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Tube dampener questions

I bought some tube dampeners and on when I put them on the tubes on the amp and DAC it seemed to suck the life out of the sound so I removed them.

Doing some tube rolling and while the new tubes sounded good the vocals were disconnected somehow.  They seemed to distort during dynamics so I put a dampener on the input tube and it seemed to help at the cost of a little bit of life.

What is the correct way to use tube dampeners?
As vibration control are they like a guitar string and where they rest on the tube changes the frequency of the vibration?

Several burns later I think I got it right but I'm sure someone out there knows how to do this correctly.
128x128danager

Showing 2 responses by danager

danager's avatar
danager OP
882 posts
 
sgordon1 

I couldn't stand it.  I'll defiantly keep that in mind and remove the dampener after a couple of hundred and give it listen.  I really hope beyond hope it's just a burn in issue because everything except voice was spot on but I'm a vocals guy and it was really irritating.
I'm listening now with the dampener about 1/3 way down the tube and I can live with it so I'll give it some time.
Thanks
danager's avatar
danager OP
882 posts
 
Thank you everybody.  In my mind adjusting the silicon ring up and down the tube made me feel like I heard less distortion on the vocals as they transitioned from soft to loud and finally ended up with a thinner ring on the top quarter of the tube and it sounded pretty good to my ears.
I then purchased a 1960s d getter tube input/driver tube and the tube dampener became a moot point.  The new tube sounded better and I don't feel the need to apply a dampener.  Was I really hearing microphonics?  I don't know but that tube is back in the drawer.
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