Another visit to Herbies Audio Lab

Tubes Asylum

Questions about tubes and gear that glows. FAQ

Ok. I admit that I am a fan of Herbies Audio and have raved on occassion of the great improvements many of his products have made in my system. Still, there have been some products I've tried that didn't work out. One of the products that have both worked and not worked have been the Herbies tube dampers, the Hal-Os. I have been using his tube dampers throughout most of my system for some time. In some applications, the use of the dampers was immediately noticeable. In other cases, the improvement wasn't noticeable until the dampers were actually removed. In one application, a single rectifier tube on the separate power supply of my preamp, I really don't hear anything.
In my system, there were only two tubes I didn't try the Hal-Os on. Those were the tubes used in the phonostage of my preamp, the 12sc7. Since the tube casings on those tubes are metal, not glass, I ignorantly thought that they didn't need dampers. It was pitiful non-sensical logic, but I just figured that since they had a metal casing, they would be sturdy and not microphonic. Then, after Jim McShane informed how microphonic those 12sc7s can be, I ordred two Hal-Os for them. Once I put them on, it was not only an affirmation of why I like these tube dampers so much, but also I have never gotten such a dramatic improvement from using dampers on tubes before. Those RCA 12sc7 tubes I'm using must be pretty noisy becasue after putting on the Hal-Os, it was as if I both cleaned a really dirty record and a really dirty stylus when I put on the first record and heard it through the tube phonostage. I really cannot express how much cleaner and clearer the sound was with these simple rings in place. Though I feel like a bit of an idiot for wasting all this time thinking that my phonostage didn't need some damping to sound better, I am still glad I finally woke up.
Sometimes you just don't know how much noise you can actually be getting from tubes or how much better your system will sound with some simple solutions to minimize that noise. No doubt that other products may work as well as Herbies, but Herbies is what I used and with a 90 day money back guarantee, you don't have much to lose by trying them. Moreover, the customer service from Steve is as good as it gets--great advice, fast delivery, and no hassle returns. Just thought I'd share in case my experience helps anyone else.

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Kimber Kable

Topic - Another visit to Herbies Audio Lab - hartwerger 17:38:49 03/04/07 (3)

Does the brand matter? - amdan 01:20:35 03/06/07 (2)

Herbies work a little differently. . . - risabet 12:32:14 03/06/07 (0)

Re: Does the brand matter? - hartwerger 10:45:49 03/06/07 (0)

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