Disc Players

Performance comparisons with Hegel's Mohican [HFN Oct '16] (its memorable 'last ever' CD player) hold true for what is clearly a very similar analogue stage. Maximum output, for example, is precisely the same 2.51V from the same 22ohm source impedance while the A-wtd S/N ratio is unchanged at a fine 109.8dB (balanced outputs). Even the response is the same –0.22dB/20kHz and low-level resolution good to ±0.5dB over a full 110dB dynamic range. The principal 'step change' between the Mohican and Viking is in Hegel's choice of DAC where the latter's AK4490 is traded for the newer AK4493SEQ, both 32-bit converters from Asahi Kasei.

Lower distortion is achieved at peak output in the Viking – 0.00015% vs. 0.0005% (20Hz-20kHz) – while maintaining Hegel's impressive consistency of distortion versus level versus frequency [see Graph 1]. Hegel's proprietary asynchronously resampling, employed in its outboard DAC products [HFN Jan '16 & Jan '18], is not used in the Viking. Instead, Hegel has selected AK's 'fast roll-off minimum phase filter' which acts in series with its own analogue filter to deliver a 101dB stopband rejection and the –0.22dB/20kHz response already mentioned [see Graph 2, below]. The time and frequency domain characteristics of this combined filter are almost indistinguishable from that debuted in the Mohican. This minimum-phase filter shows no pre-ringing on transients and it's this freedom from acausal distortion [see red trace, Graph 2] combined with the 'distortion management' of the analogue stage that's fundamental to the 'sound' of the Mohican. As is the 116psec jitter (the intrinsic limit for a 16-bit jitter test) achieved by Hegel's discrete low phase noise clocks and the AK DAC's proprietary jitter reduction technology. PM