2. tech-talk
  3. 1025560370

Halo Tube Dampers, Work for you?

anyone have any positive experiences with this product.
i am considering outfitting my preamp with a set.
also, i think i will be adding the phono board to my rogue 99 mag preamp and might also outfit the 4 tubes on this board.
however that's about $150 on top of the cost of the phono board and i'm in no mood to piss a good $150 away when i might be better off buying lps or cds.

my virtual system is posted
i've added a mmf 5 and cheap pro-ject phono box since posting, please don't snipe my analog, i was testing water and the mmf is still nice enough for the next year

thanks in advance
fujindemon
4 responses Add your response
lakefrontroad
302 posts
 
Funjindemon,

That's what Tennessee Williams made the bad $150 for...

I have halo's on my amps on the small tubes only. It had a remarkable effect. It so tidied up the sonics that it sounds much more like ss in the clarity of tone rather than the highlights and harmonices that were present before, which I believed was "tube like". It's nearly amazing the effect on the Tenor 75's. I haven't a clue what they'll do for your preamp, but it had a greater effect on the system than any other single item that I've been able to think of.

Bill E.
jtinn
1,124 posts
 
Wonderfull!
philjolet's avatar
philjolet
2,306 posts
 
On the Rogue 99 pre amp you can put the Halos on the two left tubes (looking from the front) in the phono section and get 90% of the benefit. According to Mark Obrien these are the main tubes that have to do with sonics the other tubes are used for another part of the circitry.

I use the Audio Research tube dampeners and agree with the improvements, the sonics tighten up and are cleaner. TAS (or Stereophile) did a review on them as well and thought they were one of the better deals out there.
brtritch
28 posts
 
They worked ok for me. I tried them on different tubes and got different results. Overall, I liked what they do, and am using them in my system. But I didnt like using them everywhere. This deserves a retest, since I'm at a loss to say WHY the sound would be worse. One explanation is that I have an unsophisticated ear and like noise. I say buy a pair and play with them. There is no price break of any kind for quantity purchases so why buy too much? At any rate, they're returnable.

The Cheapskate
Log in to respond
More to discover
80x80
Bricasti M5
80x80
Ayon Audio S-10 II Signature Network Player DAC Preamp
AWARD WINNING - REMARKABLE!
80x80
KEF Reference 5