge and a Marantz PM8006 amplifier. I'm looking for recommendations and I saw your video, I'm from Brazil and here it's rare to see good things at good prices. What do you think would work best in my system? Hegel V10, Rega Aria, Rega MK5 or Project Phono Box DS3?

[@thevinylattack]

While the Hegel has an incredibly quiet background, I like the larger soundstage of the ProJect.

[@thelatearthurdent]

thanks for the review and promo code at dearborn music -- just got both new coltrane tone poets for 71$, shipped. what?

[@thevinylattack]

Nice. I'm on my way down there to day to pick up the same thing.

[@backrack01]

Dearborn Music :) I miss Diserable Disc and Stormy Records. Dearborn Music stayed in business:)

[@thevinylattack]

They also opened a second location not long ago.

[@backrack01]

@@thevinylattack yes. Farmington Hills. :)

[@ReasonablySane]

I dunno. Michigan has a lot of snow...and road salt.

[@thevinylattack]

We have snow because winter is awesome.

[@LS-ti6jo]

So it uses a wall wart, instead of a proper internal power supply?

[@thevinylattack]

The construction inside the 'wall wart' is a custom engineered power supply. A cut above what comes with standard power supplies for other products in the same price range. However, with the dual outlet, you can't upgrade it to something else.

[@LS-ti6jo]

@@thevinylattack Wall warts are annoying. Reminds me of iFi gear.

[@thevinylattack]

@@LS-ti6jo iFi makes some great stuff ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@LS-ti6jo]

@@thevinylattack Agreed. The Zen phono preamp punches way above its weight class, but comes with an annoying wall wart. Wall warts take up too much space in wall plates, power conditioners & power strips. I wish they would offer an outboard power supply that did not use a wall wart.

[@ReasonablySane]

Will this make my Goodwill and garage sale finds sound better? 🤣

[@ACT8113]

Btw did you get the package I sent you?

[@thevinylattack]

Remind me what it was.

[@ACT8113]

@@thevinylattack a copy of deathmetal by panchiko

[@thevinylattack]

@@ACT8113 I did indeed, thank you! I lost the original correspondence so I was unable to let you know I both have, and enjoy it.

[@ACT8113]

@@thevinylattack cool man ^_^

[@contemporaryhomeaudio]

Where do you plug in the dual power cord?

[@albertthesecond210]

A power receptacle is a top choice. The other end into the 2 power ports under the V10

[@thevinylattack]

It's right underneath the unit.

[@tg6373]

I have the Hegel V10 and hate it. The V10 is not for someone (like me) who has way too many cartridges and frequently changes settings. To say the V10 is a pain in the rear end would be an understatement. Also, you must remove the top to change the MC settings other than the 100 and 300 in the back. Hegel strongly advises not remove the top and provides no instructions to unleash the secret sauce. However, they recommend having your local Hegel dealer do that for you. Is that free? And what if you bought online? It's just another severe pain in the wazoo. In short, this preamp isn't for me. It sounds pretty good and quiet, but not worth the price and not worth the headache.

[@ReasonablySane]

Well, I spent $5,500 for a lawn mower, I suppose $1,700 isn't crazy for a phono pre-amp. No, wait. Yes it is. Well, it is if you don't live in Qatar, or live by any kind of a budget.

[@AmazonasBiotop]

What disaster by printing dip switch on the bottom. In 90% of the time you STILL need to unplug everything to be able to flip it belly up to just read the instructions. When you are already there no dip switches. Now you need to go back and forth between two sides of the unit instead the printing at the bottom and the back were the switches are. A worse senario. But it is better if you remember or has the instructions handy ELSEWHERE then the operation on the back IS better. Suggestion for the manufacturer to supply a printed sticker in the box that the user can decide to put on top of the unit if they like or elsewhere (the printing on the bottom should still remain as the sticker may eventually disappear. When we realize that not everyone wants the printing on top so a sticker will give the customer a choice.) Yes the cable manufacturer has higher end offerings that is not the cheaper Y models. It is just unfortunately they they make them Y and people buying them. But that is just a way for the cable manufacturer to getting to make a greater "range" of cables. And of course there is other manufacturers that doesn't do that. In other words we should not invest is so pricey cables so they are a FACTOR in decision for what HW to buy. Then something is really wrong.. So make sure to ALWAYS buy separated cables but that is HARD to say when manufacturer supply those cable review samples and you are locked down and not independent anymore. That would probably be more helpful ! And no need to twist it around that it is the issue with the HW instead of the cable manufacturer. Cartridges weakness is channel separation the better ones is ~30 dB. When it is so low probably it helps to take care and make sure that the signals is separated as much as possible. For example in separate cables. And in the HW RIAA separate them further apart from each other that is the best thing you can do without going with separate HW chassis for left and right for the best seperation. So it is just no room for improvement for the Y cable user that needs to buy new cables when they got wiser, when buyers keep pay top dollar for Y cables that makes nobody happy except the cable manufacturer. But congratulations Audioquest to keeping that business alive! 👍

[@thevinylattack]

It's no trouble at all to turn the unit over to see the dip switch configurations.

[@albertthesecond210]

the price of gas is no bother if you carry a siphon hose!

[@thevinylattack]

I think I'll take a pass on that.

[@werk4408]

Keep seeing these $$$ phono preamps that don't give you the ability to set capacitance at 0pF and lack other basic features like a button to switch between MM and MC inputs... Meanwhile my $400 Six Acoustic York has all of that so I know it's not down to the price but rather the designers overlook what in my eyes is fundamental functionality. Especially the 0pF capacitance, good luck staying within 200pF total capacitance if you're using a AT MM cart, you don't have the option to change your phono lead or use a short one and you end up with one of these phono stages that can go down to only 100pF. I guess manufactures presume that if someone will drop $1.5k on a phono stage they won't be using MM carts with it and you won't care about capacitance... hate that way of thinking also 😆

[@thevinylattack]

No manufacturer I'm aware of recommends 0pF for capacitance. I don't know why they would.

[@werk4408]

@@thevinylattack Capacitance is accumulative. If you're already at 100pF from headshell clips to RCA leads then maybe you're fine with a phono preamp that only goes down to 100pF. For an Audio Technica MM cart recommended is up to 200pF (total capacitance), anything above that will skew the frequency response. Proven by many people throughout the years and can easily be measured by anyone. This is where the myth of "Audio Technica have bright sounding carts" come from, they don't of course, people just tend to run them at 300pF and more without realising. After all it's easy to add capacitance, removing it though is another thing. Unless you want to to take a soldering iron to your brand new $1.5k phono preamp... The truth is not everyone is so lucky to have 100pF on their phono leads, you either need to have really short ones or they're designed with low capacitance in mind. It's true many of them are but it's not all of them. My tonearm's leads have exactly 196pF for eg. They're captive so I can't change them, nor would I want to anyway. They're pure silver and sound amazing, I even have the interconnect version of the same cable. The point is this isn't an issue for me as my phono stage allows me to set it up as 0pF. My VM95SH cart sounds amazing this way as its within its recommended capacitance range. I did try to use with 100pF added just for an experiment and everything falls apart, the sound signature of the cart changes for the worse and you don't need golden ears to hear it. You might say I'm in the minority but that's actually not the case. Tonearms leads are generally in the 100pF to 150pF/per meter range unless they're specifically designed to have low capacitance (that can have its own disadvantages). Some exotic phono leads can have up to 300pF capacitance per meter and their users can be completely oblivious to it. The thing is the majority of people have no clue about this and they set on a path of upgrading their phono stage or cartridge until they land on a good sounding combination by chance. But as we all know the relationship between capacitance and inductance (of the cartridge's coils) is exact science, nothing there is down to chance. This ties in with match between the cartridge's dynamic compliance and the tonearm's effective mass, another crucial aspect that unfortunately gets overlooked more often than not. Bottom line is it costs nothing for manufacturers to include this in a phono preamp, if they can give you the option to have 100pF or 50pF (like in your EAT phono) then adding the 0pF setting should be a no brainer. The industry needs to stop pretending that people spending thousands of $$$ on phono stages only ever listen to MC carts where its all about inductance and capacitance doesn't matter at all. Better to have it and never use it then to need it when its not there 😛

[@madmeister407]

It's supposed to be an audiophile Phono stage yet it is not a fully balanced design. MC cartridges are fully balanced by design and need something better than a single ended input. And what's with all the dip switches hidden away on the back which is not very convenient, why? It's for cheapness that's why. This is Just another overpriced average Phono stage that is a jack of all trades and master of none.

[@thevinylattack]

Where are you getting that it's not balanced?

[@madmeister407]

@@thevinylattack It only has single ended inputs or what are better known as RCA's. To be truly balanced it has to have balanced, better known as XLR inputs. The + and - input signal wires for balanced are independent of the ground wire where as on single ended inputs the ground wire is the same as the - signal wire. To give it RCA inputs for MC or XLR outputs does not make it a fully balanced circuit.

[@thevinylattack]

@@madmeister407 While the input is not balanced, the XLR outs on this are indeed fully balanced outs. If you have a table with balanced outs to go into a $1500 phono pre-amp, you're buying the wrong phono pre-amp.

[@MOOeymania]

So, is the EAT review ever coming?

[@thevinylattack]

I do plan on it, I've just been making my way through the backlog of product reviews I have already.