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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.
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Showing 1 response by oldhvymec

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oldhvymec
5,101 posts
 
The best are not at all. I've tried those thing 10 times AT least. Buddies bring them over and it just KILLS the valve. For ME..

We used every material we could think of from BR, silicone, teflon backed, a silicone bead. I went through every O-Ring box on 5 service trucks, Thousands of O-Rings from different manufactures. 

Big ZERO for me..

I use a lot of Telefunken small valves It just kills that valve. Where I use a Mullard type valve same thing.. NO dampeners..

They aren't getting close to the power valves, 6V6, 6L6, EL34s, 6550s or KT88. It's like taking a shower with a rain coat on..

Regards
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