Hegel P30A 2Ch Balanced Pre-Amplifier with SoundEngine

P30A - The Conductor

The P30A is The Conductor. With poise and control, it conveys all the details, the grandeur, the feeling, and the complexity of any piece of music. With precise timing and expert understanding of both the score and the musicians, The Conductor brings forth the music just as it was intended to sound. It handles low-key jazz, stadium rock and everything in between. Nothing added, and nothing subtracted, the P30A is the best conductor you will ever meet.

Pictured with Hegel H30A power amplifier (sold separately)

Key Features:
• Fully balanced
• Hand-matched components
• > 130 dB SNR
• 2 XLR and 3 RCA inputs
• Home Theatre input
• SoundEngine Technology
• DualAmp Technology
• DualPower Technology

Reference Preamplifier

The P30A is Hegel's reference preamplifier. Nicknamed The Conductor, its job is to control the power amplifier with a signal that is as true to the music as possible. In our view, the preamplifier is the most critical component in a great sounding system, and it is also the hardest to get right. The very low amplitude signals coming from the source are easily corrupted, so in-depth technical know-how and clever engineering are needed to make sure the signal stays the same all the way through the preamplifier.

To achieve this, Hegel first uses single-pair FET transistors that have no higher-order harmonic distortion. Within any batch of transistors, there will always be slight measurement variations. This might be within the bounds of what is considered normal deviations, but for sensitive electronics like this, that simply isn't good enough. Therefore, Hegel's founder and chief engineer, Bent Holter, measures and carefully matches those transistors that have the exact same values. Having perfectly matched transistors is of paramount importance to the performance of the preamplifier, and it makes the P30A sound very smooth and natural, without compromising on the details.

Furthermore, the internal layout is designed in a way that makes the signal paths within the preamplifier as short as possible. This reduces the possibility of distortion coming from electrical interference. To further reduce distortion, we also minimize the number of electrical components the signal passes through. In the P30A the music signal only passes through two transistors and an ultra-low noise volume attenuator. The P30A also uses Hegel's patented SoundEngine technology. This actively monitors the music signal for corruption and corrects for intermodulation distortion using a feed-forward design. SoundEngine effectively removes distortion in real-time as the signal is amplified.

All these steps make for a preamplifier that is very quiet and handles the sensitive low-amplitude music signal as delicately as possible. Even so, distortion of the signal can still happen, but the P30A has one more feature that takes care of this. The P30A is fully balanced all the way through. This means you have two separate amplifiers, volume controls, and SoundEngine modules per channel. With this design, almost all leftover distortion is cancelled out, and what you are left with is a signal that is as close to the original source material as possible.

Fully Balanced

The P30A offers a wide array of inputs and outputs. It features 2 balanced (XLR) and 3 unbalanced (RCA) inputs and a fixed-level Home Theatre input that allows you to integrate it into a Home Theatre system. This input can also be configured to act as a normal input. On the other end, you have one balanced (XLR) and two unbalanced (RCA) variable outputs that are all active, allowing you to connect several devices at the same time. One of the unbalanced RCA outputs can even be configured to be a fixed volume output. The P30A also has a 3,5 mm IR-direct input and a 12V trigger output connector. When you add it all up you get a highly versatile, extremely quiet, and natural-sounding preamplifier that can be the heart of any high-end audio system. You get the P30A - A truly brilliant conductor of all music.

SoundEngine2 Technology

The P30A uses the Hegel SoundEngine 2 amplifier platform allowing a damping factor higher than the industry average together with extremely low distortion levels. In many ways it works like a noise-cancelling headphone. It compares the output of the amplifier with the input. It detects all the sound pollution (distortion), and plays this forward into the speaker output, but in reverse phase. Like 1 minus 1 equals 0. It cancels out all pollution in real time, leaving you with only the most natural sound.

The SoundEngine technology has been developed over more than 30 years, from conception to where it is now. Millions of dollars were invested in initial development. It is what makes possible the sound performance for the money in the P30A.

DualPower Technology

Hegel amplifiers use completely separate DualPower power supplies for the input and voltage gain stages, and for the current output stages of the audio amplifier. The custom-designed Hegel power transformers have got separate DualPower windings feeding independent high-speed rectifiers and high-capacity power supply capacitors.

By using the DualPower power supply technology Hegel amplifiers will prevent disturbances from the high currents flowing in the loudspeakers entering the sensitive input gain stages and voltage gain stages. The Hegel DualPower technology gives lower total distortion and a higher dynamic range than normal audio amplifiers. The Hegel DualPower technology is developed in-house by Hegel and is only found in Hegel products.

DualAmp Technology

In normal audio amplifiers, the voltage gain stages and current gain stages are combined in the same amplifier module.

DualAmp Technology from Hegel separates the voltage gain stage and the current gain stage into two completely different stages. First, the music signal goes to the voltage gain stage, amplifying only the voltage level of the music signal. By doing only voltage gain in this first stage, we can use amplifier building blocks that are specially designed to do voltage amplification. After the separate voltage gain stage, we have the current gain stage, doing only current gain and nothing else.

The Hegel DualAmp technology gives lower total distortion and a higher dynamic range than normal audio amplifiers. The Hegel DualAmp technology is developed in-house by Hegel and is only found in Hegel products.

The Hegel Concept