hegel h90 encoders repair

Back in July I bought a used Hegel H90 amplifier from Tori (a Finnish marketplace), and a few days later it was delivered. After a quick inspection I discovered problems with both knobs on the front panel - source and volume. The seller said it had been working before, and a quick search led me to a Reddit post where the OP had the same problem. It seems to be a design flaw, because a hard push on the knobs can easily break the encoders, like this:

Since I was going to use the remote anyway, I emailed Hegel support for the part number and meanwhile connected the amplifier to my audio system.

A week later I still hadn't got an answer from Hegel, so I texted them again - and again, no reply followed.

Then, at the end of September, I made another attempt to contact Hegel support via email and got a reply the next day.

Hi Denis,

Thank you for your email. Both the volume control and the input selector use the same encoder. Rotary encoder EC12E24204A9 Manufacturer: ALPS

Best regards

Hegel Music System AS – Oslo, Norway

Christian

The same day I found the encoders on the TME website. I ordered five, and including delivery it came to €21. The parts were out of stock, with an expected delivery sometime at the end of November. But they shipped ahead of schedule, and today I decided to finally replace them.

The amplifier is easy to disassemble: just four hex bolts and the cover comes off. A few more hex bolts, one ribbon cable, and the front panel comes off.

The main problem was my lack of special tools to remove the five-leg encoders from the small PCBs. After an hour of pathetic attempts I decided to cut the legs off the broken encoders - I'm not sure why I was avoiding it in the first place. To clean the pin holes in the PCB I heated up the solder and just blew as hard as I could.

It barely worked...

I was so afraid of breaking the new encoders that I put the knobs on them before soldering, which actually helped to hold the encoders in place. The soldering process was the easiest part.

ew, gross...

much better after cleaning up with isopropanol

and it also works flawlessly

a few words about amplifier

When living in Saint Petersburg I used a Hegel H95 for a while, but after I moved to Helsinki I kept postponing buying an amplifier, because the new Hegels cost a lot. I really like how well it's built, and I especially like the remote - how it feels and the rubber buttons. The H90 is an older model from 2018, and from a regular listener's perspective it is basically the same as a newer one. The H90 lacks Spotify Connect, but it does have AirPlay and some retro capbilities like DLNA.

Maybe in the future I will talk about streaming using H90.