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Anyone try and compare the Halcro SSP 100 or 80?

I have heard good and bad things about these Halcro SSP and my dealer really recommends it over the other lines he carries like Meridian, Lexicon and Theta.

Has anyone out there had one of these ssp's in there system to compare?

I currently have a Meridian G68 XXX and I really do like it but the video switching and what my dealer tells me is better audio has me thinking about an upgrade.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Mike
mjaudio

Showing 3 responses by choiceaudio

choiceaudio's avatar
choiceaudio
61 posts
 
Pramod,

I was speaking with Smitty at XLO Cables yesterday and we were discussing Balanced cables. He said that machines made in the US vs machines made to european specs have the two pins in the XLR reversed.

According to him if you connect via XLR a U.S. made product to a european made product (ie Halcro) your units will be out of phase. He said that they often make custom XLR cables to use between US and european products.

Do you think that this might have had something to do with the balanced inputs sounding worse?
choiceaudio's avatar
choiceaudio
61 posts
 
Hikejohn,

I have a SSP80 in on audition. From what I can tell so far is that the analog portion is pretty good. Maybee close to the best, if not the best that I have heard in a pre/pro. It's not as good as my dedicated pre-amp, but it is definitely musical sounding and enjoyable. I have not tried it yet for movies, only two channel so far. I was using an Arcam DV79 for the source and it seems that connecting digital to the SSP80 was a little better than going in analog. I think it is mostly due to better DACs in the Halcro. You had to listen for it, but the voices were a little more clear going digital in with the DV79.

I not 100% sure, but I think Meridian processes all analog signals, so it is not a straight pass through? I have never heard the Meridian analog so I can't comment.
choiceaudio's avatar
choiceaudio
61 posts
 
05-07-07: Henryhk
what are HDMI switching capabilites for Lexicon vs Halcro vs Meridien? I saw a review Halcro somewhere they encountered some issues...some players working some not, like the nwe Toshiba HD DVD players. Can anyone comment on the three unit's performance in this regard?

Most of the glitches were in the first year and a half with HDMI. From what I have heard lately, in the last year or so they have not had any problems. The scaler is good with the SSP-100, but it is not state of the art. Sonics are the main strenght of the Halcro. Sorry, can't comment vs Meridian and Lexicon, maybe Mjaudio and pramod can? I believe Mjaudio has a Toshiba HD player as well?
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