Halcro Heaven

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  • Tobias Funke
    Junior Member
    • Jul 2005
    • 5

    Halcro Heaven

    "I have just heard the future of home Hi-Fi"

    Big call, well "Rolling Stone" said it about Bruce Springsteen and I have modified the line for this amplifier. Not a big call when you hear this little baby.

    Have just ordered one from AudioLifestyle in Bridge Rd Richmond. Great blokes & better service.

    I have always been chasing the vinyl/valve sound, without all the fickleness associated, with no real world affordability luck. I have presonally demo'd many upon many expensive models, but found the benefit did not justify the expense.

    Till Now.

    You can get carried away listening in finely tuned rooms and perfect surroundings. Well my demo was at home, after laying down the hard earned in advance.

    Unplugged the RB1080 power amp and took the Halcro out of the box brand new. Heavy little unit that exudes utter class & style. After driving Italian cars, style is another piece of the puzzle for me. I let my little baby warm a little and slowly increased the volume level.

    Started playing CD's before any Hi-Res stuff. First impressions were pretty impressive, but reserved. Seemed to have great control and awesome ability to stay quiet during lulls. Went to bed at about 2.00am after yelling from the wife.

    The morning arrived after a very restless sleep.

    Straight into the music listening again. Well, the next session was amazing. I was hearing guitar's and other instruments in tracks that had remained hidden by other noise, I say noise now, because on everything before thats all you hear. About 2 hours more listening, and i was feeling that all the instruments in tracks were finding that they now had their own space in the listening envelope. Everything just seemed to be so much more audible and yet, tied in unison.

    To say that this amplifier is more detailed is an understatement. But that doesn't for one minute suggest that it's bright or overfull either. Just perfect.
    It was fast when it needed to be and at the same time could be slow and hold control of notes with great finesse. I have never heard the end of tracks fade out so dammn well. It had the ability to let me hone in on a particular musician on the soundstage as you would in a live theatre.

    The killer was when i played some live concert music. I listened to these on the Halcro, and then decided to do a comparison, unplugged it to put the Rotel back on. I just got to the crowd applauding the introduction of the musiscians and had to turn it off, as it just sounded so unrealistic and hollow and fake in comparison.

    Awesome and affordable. Well done Halcro.

    Now to tell my wife!!


    My equipment comprises:
    Rotel RSX1055 Receiver
    Rotel RB1080 Power Amplifier
    Denon DVD3910 Player
    Dynaudio Audience 72 speakers
    Kimber PBJ interconnects
    Kimber 8VS speaker cable
    Stabilant 22a Connector fluid
  • Aussie Geoff
    Super Senior Member
    • Oct 2003
    • 1914

    #2
    Tobias,

    You forgot to mention that this was the new Halcro MC20 (the Halcro "affordable" digital amplifiers)
    (I got this from your post in Club rotel - you must really love those babys!)

    MC20 (2 x 400 watts, $4,490)
    MC30 (3 x 400 watts, $4,990)
    MC50 (5 x 350 watts, $5,990), and
    MC70 (7 x 350 watts, $6,990).
    US$ prices of course

    www.halcro.com - a great Aussie brand I'd like to be able to afford... (sigh!)

    Geoff

    Comment

    • DifferentLee
      Senior Member
      • Apr 2005
      • 113

      #3
      Halcro makes some of the few solid state gear I like. I have not auditioned the newer amps you discuss but I'm curious given the price point. In my experience digital amps in this price range can sound a bit dry but I would not be surprised if Halcro managed to get the sound of their bigger amps I have heard at the HiFi shows.

      Comment

      • Tobias Funke
        Junior Member
        • Jul 2005
        • 5

        #4
        Listening again today and still finding that the soundstage and openness are fantastic. Very pleasing on the ear and absolutley no harshness.

        Has anybody else had an audition of this amplifier yet, and if so what did you think?

        Comment

        • David Meek
          Moderator Emeritus
          • Aug 2000
          • 8938

          #5
          I haven't heard this one Tobias. Looking at the specs, the MC-20 is a pretty tasty piece of work. 400 wpc continuous at 4 ohms. Frequency response from 5Hz to 45kHz (-3 db)? Nice. :T
          .

          David - Trigger-happy HTGuide Admin

          Comment

          • Bob
            Senior Member
            • Jul 2000
            • 802

            #6
            Halcro makes fantastic amps. I bought a phono stage from the US Halcro importer a couple of years ago and listened to his home system.
            I can't help but notice that the digital amps that we are talking about here seem to be geared toward home theater. As I'm sure you all know, even digital amps output analog. The digital part is only in regards to the circuits used in switching power supplies, there is no digital signal. The switching power supply creates alternating current that reverses direction at a higher rate than the AC that comes out of the wall socket. Higher frequency alternation requires a smaller power transformer and less stoarage capacitance, hence less cost, less weight, less heat. The trade off, unless Halcro has figured a way around this, is the switching noise can be a problem and most amplifiers with switching power supplies are bandwidth-limited by aggressive low-pass filtering. The switching pulses, which occur at a very high frequency are filtered out leaving only an enlarged replica of the original signal. The input and output signals are analog.
            I know that Wadia has a power DAC that is a different form of Class D amplifier but, they aren't available as yet and I don't know what is supposed to be different about them.
            Hopefully, Class D amps will indeed be the future. We would all like less weight, less heat, less money for a world class amp. It took SS amps awhile to sort out their earlier problems but, what audio engineers learned from them should speed up the process to a Class D amp suitable for a high end system.

            Comment

            • gd
              Senior Member
              • Jan 2003
              • 583

              #7
              Originally posted by Bob
              We would all like less weight, less heat, less money for a world class amp.
              Speak for yourself, pal... I enjoy my leviathon hardware. :B

              Seriously, the Halcros look awesome... I'm probably gonna buy one last 5-channel power amp in the next 5 years or so... it will be a bruiser capable of most any speaker load... if in that time digital amps answer the above criteria along with superior sound for music, I'm open to the possibility... but for now I'm thinkin' Simaudio.
              .
              greg (gd to you)
              .
              Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring
              production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.

              Frank Zappa

              Comment

              • Bob
                Senior Member
                • Jul 2000
                • 802

                #8
                Speak for yourself, pal... I enjoy my leviathon hardware.
                After seeing pictures of the new ARC Ref amp, I might have to agree with you. I wish my amps had their new design for the Ref. series with the exposed tubes and no need of fans.
                As long as it also sounds good, nothing wrong with a piece of audio gear that you find pleasing to look at. I am lucky in that I don't have to worry about WAF so, I can pick what I like no matter how ugly. I did just that but, my system is very bland looking (except the TT) and it would be fun to have good sound and eye candy, or at least tube glow.

                Comment

                • Tobias Funke
                  Junior Member
                  • Jul 2005
                  • 5

                  #9
                  The most interesting component about the Halcro equipment is the power factor corrected power supply. Interesting of note, is the possible non-compliance of other equipment for the EC market?

                  Trying to find other reading material on such power supplies in Hi-Fi equipment.

                  Comment

                  • Spearmint
                    Senior Member
                    • Sep 2004
                    • 333

                    #10
                    Originally posted by Tobias Funke
                    The most interesting component about the Halcro equipment is the power factor corrected power supply. Interesting of note, is the possible non-compliance of other equipment for the EC market?

                    Trying to find other reading material on such power supplies in Hi-Fi equipment.
                    I wouldn't get too carried away with the power factor correction issue. It only benefits the supply company that is of course if they haven’t upgraded the domestic KWH meters to take power factor correction into account.
                    Richard

                    "Sometimes it is easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission... "

                    Comment

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