Moving Up From a WiiM or Eversolo: What a Hegel Streaming Amplifier Actually Changes

If you own a WiiM or an Eversolo, you already know the best thing about them: they work. You open an app, the music plays, and the hardware works.

We sell a lot of WiiM. We have sold hundreds of streamers and streaming amplifiers over the past two years, because for a great number of rooms they are the perfect solution. This article is not an argument that you bought the wrong thing.

It is about what happens when you outgrow one, which is a different question. Here is what actually changes when you move up to a Hegel, what does not, and how to tell which side of that line you are on.

What your WiiM or Eversolo already does well

Let's be straight about this first, because the honest answer shapes everything that follows.

• The streaming is genuinely excellent. AirPlay 2, Chromecast, Spotify and Tidal Connect, multi-room, all of it stable and all of it quick. This is the part these products got right before almost anyone else.
• The app is better than most high-end alternatives. That is not a backhanded compliment. Plenty of amplifiers costing ten times as much have worse software.
• Room correction and EQ are built in. On a desk or in an awkward room, that can do more for the sound than a large amplifier upgrade would.
• The value is real. A WiiM Amp at $649 or a WiiM Ultra at $739 does an enormous amount for the money.

If your system is a desk, a bedroom, a kitchen, a second lounge, or a small room with efficient speakers, a WiiM is very likely still the right product, and we will tell you so in the shop. We have talked plenty of people out of spending more.

Where an entry streamer runs out of road

The limits are not in the streaming. They are in everything after it.

Amplification, and why watts mislead

Start with the number everyone compares, because it is the one that will mislead you.

The WiiM Vibelink Amp is rated at 100W per channel into 8 ohms. The Hegel H95 is rated at 60W. On paper, the $649 unit has more power than the $3,695 one, and anyone who tells you otherwise has not read the spec sheets.

That comparison is close to meaningless, and here is why. A watt rating is measured at one frequency into a fixed resistor. Your speakers are not a fixed resistor. Their impedance swings across the frequency range, often dipping to 3 ohms or lower exactly where the music has the most energy. What the amplifier needs there is not a bigger number on a box; it is the current to hold its composure into a load that is fighting back.

The Hegel H200 is rated at 150W into 8 ohms and is stable down to 2 ohm loads. The second figure tells you something important.

The power supply

Hegel amplifiers are heavy. The H200 weighs 13.6 kg, and the H600 22 kg, and most of that mass comes from the transformer and heatsink.

A power rating tells you what an amplifier can do for a moment. A power supply tells you what it can keep doing through a loud passage, with both channels working, when the music gets dense. That is the difference you hear at volume and do not hear at all at background level.

DAC implementation, not the DAC chip

The WiiM Vibelink uses an ESS9039Q2M converter, which is a good chip. You will find good chips in equipment at every price point now, which is precisely why the chip isn't the story.

What separates converters is implementation: how cleanly the chip is powered, how well it is clocked, how carefully the analogue output stage is built, and how far the noisy digital section is kept from the sensitive analogue one. Hegel's own description of the H200 makes a point of isolating the digital section so it cannot contaminate the analogue stages. That work is invisible on a spec sheet and audible in a quiet passage.

Speaker control, which is the one that matters

This is the section to read if you read only one.

WiiM does not publish a damping factor for the Vibelink. That is not an accusation; plenty of manufacturers do not. But it does tell you which specification each company thinks is worth putting on the page.

Low damping is what you hear when bass sounds big but vague, when a bass line becomes a general warmth rather than individual notes, and when a busy passage smears instead of separating. High damping is what people mean when they say an amplifier sounds fast or tight. It is not a tone. It is control.

What a Hegel integrated adds

We asked Steven, who demonstrates these every week in our Christchurch store, for the short version. His five points, and he was clear that they apply to every Hegel integrated amplifier, not only the H200:

1. Easy wireless streaming.
2. Powers any speaker.
3. Amazing bass control.
4. No distortion.
5. Simple and clean design.

Each of those maps onto something you can check.

• Easy wireless streaming. Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Qobuz Connect, AirPlay, Google Cast, UPnP, and internet radio are built in, with Roon Ready on the H400 and H600. You are not giving up the convenience you came for. That is the point people most often get wrong about moving up.
• Powers any speaker. The range runs from 60W to 303W per channel, and the H200 upward will drive 2-ohm loads. There is very little in a domestic setting that these will not handle.
• Amazing bass control. This is the damping factor above, in Steven's words rather than an engineer's.
• No distortion. Hegel quotes their power figures at 1% THD and builds the amplifier to stay linear rather than to win a headline wattage contest.
• Simple and clean design. One display, one volume knob, no menu diving. It looks like the picture above, and it behaves like it too.

Choosing between the five models

All five take the trade-in. They differ in power, in control, and in how current the streaming platform is.

The H95 and H150: a difference worth knowing

The H95 at $3,695 is the entry point. At 60W with a damping factor above 2000, it will make a pair of efficient bookshelf speakers sound considerably more controlled than they did before.

The H150 at $5,745 is only 15W more powerful, so do not buy it for the watts. Buy it for two things the H95 doesn't have. It runs Hegel's current streaming platform, adding Tidal Connect, Qobuz Connect, and Google Cast alongside AirPlay and Spotify Connect. It also includes a built-in moving-magnet phono stage, so if you have a turntable, you will not need a separate one.

The H95 streams via AirPlay, Spotify Connect and UPnP. If you use Tidal or Qobuz natively, that difference matters more than the 15W does.

The H200, and why it is the one we point at

The H200 at $7,995 represents the biggest single step up in the range. Power doubles to 150W, damping factor doubles to over 4000, and stability extends to 2-ohm loads. It also adds balanced XLR inputs and a phono stage.

For most New Zealand living rooms and most speakers people actually own, this is where the compromises end. If you are coming from a WiiM and want to do this once, start here.

The H400 and H600

The H400 at $12,995 brings 250W, Roon Ready certification, and digital handling up to 32-bit/384kHz with DSD256. The H600 at $20,995 takes that further to 303W and 22kg.

These are for large rooms, or for speakers with a reputation for being hard to drive. If you own something that reviewers describe as wanting a lot of current, this is the part of the range that answers it. If you do not, the H200 will not hold you back.

You can see the full range on the Hegel collection page.

Trade up to Hegel: what you save

Until 31 October 2026, trade in any streamer or streaming amplifier against a Hegel and we will take a fixed amount off the price.

The part worth reading twice

The savings are a fixed amount, not a valuation. It does not scale with what your old unit is worth.

Trade a WiiM Mini, which we sell for $199, against an H200, and you save $1,050. Trade something worth ten times that and you save the same $1,050; Any brand, any streamer, any streaming amplifier.

The trade-in delivers the most value for exactly the people it is aimed at: owners of a modest streamer who were not expecting much for it.

Trade-in terms

• The offer runs from 1 September to 31 October 2026.
• Trade in any streamer or streaming amplifier, any brand, against one of the five Hegel models above.
• The saving is fixed per model as shown in the table. One trade-in per amplifier purchased.
• Your unit should be complete and in working order. We will confirm before anything is finalised.
• Not available in conjunction with other offers.
• Subject to availability. Most Hegel models are ordered in, so talk to us about timing.

What happens to your old unit

A fair question, and the answer is straightforward.

Is it worth it for you? Ask us first

The honest answer depends on three things, and none of them are in this article: what speakers you own, how big your room is, and how loud you actually listen.

If you have efficient speakers in a small room and listen at moderate volume, a WiiM is doing a better job than you might expect, and we will say so. If you have floorstanders in an open-plan space and you have ever turned it up and felt the bass go soft, that is the specific problem a Hegel solves.

Tell us what you are running now and what it is driving. We will tell you whether the upgrade is worth your money, including when it is not.

Send us an enquiry, call 0800 18 12 12, or come and listen at 138 Victoria Street, Christchurch, weekdays 9:00 am to 5:30 pm, Saturdays 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

You can also view all five eligible models on the Trade Up to Hegel collection page.

Prices, savings, and specifications are correct as of September 2026 and subject to change.