After living with the Hegel H390, I think it’s a worthy successor to their H360 -- not only for its smoother, cleaner, more resolving sound, but also because its combination of price, power, and sound quality make it the sweet spot of Hegel’s current line of integrated amplifier-DACs. If I were in the market to buy a Hegel integrated-DAC -- regardless of how much I had to spend -- the H390 would be my first choice.

I expected the Hegel H390 to be good because of its foundations, but I didn’t expect it to be this good. This has to be one of the best integrated amplifiers money can buy at the moment, and its only really bettered by its bigger brother, unless you spend truly epic amounts of money. Wow!

When building a range of products, it's always advisable to have some clear model differentiation, but Hegel may just have dropped the ball on this one: the H390 is sensationally good value, with a clean, powerful sound and bags of musicality, not to mention exceptional flexibility including onboard network streaming. And all this for just over half the price of the H590 flagship...

The H390 is a superb sounding and highly functional integrated amplifier that will make you question the need for separates. Its powerful, meaty sound is addicting, and its huge power reserves will make speaker pairing easy and painless. If you have speakers the H390 cannot power, you likely need to be looking at an amplifier far above the price point of the H390. For those of us in the real world, this is a crowd pleasing unit that will appeal to many, and certainly brings a smile to my face whenever I listen to it.

After a slightly slow start, I came to really enjoy Hegel's H390. Sorting out my mains supply and swapping round loudspeakers showed me that it's a very capable product that – when correctly partnered – has a rather beautiful, organic sound with the ability to pack a real punch and not shy away from awkward loudspeaker loads. Its preamp and power amplifier sections are the jewels in the product's crown, so to speak; the DAC and streamer are very decent, but the amp shines with seriously high-end sources via its line inputs. It's a fully functional, svelte looking product that does a lot very well, and as such, is worthy of recommendation; hear it if you can.

Although Hegel H390 integrated amplifier is a simplified version of H590, it has all the functions of H590. It has a built-in UPnP and AirPlay2 streams module, can access online music streaming services, digital or analogue audio sources, or send music from your mobile phone. In addition, it supports DSD decoding, MQA.

With its extremely solid build quality, future-proof feature set, and excellent sound, Hegel's H390 could be the last integrated amp you'll ever need.

While the H390 isn’t Hegel’s flagship model, that says more about the hulking muscle that the H590 is than about this lower-priced (but still premium-priced) amp. If the H590 were not there, no one would doubt to grant the H390 the status of top model. It is a very powerful and controlled amplifier that can effortlessly drive challenging loudspeakers in a way that is nothing short of high-end. In terms of streaming functions, you not only have a lot to choose from, but the platform is also in full development. The addition of Roon – hopefully soon – is the icing on the cake.

Hegel’s website describe the H390 as a rebel and as Robin Hood, and explains why, stating that the H390 offers much of the performance of their, and indeed everybody else’s, high end products. Given that their own H590 sits above the model under review here but costs almost twice as much, I think they have a valid point. In the UK, the H390 retails for nearly £5,000, which is certainly not pocket change, and at that price there are plenty of options available to the discerning buyer. However, the H390 will win a lot of hearts and wallet-share, because it is just so good at what it does. If your fun fund has grown in the absence of the opportunity to spend on more ephemeral pleasures like holidays, or if you just fancy moving your listening experience to another level, you owe it to yourself to shortlist the H390. I will be very surprised if you don’t love it as much as I have.

The amplifier has everything you need in the way of digital inputs and support for the most common streaming methods, including Spotify, Airplay and, soon, Roon via network. You could point out that it lacks Chromecast and Bluetooth, but Hegel is never going to put these into their products anyway. A turntable input is probably a greater loss, but it would also introduce noise if we take Hegel at their word.