Anyone try and compare the Halcro SSP 100 or 80?

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?

I am considering a Halcro SSP 100 or Meridian 861 v4...used to have Lex MC8B...terrible on music...Meridian G68XXV...much better....but moved to analog Ayre K5ex...with old Meridian 565 for processing...presently don't need any video switching...and I am concerned about what HMDI 1.3 will do to things once it works....

so anyone have analog judgement between SSP 100 and the 861?

John

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.

Meridian is the best? Hmmm... I sold my G gear after a few months... I have owned EVERYTHING!!! The Halcro SSP100 has no peer with regard to purity of sound. The Lexicon is easier to setup, yes. But if you want your HT to double as a close to reference audio system, then Halcro is the answer.

I know that the word 'referece' is subjective... so please don't beat me up for using that word.

Halcro HT is the best of the best.

Xfactor what was wrong with the G series? Since you have experience with both.

I won't argue if you want a 2 channel pass through that the halcro may be better but who listens in two channel when you have a Meridian right?

Halcro HT is the best of the best.
what speakers do you have ?

If you're going to call me out you going to have to earn it cowboy:)