Question for Steve or actually anyone else with experience with halo tube dampeners*

i just received shipment of mine and was wondering if anyone who has these can give me some insight as to what the specific improvements you have noticed using these.

iam using them with an antique sound labs headphone amp but a general impression from those who use them with a speaker amp would also help because i imagine the impression could be applied to headphones as well.

thanks in advance as always, paul

 

aw come on, i bought these somewhat based on your using them. you have such good taste. major suck-up alert intended!

thanks for the reply, hey my first steve hoffman communication, whooohoooo!

 

ok smart guy, not to be a pest but....

did you find you needed to move the dampers up or down on the tubes as opposed to positioning them in the middle of the tube to find the "sweet spot" as steve from herbies says? i noticed a bit of harshness with my first placement.

thanks, and by the way, im sure you hear this all the time, but i love this place! i have learned so much here, im more of a headphone guy than a speaker guy, im sure ill get converted once i get a real home of my own but for now theyll have to do.

thanks so much, paul

 

I use these on my KT66's

http://www.tube-shop.com/tuberings.asp

 

I have a bunch of Herbie's Halo dampers - from big ones on the 300Bs, medium sized on the GZ37s, small ones on the 6SL7s and the eight 6h30s in the BAT preamp, and even some tiny ones on the XLR connectors.

They look cool, and I like the construction - but I wasn't able to reliably pin down what they did to the sound. Now that I've had them for a couple of years and am used to the sound, I should try removing them all and having a listen - maybe I'd notice more of a difference through their absence.

 

Herbie's halos made a huge difference with my Telefunken 12ax7s and Mullards 12au7s as well my kt88s. The sound took on a more organic nature overall. Better bass, smoother highs, etc.

 

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The Halos were design to damp down microphonics and noises but IMO they also take away the sound expansion.

My best results eventually was using none microphonic matched new or NOS tubes and not use the Halos completely.

 

My experience with Herebie's Halos started 3 years ago when I started using them on the 6dj8 in the linestage of my Counterpoint Preamp.

When I first used the Halos they brought an amazing clarity and increased resolution to the sound of my Preamp and made it sound better than it ever had before.

About a year later I did some resonance modfication on the Preamp by placing it on BDR Cones and a 12" X 18" X 5/8" granite slab which straightened out the sound even more than the Herbie's Halos had.

Later I got curious and removed the Herbie's Halos and that improved the sound even more.

I think that it comes down to resonance tuning and whether or not the resonance dampening of Hebie's Halos will improve the sound depends largely on how and how much resonance is effecting the equipment.

I passed my Herbie's Halos on to a friend of mine and he is now using them in a tubed microphone preamp that he has and he swears by them just like I did when I needed them.

~Maxx~