Tube dampers?

I found Herbie's Hal-O tube dampers (Teflon I think) to make a very noticeable improvement when used on the tubes (NOS 6922 Sovteks, and apparently "micro-phonic) in My SF Line 2SE. The Hal-Os dampened a low treble "tizziness" that showed up as excess brightness and/or glare. These dampers are so effective that I could actually fine tune sound-- best music quality was at 1/2 way down the tube for me. I highly recommend these dampers, and Herbie advertizes here on A'Gon if you're interested. Cheers. Craig

The Halo dampers are most definitely effective and I use
them about 75% up with ARC dampers about 25% up. I also
have used the Mapleshade brass dampers with good sonic
results, but also lost several tubes due to overheating.
I finally had to return them. There was a promise from
Mapleshade to replace a couple of the tubes, but it never
happened. Patience and persistence can definitely raise
the bar in a system.

Ditto the good things about HAL-O. Works for me.

Besides the tube damper rings, you want to add some weight to the top of each tube, some lead. There used to be a company that made hi hats I think that worked well but were expensive. You can make your own by going to a crafts store and buying some lead strips and make your own. These tweaks benefit the sound to make it more musical in every way if you system can provide enough details.

The Mapleshade Tube Anchors I used on the 12AX7s in my phono stage made it sound so good that I just installed four more (had to be custom-designed) on the 6GK5s in my Conrad Johnson Premier l4. I really like what they do and have had no overheating problems so far. The downside is that they are a bitch to install (a little too tight and you have cracked a tube - ask me how I know). And the thin copper foil grounding straps are no picnic to attach. But the pluses outweigh the minuses and the price is right, plus there is a 30-day moneyback to increase your comfort level.