Halcro update

It wasn't Gregory but Christiaan Punter that said its better than CH Precision, my bad.

Roy Gregory did a review recently on gy8.eu where he said the new Halcro made his reference amp, the CH Precision A1.5, sound almost broken.

I remember when I first got into this hobby in 2002 the Halcro had just come out but had a reputation for being a bit clinical and sterile sounding. Apparently that not the case with the new one.

Its manufactured in my hometown, so I wish them great success. But its still the ugliest amp every made, IMO.

I remember reading about these and thinking how cool they looked and how much my wife would hate them because of their size.😁

Thanks for the update.

There may be marketing but looks like a pretty cool amp albeit very expensive. I doubt I'll ever hear it but always nice to see someone doing something different in hifi.

Nice thanks for the update.cool story

@lynn_olson Indeed.  I also find it interesting to see that the new one is claimed to "further reducing non-linear effects and distortion" when the old one had "distortion measured in parts per billion".  

So there is a lot of marketing there.  Also, the pictures show a lot of non-traditional design.  which is cool.

What isn't clear to me is how much of the original designer's genius is still captured,  and what is the skill level of the person or team that took over the design.  

Bottom line is that the ears will tell.  

Jerry

This is a comment on Lynn Olson's comment. Decades ago I had a demo by David Berning and Murray Zelligman at CES 1979 of the Audionics BA150 amp designed by David Berning. The amp had variable negative feed back from 16 dB to 0 dB, As the feedback was reduced, of course the harmonic and IM distortion increased and the frequency response got lumpier due to increased output impedance. But the sound got better, more ope and more dynamic and more life like. I asked them bothif they ever measured anything that correlated with good sound since the classic measurements were a poor correlation expecting 'no'; you just have to listen and fine tune by ear. But the reply was yes, simple linearity. If 1 volt in gives 5 out the 2 volts should produce 10 out, etc. And the better a device did this, the better the sound.

I find it interesting that an amp with ultra-low distortion still has scope for subjective "tuning" ... which makes me wonder how it's done. There's something in there the test instruments are not measuring.

@larryi : If the Phase Linear sounded so bad why was it a commercial success? I have a nicely restored one in my collection - maybe I should take it out for a test?

I remember the Stereophile 2002 review of the Halcro dm58. It cost about half as much as this new version (€47,900). These Halcro amps certainly look 21st - or 22nd - Century!

My first hearing of their gear at CES.  An industry insider I knew told me that I must hear their gear.  He said that his encounter brought tears to his eyes because of the flood of memories it triggered; it reminded him of the first time he heard the Phase Linear 400 amp.  Yes, this was his way of saying it sounded so bad.  He was right.

I had wondered the same! That's an interesting story. I have never heard them before but always wanted to. Thanks for posting.