Herbies tube dampers

Not a fan of damping tubes as it flattens the sound. Try listening with and without. Probably best not to damp power tubes due to the heat.

@noromance   Herbies does make them for power tubes 1000* degrees. 

@tattooedtrackman There's no stopping Herbie. 

@noromance  Nope. 👍😂

Let me start by saying I am a strong supporter of Herbie’s Audio Lab products. All that I have purchased deliver as promised and without insane pricing. And now, the one related exception. I have not had good success with their small signal tube dampers, having tried them on several occasions with ARC products. They DO seem to somewhat take the life/sparkle out of the tube in use. One hundred percent of the time it’s been back to the tube dampers supplied by ARC. I have not tried them on other preamplifier brands or on output tubes in any amplifier.

@tubegb wow. That’s unbelievable that u had bad experiences with the on the signal tubes of all Audio Research.  What were the ones u had success with ? 

@tattooedtrackman

After trying them several times they went into storage, where they still reside. As mentioned, no positive examples in this case to report. They're well made, etc. but are just not as effective versus the stock ARC dampers. Just one person's experience...

@tubegb   Thanks. My Herbies are coming today in the mail. I’ll have my review on them in this post in about a week or so. 

Interesting, I have had Herbies tube dampers on my input tubes for years. But based on this thread, I just removed them, and I think, there is a little more sonic life in the music without them.

ozzy

@ozzy,

agreed. In my experience (I tried Duende Criatura, EAT and several others whose names I forgot) anything that touches the tube around its glass bottle ultimately dulls the sound. Two tweaks that seem to work: Mad Scientist Audio Tube Toppers and putting a 1/4in ball of Bluetack on the top of the tube. YMMV

antigrunge2,

Are you using both of those items at the same time?

ozzy

antigrung2,

Looks like the Mad Scientist no longer provides that product.

So, are you saying that a ball of blue tack on the end of the input tube helps? Hard to believe...

ozzy

I use the Mad Scientist toppers on my WE 435 and the blue tack on 6l6GC and 300b tubes. Bluetack has excellent damping characteristics.

Ok. So here is my review on my Herbies tube dampers. Very high and unnatural treble on most of my cds. Will be sending them back for a refund.