Hegel’s new D50 DAC, nicknamed “The Raven,” is a stripped-down, high-performance digital-to-analog converter designed for serious audiophiles. With a price tag that firmly places it in the high-end category, the D50 is built for those who prioritize absolute accuracy and transparency in their system. Unlike many modern DACs that double as streamers or preamps, the D50 is purely a DAC—no unnecessary extras, just precision-engineered digital conversion.

Hegel’s approach here is all about minimizing interference and focusing on signal purity. Every aspect of the D50 is built to extract the finest details from your digital sources without adding coloration or distortion. But how does it perform in real-world listening? Let’s break down its features, technology, and sound quality to see if it lives up to Hegel’s reputation—and whether it’s the right fit for your system.

What is a DAC?

Design & Build Quality

The Hegel D50 embraces a minimalist aesthetic, its understated black chassis free from any unnecessary embellishments. Its appearance may seem simple, but beneath the surface is where all the magic happens. It’s built to match Hegel’s other reference-quality products, seamlessly fitting alongside components like the P30A preamplifier and the Viking CD player. This consistency in design not only reinforces Hegel’s signature look but also ensures that the D50 is a natural addition to any high-end Hegel system.

The D50’s chassis is constructed from high-quality aluminum, giving it a solid and well-built feel. The front panel is minimalistic, featuring a bright but unobtrusive display that shows only essential information like input selection and sample rate. Hidden buttons beneath the panel allow for basic adjustments without disrupting the clean design, and Hegel includes a remote control for added convenience.

Beyond its looks, the D50 feels every bit as premium as you’d expect from Hegel’s reference line. It has a reassuring weight, precise machining, and a well-organized layout for its inputs and outputs. The overall build quality is excellent, reinforcing Hegel’s focus on high-end craftsmanship.

Inputs & Outputs

When it comes to hooking up the D50, Hegel made sure you’ve got all the right options. Whether you're running a high-end streamer, a CD transport, or even a computer-based setup, this DAC has you covered. You’ve got USB-B, two optical inputs, coaxial RCA, coaxial BNC, and AES/EBU inputs, meaning just about any digital source can plug right in without hassle. On the output side, you get both balanced XLR and single-ended RCA connections, giving you the flexibility to integrate it into just about any system.

Optical inputs are capped at 24-bit/96kHz, AES/EBU, and coaxial inputs handle up to 24-bit/192kHz and DSD64 (DoP).

Features & Technology

Many DACs are defined by the chipsets they use, but Hegel focuses on the bigger picture—how those components are implemented. The D50 isn’t just built with premium parts; it’s engineered to get the most out of them. The result is a level of clarity, detail, and engagement that goes beyond just specs on a datasheet.

DAC

The heart of the D50 is a high-performance ESS 9039Q2M DAC chip. Now, this is a high-end chip, but it’s well known that a DAC chip alone doesn’t define the sound quality. Just like a masterful musician needs the right instrument, a high-end DAC chip requires expert circuit design, precision clocking, and clean power delivery to unlock its full potential. To achieve this, Hegel has placed the DAC chip on its own separate circuit board, physically isolated from other electronics to reduce interference and preserve signal integrity. This layout ensures that the audio signal remains free from distortion or unwanted noise.

Power

One of the D50’s greatest strengths is its approach to power management. Electrical noise can significantly impact the performance of a DAC, so Hegel has gone to extreme lengths to ensure that the D50 receives the cleanest power possible. The unit is powered by two low-noise toroidal transformers, each with a specific role. One transformer is dedicated to handling the digital processes and standby functionality, while the other is reserved for the sensitive analog and digital components. By keeping these power supplies separate and shielding them with thick steel, Hegel ensures that noise from one section of the unit doesn’t interfere with another.

Additionally, an advanced power filtering system removes noise from the mains, preventing it from creeping into the signal path. Interestingly, when the D50 is plugged into a grounded outlet, this filtering can even improve the performance of other equipment connected to the same circuit, which is an unexpected bonus for audiophiles looking to refine their entire system’s sound.

Three Master Clocks

Hegel puts a lot of effort into reducing jitter, a common issue in digital audio. Jitter happens when the tiny electrical switches inside a DAC don’t flip between 0 and 1 at the exact right time. Even small timing errors can mess with the sound, making it less clear and natural.

To deal with this, the D50 uses three separate master clocks, each handling a different part of the signal. One clock is dedicated to USB signals at 48kHz, another to 44.1kHz signals, and a third for SPDIF and AES/EBU inputs. These clocks help keep the digital signal precisely timed before it gets converted to analog, reducing harshness and keeping the music sounding natural.

But clocks alone aren’t enough. If the power feeding these components isn’t steady, those tiny switches can wobble, which throws off timing. Hegel has put a lot of work into making sure each chip gets clean, stable power, helping to keep jitter as low as possible.

The AES/EBU input also benefits from some extra engineering. Instead of using a standard design, Hegel includes a transformer-balanced RS422 receiver, which allows it to handle both strong and weak signals accurately. This keeps timing errors in check and helps maintain signal integrity. For SPDIF inputs, Hegel goes a step further, using a custom input card to unpack I2S data and reclock it with high precision. The goal is to reduce signal degradation and keep the sound as detailed and accurate as possible.

Input Sensing

The D50 DAC also features a new automatic input sensing, meaning it will wake up and switch inputs on its own when it detects a signal. There’s also an auto-standby feature that conserves power when the unit is not in use, as well as a display dimming option with five different brightness settings for those who prefer a more discreet look during listening sessions.

Multi-Board Architecture

Another key innovation in the D50 is its multi-board architecture. Instead of housing all of its components on a single PCB, the D50 utilizes five separate circuit boards, each dedicated to a different part of the signal chain. This separation minimizes electrical noise and crosstalk between different sections of the DAC, ensuring a cleaner and more detailed signal. The result is a more open and dynamic sound, with increased separation between instruments and a greater sense of space in recordings.

The DAC Loop

Hegel has always understood that DAC technology is constantly evolving, and they didn’t want their customers to feel locked into a single digital solution. That’s why they introduced the DAC Loop, which is a unique feature that allows Hegel’s integrated amplifiers to seamlessly integrate with an external DAC like the D50. Originally developed over a decade ago, the DAC Loop was designed to future-proof Hegel’s amplifiers by giving users the ability to upgrade their DAC without losing any of the amplifier’s core functionality.

With the D50, this feature becomes even more valuable. Owners of Hegel’s integrated amplifiers, like the H300, H390, H590, H400, or H600, can bypass the amp’s internal DAC and let the D50 handle digital conversion instead. This means you get the best of both worlds—the power and musicality of a Hegel integrated amplifier combined with the uncompromising precision of the D50 DAC. By simply connecting the D50 to your H400 or H600 with a BNC cable and then back to your integrated amp and turning on the DAC Loop feature, you can enhance the system’s resolution, timing, and overall sonic performance without having to replace the streamer, preamp, and amp section of your streaming integrated amp. It’s a smart, flexible solution that ensures your system stays at the cutting edge of digital audio for years to come.

Performance

We set the D50 up with a Hegel H400 and utilized the DAC Loop feature we just discussed. The D50 demonstrated an ability to retrieve micro-details from recordings without sounding overly analytical. The soundstage felt more three-dimensional, with instruments placed precisely within the mix. Vocals were presented with a natural presence, while bass notes were defined and controlled. The highs had a refined sparkle, never veering into harshness, even on brighter recordings.

We switched back and forth between using the D50 and using the DAC inside the H400 and definitely noticed an overall improvement. Was the improvement worth the price of the D50?

Well, we think that if you own an H400 or H600 and don’t want to part ways and get into a more expensive component-based system and want to stay with Hegel but are craving an upgrade, then the D50 might just be the right fit for you. However, it’s not inexpensive and you will need a high-end system to really reveal the differences that the D50 has over the H400 DAC. If you own one of the older models like the H390, this new DAC starts to look a bit more tempting as you can simply add it to your system and get an even bigger upgrade since that model has an older DAC than the H400 unit has.

With that said, where we find the D50 really fitting is when it’s used with Hegel’s separate components, like the P30A preamp and the H30A power amp. Since the HD30 DAC was discontinued, there was no way to get a Hegel DAC in your separate-based system unless you used the Viking CD Player with your CDs. So, the D50 clearly fills this gap for you to have an incredible separate-based Hegel system.

We are sure there will also be a few people out there who will want to know if they should get a different transport for their CDs and this D50 DAC or the Viking CD Player and use its AKM DAC instead. If you enjoy Hegel, we’d recommend sticking with the Viking instead of trying to match a different transport with the D50. Sure, you might get a slightly better sound that way, but we love the sound of the Viking, and you will have to spend much more to get better quality than what it offers.

Overall Recommendation

We think Hegel did a phenomenal job with this new D50 DAC. It perfectly fills the gap in their high-end gear lineup and is a perfect match to build a great Hegel system. This DAC is not inexpensive, but it certainly is worth every penny if you have the rest of the system and want to get extremely good performance. While this fits into their reference line of products best, we would love to see its tech trickle down into a more affordable version to match up with their more affordable preamps and power amps to give people more options and let them enjoy the great Hegel sound.

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