I feel that im incapable of reviewing this glorious amp, so these few paragprahs is going to be more towards sharing my expectation and experience with Mischa and BH from my point of view, so take this with a grain of salt...
Lets start from the person himself. When it comes to Amplifier, this guy is a walking encyclopedia. He answers all my questions so vividly to the point that i feel wrong to waste his time answering my questions and he is one of the kindest man that ive ever encountered.
After going back and forth deciding to wait for Glenn to build me a GOTL or Blue Halo, i took a leep of faith and ordered BH. I told Mischa what my past amp is lacking (from my point of view) and wish that BH would correct it and be a better fit for my personal taste.
To be honest, until a week ago i was still skeptical about the BH (aestheticly and how it sounds). But my heart melts when i saw BH for the first time, look at it.. i meaan LOOOK AT IT...
Aesthetic:
i discuss with Mischa about having the 3 capacitor casing painted in black / carbon, but by the end of the day i chose black and am so pleased with the end result...
SQ:
Long story short.. this sounds way way waaaayyy better than what i expected...
The micro detail is also something to mention, it is very clear / revealing. One of the few things that my past amp is lacking (for my taste) is its bass and sub bass (the reason might be having limited tubes so it cant really elevate to its potential) .BH in the other hand, delivers a good bass and sub bass. it is tight , responsive / quick, you can feel the impact of the bass (not too much but just the right amount). I did mention to Mischa that the bass is like 'Mayweather punching me on the face multiple of times', which i muuuch prefer rather than 'Mike tyson punching me and get KO ed in the 1st round'.
Second is the volume level, while using my previous amp ive to crank it up to around 5 o clock where as using BH i can only handle up to 11 o clock max ( i usually stay at around 9 o clock).
Transformer Rolling:
i might as well mention the difference between with and without CINEMAG from my point of view... Mischa did mention that this amp is not designed to be a balance amp...so in MY CASE, what differs between XLR and RCA is MAINLY with and without CINEMAG transformer.
The funny thing is at the time of the purchase, i didnt even know the usage of CINEMAG, i just thought the word 'CINEMAG' sounds unique so i decided to let Mischa put it into the amp. After i got the amp and tried it THEN i started to realize the change in SQ with / without cinemag. ONLY after noticing the difference in SQ then i decided to search it online, so i feel that im not BIAS at all.
At first i thought it is more lively but later found out that it takes 4V and convert it to 2.2-2.4V RMS which is more than without CINEMAG 2V RMS, which means more volume i guess? After further listen I find it a little bit more natural.
Tube rolling:
Correct me if im wrong but i believe the SQ difference between tube rolling within the same tube family is not going to be that apparent becase of CCS. is it a con? not for my wallet. But some told me that the SQ difference will be more revealing if you use a different kind of tube family... for ex. using kt-88 tube (with kt-88 to 6j5 adapter) in 6j5 socket will have more changes in SQ than using 6j5 tube. ivent play around with different family type of tubes but i will definately tinker around in the future.
6sn7:
-sophia electric 6sn7
-sylvania 6sn7
verdict: its too close to differentiate, but i think sophia is a little bit harsher at the highs ever so slightly, but then again ive only used sophia for 30 hrs max so its too soon to say
6j5:
-L63 GEC (2x)
-RCA 6j5 (2x)
verdict: cant tell the difference..
One last note: the tubes above that ive tested provides a silent black background, and produce a very pleasing SQ.
Final words:
There are lots of talented people that can build a good amp BUT a person that has the ABILITY to build a magnificent amp AND offers a GOOD SERVICE like Mischa provides... is pretty rare to come by these days, im so lucky to hv known him...
Do i expect more from BLUE HALO? Honestly i expect less than this... so all in all, i can confidently say that this is the better product (out of the two amps that ive tried) in my case for my personal needs.
Conclusion:
Amp Aesthetic: 10/10
Amp SQ: 10/10
Tube rolling: 7/10
(if kt-88 to 6j5 adapter arrives 9/10 )
Service: 10/10
money: 10/10
____________ +
money: 0/10
my happiness: 10000000/10
wife's happiness: 0/10