The Raven eschews an airy, rarified, and chiselled sound, but instead provides a liquid, relaxed, and natural presentation that encourages deep listening.

Put simply, Hegel has pulled a blinder here, and more so than I expected, as often DACs are a subtle outing at best when comparing side by side.

Hegel has created something special with the D50.It represents not just the company's best digital offering to date, but one of the most musically satisfying digital to analog converters that I've had the pleasure of evaluating in my space.

The D50 is a DAC for closing your eyes so that your ears can send a signal to your heart and mind that you will understand without having to think, what it looks like is secondary.

The Hegel DAC D50 sounds analog, smooth and fluid, and creates a very inviting soundscape. It's a bit sensational that this quality is possible to buy at this price.

Admittedly, its mechanical construction—though not its industrial design, which is quite distinguished in my opinion—doesn't quite reach the heights of its electric counterpart, which is ultimately responsible for the naturalness of its sound.

A new feather in Hegel’s cap, the D50/Raven flies the flag for something that’s less common these days: a fixed-output standalone DAC, sans streaming.

The Hegel D50 is a masterpiece of a DAC, even in a field where there's barely room for another DA converter. By focusing exclusively on the conversion process and paying close attention to all aspects of a digital stream's journey to an analog signal, the Raven brings something special to this crowded product segment.