A valve amplifier against a solid-state one. They are not really rivals: they differ in character, in what they will drive and in what owning them involves, so start there rather than with the watts.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | B | Hegel H150 has more power - 75W against 44W into 8 ohms. That is about 2.3dB, so it plays usefully louder before it runs out and has more in hand on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate PrimaLuna EVO 200 Power the better fit for desk or near-field listening and a small room, and Hegel H150 for a mid-size room, a large room and a very large room. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Built-in DAC | B | Hegel H150 has a DAC on board; the other needs an external one, which is another box, another power lead and another purchase. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Hegel H150 takes more analogue sources - 3 against 1. |
| Phono stage | depends | Hegel H150 has a built-in phono stage (MM) and PrimaLuna EVO 200 Power does not. Decisive if you own a turntable, completely irrelevant if you do not - and an outboard phono stage is easy to add later either way. |
| Amplifier type | depends | PrimaLuna EVO 200 Power is Tube and Hegel H150 is Solid State. Valve designs are usually warmer and softer at the limits and need their tubes replaced eventually; solid state is the lower-maintenance choice. This is a taste and ownership decision, not a quality one. |
| Price | B | Hegel H150 costs less - $3,600 against $3,795 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | B | Hegel H150 is the cheaper watt - about $48 per watt against $86. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A PrimaLuna EVO 200 Power B Hegel H150
depends neither is better in the abstract - it turns on your room, your system or how you will use them. Only specs published for both amplifiers are judged; anything missing on either side is left out rather than guessed.
Which should you choose?
Hegel H150 has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is. Start with the room. In a large or open-plan room, or with speakers that are hard to drive - low sensitivity, or an impedance that dips - Hegel H150 has the headroom, and headroom is what stops an amplifier hardening up on peaks. At desk distance or in a small room, 44 watts is already more than most people ever use, and the extra 31 watts would be headroom you pay for and never hear - we rate Hegel H150 poorly for near-field use for exactly that reason. If you play records, Hegel H150 saves you buying a phono stage; if you do not, ignore that row entirely.
What a spec sheet cannot show: how either sounds with your speakers, how the controls feel day to day, and what the app is like to live with - which is where most all-in-one amplifiers are actually won or lost. Power figures are the manufacturers' own and are not measured to a common standard, so treat small differences as noise. If you can hear both, that will tell you more than any row above.