Herbie's Hal-O tube dampener's on Calypso?

didn't mean to read you a lecture...

Audphile1: No problem....your comment was right on. I just wanted to assure you that with a very light touch with the eraser end of a pencil, I found the two culprits immediately. I can now crank up the music and not hear the one tube in the Io singing on its own. And now I can't believe how quiet things are when I adjust the volume on the Callisto. Just about ready for JD and Lucinda to come back for more fun.
John

That's cool John. By the way, back to Herbie's hal-O damping instruments. I experimented with them in my pre-amp and found them to work best(improvement is most noticable) when they are installed at the very top of the tube. Installing them in the middle of the tube and things start sounding sterile. Towards the bottom of the tube the pre-amp sounds a little better than with hal-o rings in the middle of the tube but still not as good as it sounds when the Hal-O rings are installed at the top of the tube. How was your experience?

Unfortunately, I just haven't had much time to sit down for critical listening under what I consider "proper" conditions. That's not to say that I haven't done any listening. With that being said, I haven't noticed any detrimental effects of the Hal-O's that have made me want to pull them off the pre. I installed them all the way at the top of the tubes and perhaps I will play with placement a bit in the coming weeks. I don't listen to music during the week, so hopefully I will get plenty of hi-fi time this coming weekend...

I have to agree with Jafox on this one, it's worth trying the inexpensive solution first. I got 50 industrial grade silicone o-rings from here:

http://www.marcorubber.com/material_selection.htm

for $10 plus shipping. I have a preamp with all octal tubes, so the S1000-216 o-rings were the perfect size. I use 2 per tube, and they make a noticeable difference in microphonics and smoothing out the bass, which is a little woolly without them. Would Herbie's or one of the other far more expensive dampers be better? Maybe, but I'm not sure my rig has enough resolution to prove it. I'm happy with my cheap o-rings.

Plus, you can get them in about 10 different colors to match your decor. :-)