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 1 response by sns

I've been through much tube equipment over the years, in probably 90% of cases no damper preferred. The other 10%, only Herbie's high temp dampers, the ones with metal ring and tiny little o rings wrapped around a white colored plastic piece, work for me. The small contact area of these sometimes provides just the right amount control over a bit of sibilance or glare.