HEGEL ROOM 1
In the first of two rooms, Hegel presented their 2100 GBP H150 streamer / amplifier and a pair of Amphion Argon 1 standmount speakers (Amphion have been upgrading the Argon range, but the 1 remains unchanged and priced at 1650 GBP).
Sometimes, everything just gels. In this case - streamer, speakers, stands, cables and, importantly, the room. We listened in here to 3 tracks then I went back for another 2 sessions of 3 or 4 tracks just to check. This system is so flowing, musical, effortless, unedgy without been smoothed out, it didn't overwhelm the room or set off any nasty nodes and the picture it drew in the space was believable and well proportioned. Yes, other systems can do more detail, but may fail in other areas, other systems can produce deeper bass but you'd be amazed at the bass these little speakers can produce, others might look more sensational but not provide musical enjoyment.
If you have a smallish room and just want to relax into your music every evening after work, take a listen to this combination, regardless of your budget.
HEGEL ROOM 2
Next door, you could say that Hegel and Amphion had just replicated Room 1 and turned the "make it bigger" knob a couple of notches. The Hegel H150 was replaced by H400 at 5900 GBP and Amphion Argon 1 by the newly released Argon 3X (as mentioned above, this is the upgraded version of the 3S - which remains on sale - featuring a tweeter from the Krypton range) at 3500 GBP.
Was this a techically better solution than Room 1? Yes - that tweeter in particular brings greater resolution, subtlety and crispness without any harshness. There's more extension to the bass too. Of note was that the photos here were taken on day 1 of the show, on day 2 they were further into the room. This improved the interaction with the room, but the whole wasn't as complete as Room 1 as the speakers could use more space to work with.
Still a very enjoyable room and would be a stand out if it wasn't for Hegel Room 1...
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