Hegel Viking Review

Last year, several very interesting and high-quality CD players passed through our editorial department. They came from manufacturers like Atoll Electronique, McIntosh, Pier Audio, Rotel, or Technics and all left a lasting impression. Not only through engagement with these devices was it once again clear how excellent CDs can sound and how good CD players are today.

Therefore, even in the age of streaming, there’s nothing wrong with spending money on a playback device that is supposedly out of fashion. On the contrary. Those who love their CD collection need a CD player. Often, a CD sounds better than the corresponding stream, regardless of the resolution. Frequently, you find an album in multiple versions without it being clear which version or mastering it is. All of that can be confusing and dampen the joy of progress. With a CD, on the other hand, you always know what you’re getting. Moreover, due to all the criticism of dynamic compression, CDs today sound less fatiguing across the board than during the heyday of the “Loudness Wars”. The fact that a CD like Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” from 2008 is so hard to bear (not because of the music, mind you) is no longer to be expected today. And even hardcore audiophiles still get their money’s worth with the CD medium. You just have to take a look at the selection of high-quality CDs listed at Sieveking Sound, for example. Incredible.

Format Question

That’s a good segue to the Viking. Many of the audiophile CDs released today rely on the MQA format. For that, you need a CD player whose DAC can read this format. The Hegel Viking cannot do that, and that is a good and clear decision by the manufacturer. They focus here on the playback of classic CDs, that is, sound carriers produced according to the Red Book standard with a resolution of 44.1 kHz/16 bit. Significantly more manufacturers are now doing this again, and the reason is obvious. Drive and laser unit, clock and D/A converter can thus be selected so that they deliver the optimum in this discipline. And so, the Viking uses a real CD drive, not one for CD-ROMs. This also has the advantage that, for example, the wavelength of the laser matches the CD surface absolutely exactly. Actually trivial, but a cost factor.

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This design philosophy also includes that there is no upsampling in the player. And a look at the back shows indeed a digital output, but in BNC version. Those who own a large Hegel amplifier (from H390 upwards) will also find this connection there, but with most other manufacturers, BNC is not available. But it doesn’t matter. Because the effort Hegel puts into the Viking only unfolds its full effect when you use it classically as a CD player, which ultimately provides an analog signal and completely controls this signal from the moment of reading, through processing, to output at the RCA or XLR outputs. So please ignore the BNC “alibi” output.

This signal control is taken over by the duo of Hegel’s master clock system and the patented SoundEngine technology. While the clock ensures that the bits and bytes of the CD arrive at the D/A converter at the correct time and that timing and rhythm of the music are preserved, the SoundEngine ensures that the signal remains as pure as possible and that unnecessary distortions do not corrupt the cleanliness of the playback. For this reason, under the thick hood of the Viking there are two power transformers: one is responsible only for standby operation, so that the signal cannot be influenced even here. For the same reason, unlike the Mohican, the Viking has an OLED display, which, with very low self-noise, cannot influence the playback.

The analog output stage was newly developed specifically for the Viking. Here, Hegel’s LineDriver technology comes into play. It reduces the high-frequency noise that occurs when converting the digital signal to analog, and thus prevents this noise from being passed on to the amplifier.

New Drive

While the Mohican still relied on a tray, the Viking has a slot-loading drive. Opinions may differ on this. A few years ago, that would have been a deal-breaker for me, but now I like this type of drive. There are no frequent pauses before a CD is ejected, as is often the case. Scratching is not an issue if you handle it carefully, and the front looks even a bit cooler with the discreet slot.

They have retained the operation with two buttons, which replace three buttons each. That’s a bit unusual, but it works well and preserves the clear design. You can’t turn the buttons but press them in three directions each. Obviously, in the direction where a symbol can be seen. If I had the choice, I would prefer individual buttons, but I could also live very well with this technology.

Because let’s not kid ourselves: the Hegel Viking sounds so good that one is willing to accept things that might not be the first choice. And its excellently crafted housing with the three cool feet obviously provides the optimal working conditions for this.

Listening Test

You quickly pick up on the Viking’s character. It excels at imparting a slight softness to every recording, which doesn’t omit any details but prevents the ears from tiring too quickly. That could be the rhythmic accents at the beginning of “Billie Jean” (MFSL), which have less noise through the Hegel, or the overall turned-up-to-11 cleanliness in Joe Pass’s “Intercontinental.” Vocals take a step back, but the music becomes more homogeneous, more coherent.

Punk remains punk, but it becomes more transparent and pleasant. The music sheds any superficiality; it depends more than usual on the listener which details they pick out—but they’re all there. At the same time, instruments and voices seem more unrestrained, more powerful. The sound radiates a very pleasant slight warmth; the bass seems to reach deeper. And the depth staging is amazing. A CD player for life.

Hegel Viking Report

CD player with pre-emphasis decoder. Frequency response: linear between 10 Hz and 20 kHz; with pre-emphasis encoded CDs, minimal, broadband high-frequency dip of 0.8 dB around 5 kHz (blue). Steep reconstruction filter (-0.3 dB at the upper cutoff frequency of 20.2 kHz) with pre-ringing-free impulse reproduction. Distortion spectrum at 1 kHz, 0 dB_FS: extremely clean signal, virtually hum- and overtone-free; behavior identical on RCA and XLR; THD+N 0.026%; weighted signal-to-noise ratio 111 dB/2V (95 dB with residual signal). Output voltage 2.5 V (fixed). Output impedance 22/44 Ω (RCA/XLR). Power consumption 0.2/13 W.

Troublemaker

The good news first: The Hegel Viking comes with a remote control. Another good news: It is made of metal and feels good in the hand. But. The buttons are very small, the labeling is hard to read. The uniformity makes the whole thing additionally uncomfortable. Now, with any remote control, you get used to it and manage after a while, no matter how it’s designed. This is no different here, but it doesn’t console you over the fact that, for example, a numeric keypad is missing. Since it is a system remote control that can also control other Hegel devices, most buttons are not needed. The “DISP” button has no function and, for example, did not change the time display. That leaves four buttons: Play, Next, Prev, and Stop. If you press Stop twice, the CD is ejected. Another peculiarity that takes getting used to: When you skip back, it does not jump to the beginning of the current song, but to that of the previous track.