NAD - Hafler T3 Preamp w/ Pod HD Pro

pics first...


Had to get creative with my power conditioner to fit the preamp in my rack. I put it on the backside. It's a little crowded but works well!


I saw this Hafler T3 on CL, had never heard of it. Checked it out on Youtube and it sounded great so I went and picked it up. Put it in my Pod's FX loop to use as another "model". It sounds excellent! First time I have heard a preamp in the loop sound better than the models. Really adds some girth, harmonics, and smoothness kinda missing from the preamp models (which I thought were great anyway). I still have to test at a gig or practice, but so far it seems like this is really going sound great and be a major part of my tone. Will use for main Rhythm and Lead patches, then use the models for cleans and other FX types patches.

 

UPDATE: Played my first gig with this preamp last night. I'm stoked about this thing - My tone has more body to it and is just generally fatter, even while being tighter on my boosted patches for the heavier tunes and sounding more defined. I enjoyed my tone before using the pod pre-amp models - this is just better.

The cool thing is, 4CM with the Pod HD worked great. Whatever tone suckage is going on i've chosen to ignore and the tone is great so i'm not complaining. My levels were great and didn't have any issues.

I had to get a mini amp gizmo to get the Hafler to switch channels properly, since the pod's midi messages per patch cannot be edited (they are fixed 0-63) nor the hafler's patch numbers, but with amp gizmo it all switches from my FBV, all patch based. So with this setup it's all tube solution (aside from D/A A/D) with full pre and post FX capabilities that can be controlled via patches - or punch in models as needed - basically what i've been wanting to do forever without breaking the bank.

Now that i know it works well, can consider plugging in other preamps later....