Listening. For starters, one thing needs to be clarified: the sonic differences between the H160 and H80 are
significant. They’re not barely audible but, to put it as gentle as I can, big and obvious. This somewhat correlates with their size difference. The H160 sounds big and the entry-level integrated – well, audibly smaller. I reviewed the H80 a few months ago. The original material can be found
here. It's in Polish, hence incomprehensible to the majority of 6moons reader. I’ll thus extricate the gist here. The H80’s reading is quite mellow, relaxed and organic. It's also very linear, meaning I wasn't able to hear any minor or major peaks or valleys anywhere in the audible spectrum. The H80 also has somewhat rounded textures but not too much. It’s a quite universal solution that will get along fine with many speakers. I tried it with the Amphion Argon 1, KEF LS50 and Boenicke Audio W5. My Scandinavian integrated performed on a very enjoyable level with all three and, most important for me, helped me see clear sonic differences between them. So it came as no surprise that the H80 would continue to serve my test rig really well. Its organic presentation beat one of my older setups senseless: Denon DCD-1510AE + PMA-1510AE. That pair sounded lifeless and thin by contrast, hence remains mostly unused these days. I also sprang the H80 on several unsuspecting folks over the past few months, some of them casual listeners, others with really decent setups at home. Bottom line? Everyone was surprised by what the H80 is capable of. Put plain, it’s a great companion for the Argon 1 and LS50.