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The Bland's Halcro? A report???

156825 Views 1600 Replies 121 Participants Last post by terrym4, Aug 30, 2010

PeterS

Discussion Starter · Oct 6, 2006

So, when are we getting a report from TheBland about his new baby???

1 - 20 of 1601 Posts

thebland

· #2 · Oct 6, 2006

I have to tell you I was surprised by the set up process. The manual, not nearly as detailed and intuitive as Lexicon's, confused me a bit but eventually I got there. There are still some bugs on the unit.

I haven't tried it out yet and I have found a few bugs with seeing the OSD when HDMI is engaged. I still haven't nailed down what the issue is but I will this weekend. I spoke with customer service at Halcro and was told that a major firmware upgrade is coming in the next 1 to 2 weeks. They will send it out on USB data sticks for a quick install and apparently it will addresss the aforementioned issues I called about plus others I have not yet encountered. I have not even tried out the scaler yet. Source set up is not as tweakable as my old Lexicon but seems adequate for my situation. Lexicon has had had years to fine tune their GUI and I can attest it is the best I have seen. But sonics are what counts, and that I have not yet checked.

I have to say that at this point, their customer service is very good. They do seem to listen and were openly aware of the issues I encountered. They plan to address them all.

I did use the automatic speaker distance and level set up with the enclosed mic, and it seems to have worked well (though I will recheck it against my own meter).

Apparrently it will address the last bugs and most importantly ENABLE multichannel, uncompressed PCM for HD DVD and BluRay. Currently, it only allows for 2 channel.

I hope to watch movies and play this weekend. So look for more.

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Free

· #3 · Oct 6, 2006

Jeff, can you refresh my memory, why you didn't just go with the MC-12HD?

Art Sonneborn

· #4 · Oct 6, 2006

2

Quote:
Originally Posted by thebland /forum/post/0

ENABLE multichannel, uncompressed PCM for HD DVD and BluRay.

I hope to watch movies and play this weekend. So look for more.

Jeff,

The last thing I would want to do is put any added pressure on you. If you are like me , those weekends are what allows a reset of my nervous system from the sometimes crazy world out there but........................ when are you going to have a meet !!! ?

I hope it will still be this fall.

Art

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John Kotches

· #5 · Oct 6, 2006

2

Jeff:

If you have bugs "on the unit", have you considered professional help vis a vis an exterminator

That's a bit different from bugs with the unit

Sorry man, but that was just out there waiting to be said!

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Mark Petersen

· #6 · Oct 6, 2006

Jeff,

When you get a chance can you post about how the Halcro sounds as a simple preamp for stereo music sources vs the Lex? I use my Lex about 50-50 for listening to music and watching movies and the quality of music was imho one of it's biggest strengths.

sfogg

· #7 · Oct 6, 2006

Jeff,

". Lexicon has had had years to fine tune their GUI and I can attest it is the best I have seen."

It has been that way for a long time. A 10 year old DC-1 has a menu system that is laid out almost identically.

" Apparrently it will address the last bugs and most importantly ENABLE multichannel, uncompressed PCM for HD DVD and BluRay. Currently, it only allows for 2 channel."

Considering that you posted the entire reason you made a move was to get multi-channel high resolution audio over HDMI I'd think I'd get the above statement in writing from Halcro. Along with something like if it isn't done in x amount of time you can return the product.

Shawn

P.S. Do more research before buying products.....

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thebland

· #8 · Oct 6, 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by sfogg /forum/post/0

Jeff,

". Lexicon has had had years to fine tune their GUI and I can attest it is the best I have seen."

It has been that way for a long time. A 10 year old DC-1 has a menu system that is laid out almost identically.

" Apparrently it will address the last bugs and most importantly ENABLE multichannel, uncompressed PCM for HD DVD and BluRay. Currently, it only allows for 2 channel."

Considering that you posted the entire reason you made a move was to get multi-channel high resolution audio over HDMI I'd think I'd get the above statement in writing from Halcro. Along with something like if it isn't done in x amount of time you can return the product.

Shawn

P.S. Do more research before buying products.....

I would've never thought to ask this and I gotta tell you that it was my assumption that this feature was automatic when HDMI is present. I was very surprised to find out it was not a current feature. I told my dealer as well as Halcro that there would be no other reason to invest in such a product. All parties agreed and assured it was coming.

Not a bad idea about getting in writing.

I switched from Lexicon simply to try something new. The value on my 12B was dropping and I wanted to bail before too big of a loss. When Lexicon delivers an all new product, I may go back. Halcro has a stellar reputation and if they build a processor that performs anywhere near the quality of their amps, I'd be very happy.

sfogg

· #9 · Oct 6, 2006

Jeff,

" I would've never thought to ask this and I gotta tell you that it was my assumption that this feature was automatic when HDMI is present."

As you found it is not. In fact at this point handling multi-channel audio over HDMI is more the exception then the rule. That is changing of course.

"All parties agreed and assured it was coming.

Not a bad idea about getting in writing."

I'm just saying that to cover yourself since I know you wanted MCH audio over HDMI to be able to take advantage of DD+ and Dolby THD that is available today.

I have no idea if Halcro will be implementing it or not and/or how quickly that will occur. I just know plenty of other companies have made statements about upcoming features/functionality that never occurred. It is why most recommend making purchases based on what a product does today, not based on what is said to be coming tomorrow.

" and if they build a processor that performs anywhere near the quality of their amps, I'd be very happy. "

Sure, but expertise in one area (building amps) does not imply expertise (DSP/processing) in another. That they use a third party DSP platform demonstrates that.

Shawn

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thebland

· #10 · Oct 6, 2006

Good points. I don't know whther the Halcro will measure up to or exceed the Lexicon in performance. I am sure either way, performance will be close.

This HDMI thing is such a PITA. As much as I pay attention to the latest, I never would've guessed about the PCM multichannel NOT being accepted over HDMI...

I am sure it will be added but who knew???

tc828

· #11 · Oct 6, 2006

You will not be sorry you got the Halcro. Had mine since they came out and the sound quality is the best I've had. Movies are just amazing as well as two channel. Halcro has been great to work with continuing to upgrade and or replace if hardware has been changed. I've had both Mark Levinson and lex and I would not go back. Its all about the SOUND.

thebland

· #12 · Oct 6, 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by tc828 /forum/post/0

You will not be sorry you got the Halcro. Had mine since they came out and the sound quality is the best I've had. Movies are just amazing as well as two channel. Halcro has been great to work with continuing to upgrade and or replace if hardware has been changed. I've had both Mark Levinson and lex and I would not go back. Its all about the SOUND.

Good to know.. I can't wait to do a listening test this weekend!

What sdo you know about the upcoming firmware upgrade that is supposed to include multichannel PCM over HDMI?

DrOrtho

· #13 · Oct 6, 2006

Jeff,

I just spoke to my Halcro dealer and he told me that Halcro is releasing a hardware upgrade kit to go along with the firmware upgrade in order to enable to multichannel PCM over HDMI. The release should be very soon.

Sean

LoveMovies

· #14 · Oct 6, 2006

Normally I would just assume that when you pay those kind of bucks, they will do the right thing ........ but I bought into that with the Proceed gear several years ago, paying $5500 (in 1999) for a dvd transport that was built to accept upgrades, etc, but it never worked correctly and finally they killed the whole product line.

Hopefully Halcro will be more like Lumagen and not like Harmon International (who owned Proceed).

Steve Bruzonsky

· #15 · Oct 7, 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by thebland /forum/post/0

Good points. I don't know whther the Halcro will measure up to or exceed the Lexicon in performance. I am sure either way, performance will be close.

This HDMI thing is such a PITA. As much as I pay attention to the latest, I never would've guessed about the PCM multichannel NOT being accepted over HDMI...

I am sure it will be added but who knew???

Does the Lexicon MC-12 HD with HDMI v1.1 permit multichannel PCM over HDMI?

thebland

· #16 · Oct 7, 2006

Lexicon does...but though I have no direct knowledge, I heard from my dealer that the there might be some down resing of the HDMI PCM at some point in the chain though the Lexicon display ashows 96/24....

Perhaps Shawn could comment to this. My dealer told me of this but I have no direct knowledge.

sfogg

· #17 · Oct 7, 2006

"...but though I have no direct knowledge, I heard from my dealer that the there might be some down resing of the HDMI PCM at some point in the chain though the Lexicon display ashows 96/24...."

Your dealer is flat out wrong. The MC-12 has internally supported 6 channels of 96/24 input data since the first day it shipped years ago. The A/Ds in the Lex. run at 96/24... so when you used the 5.1a input and redigitized to apply processing it was running on top of a six channel 96/24 source and could expand that out to 10 channels of 96/24 from Logic 7 and bass management. It could actually do twelve channels but Lexicon hasn't used the other two channels for anything yet.

The MC-12HD is very much the same. It has no problems at all accepting 6 channels of 96/24 from the HDMI input and processing them at full resolution. There is no downsampling in the Lex.

Shawn

Nick Satullo

· #18 · Oct 7, 2006

Well, I must admit I'm interested in Jeff's observations, though, as I speak, I'm awaiting delivery of my MC-12HD (balanced, EQ). While I love my Halcro amplifiers, I used to love my Krell amplifiers, but definitely did not like it when I switched to Krell A/V processors. I can't see why I'd want to risk the change.

Nick

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thebland

· #19 · Oct 7, 2006

Nick,

I agree...any time you switch from something that is solid, you run a risk. I guess I'll have to see.

I like to try new things and if the Halcro turns out to be a sonic superstar, well then it was the right choice. If not, I can fully reassess in a year or two when the new, fully redesigned HDMI 1.3 processors hit the market.

sfogg

· #20 · Oct 7, 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Bruzonsky /forum/post/0

Does the Lexicon MC-12 HD with HDMI v1.1 permit multichannel PCM over HDMI?

Again... yes....

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&post7950678

Write it down somewhere.

Shawn

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