The Best Amplifier Ever ?

funny stuff

i had the Halcro DM-58 in my room last year for 3 days and was very impressed. it was the fastest, most detailed, most transparent and most extended top to bottom amplifier i have heard. it had seemingly unlimited dynamics and excellent bass slam. i could easily understand how someone might feel it was the best out there if those things were most important to that listener. it was not edgy and had no obvious shortcomings......but.....compared to my then resident Levinson #33's it was lacking in weight and body. i didn't get the feeling of ease and naturalness that the #33 gave me. between the 2 amps it would have been a tough choice.....and i could have bought the Halcro for less than i could have sold the #33's for at that time.

i have since found more satisfaction with OTL tubes; which offer most of the attributes of the Halcro and Levinson but are much more involving to me.

the whole idea of "the best amplifier ever" is miss-guided to me. amps need to be matched to speakers to be properly judged. even then "the room" is a big issue.

i do think "my favorite amp ever" or "the best amp i have heard" would be more reasonable ways to rave IMHO. however, i can understand that "the BEST Amplifier EVER?" might sell more magazines.

Thanks Mike. It's great to hear an analyis from someone outside the press who has compared "The BEST amp EVER" to another great amp. Obviously, the Halcro is top notch but, as I interpret your assessment, there are trade-offs among amps and the ultimate choice becomes a matter of personal preferences. I'd love to hear from others who have auditoned or purchased the 58 or 68. What's great? What's maybe a bit of a trade off? For everyone else, what makes a great amp in your mind (or ears)? Thanks.

Technically, the HALCRO has the *best* on paper distortion specs *ever.* I have not seen any actual *bench tests* so far. If they are published anywhere online or someone can email them to me I would be very very interested to see the graphs (like Stereophile publishes, or more). Interestingly HALCRO publishes next to *nothing* on their website.

The amp internally is a logical extension of some earlier work in feedforward/feedback multiple nested loop distortion reduction designs. Apparently they also use a switching power supply.

I read the patents. Well done design. However for reasons that are not entirely clear, these sorts of designs tend to sound a bit "sterile" although there is no reason for them to do so. In fact they should not have any sound at all.

Anyone near Albany NY, I'd love to hear one.

IF and only IF the rest of the test results are as good as the probable distortion spec (that's TWO orders of magnitude lower than mine! - like almost impossible to measure at all)
then the claim is quite valid, imho.

Bear, does that mean you absolutely equate "Best Measuring Amp" with "Best Amp"? If so, that would imply that you believe that the currently-available and performed suite of measurements is 100% sufficient to ascertain any amp's ability to reproduce music.

(Although I strongly doubt this claim myself, I would note that Vladimir Lamm has his own proprietary suite of measurements he uses to exclusively design-in his amps' intended performance attributes, sans any music-listening input to the process [though his formulations are supposedly based on his reasearch regarding the reponse of the human ear/brain], and his products are very 'audiophile-approved'.)