Aston Microphones HALO Purple Reflection Filter and Portable Vocal Booth

Product Information

Look at the Halo and you’ll see that there’s ribs both on the inside and outside to absorb and deflect sound. None of which you get with the eyeball. When it comes to sound absorption, the sE uses foam. Unlike the Aston which uses the company’s patented type of PET felt. A materials that’s said to 1up the sound absorption that you get from traditional foam.

One being to lessen the amount of reverb/ echo that you have in your recording environment. So for instance if you’re a bedroom producer using an untreated room, then a reflection filter or isolation booth would be a wise idea. For mic mount positions heading further into the Halo the available distance from the bottom of the mic to the slotted rail can be an issue for the mic cable and XLR plug, though we found moving the mount to one side alleviated this problem for larger mics. In case anyone from Greenpeace is reading this, we’d also like to point out that the Halo on the Aston is made of recycled plastic bottles (PET), so as well as not feeling cheap it’s environmentally friendly too! The Halo is more expensive than many similar products, so it does need to trade on quality over value for money.Probably the most noticeable difference between the Aston halo and the Kaotica Eyeball is that the Aston is far more a isolation booth, whereas the eyeball is pretty much a mic cover. We like to think of it as an oversized mic windshield – you know, the type newsreaders have on their mic. Therefore, you can record a lot further away from the Aston Halo than you can the Kaotica Eyeball. The Aston with its one-off design, reinvents the concept of the mic isolation shield. Whereas the sE RFX tries its best to improve on the standard formula. Unbox the Halo and grab yourself a straight mic stand – for this mic shield you do not need a boom. Then set about screwing it into the metal attachment that you find on the bottom of the Halo. This should only be a one-man job and be sure easy, due the fact the Halo is so lightweight. Whether you choose the sE Reflection Filter or the Aston Halo, you shouldn’t be disappointed with the build quality. Both these reflection filters feel really premium and are well engineered. Although with it weighing 3x more than the sE, the Aston does feel the most sturdy. While the eyeball is effective at diffusing sound, the Aston Halo just does it better. Record the same lines into both these mic shields and you’ll soon see the difference.

Just like the Aston, the sE features a ribbed surface both on the inner and outer part of the mic shield to deflect sound. However, we’d say the dome shape of the Halo give it a huge advantage here over the flat sE.Because not only is there a lot of scepticism around mic isolation booths, but when it comes to the Halo, we’ve got to admit that we’ve got a slight crush. Well, we say slight… we’re HUGE fanboys! So as you can imagine, the thought of doing an Aston Halo review seemed to be treading awfully close to being bias. Which it kind of is, but we’ve decided to give it a go anyway, as a way of disciplining our fanaticism about this remarkable mic isolation shield. An additional side benefit is that the acoustic felt which makes up most of the sound absorption field is made from 70% recycled PET plastic, so this highly technical product is also very environmentally friendly. Our market research also revealed that many people have a hard time with getting a good performance when using other reflection filters because they are not very ‘creative-friendly’ environments. The Halo’s form, colour options and size is designed to create a more ‘organic-feeling’ space for the performer to work with.