Halcro was the brainchild of Bruce Candy, a renowned physicist and inventor. He invented an audio power supply and amplifier topology which all but eliminates distortion. Halcro, which had become a subsidiary of Bruce’s metal detection business, Minelab Electronics, stunned the world with their first amplifier which had distortion measured in parts per billion at full power.
In late 2002 Stereophile’s cover article was on the Halcro's dm58, boldly stating “The Best Amplifier Ever". Numerous awards and ultra-positive reviews soon followed and Halcro grew into one of the world’s most respected hifi brands. Halcro made a series of improvements to the dm58 over the years culminating in the dm88 monoblocks and the dm38 stereo amplifier.
The family was joined by the dm8 and dm10 preamplifiers as well as a foray into home theatre with the stunning MC series of multichannel power amplifiers.
In 2008 Minelab was acquired by Codan, a large military communications company, because of the synergistic fit with their mine detection capability. Codan had no interest in Halcro so the company was retained by the original shareholders and shelved. This was in part due to the fact that what Codan were really buying was Bruce Candy’s genius and Halcro was seen as a distraction for his time.
Halcro briefly licensed their products to be manufactured by Vivid Audio but unfortunately this came to an end with the onset of the Global Financial Crisis. So the Halcro assets were mothballed and left in storage.
Fast forward to 2023…
The owners of Magenta Audio, a specialist Australian hifi importer, became aware that Halcro was in-tact but lying dormant in a warehouse just on the other side of the city. Longwood Audio was founded by Magenta’s Dr Peter Foster, Mike Kirkham and Halcro’s former lead engineer Lance Hewitt and a deal negotiated to acquire all the assets of Halcro, including the brand, the considerable patent portfolio, stock and tooling.