Tube dampeners on ARC gear ... FREE TWEAK

^^^ Mapman ...

Those Herbies dampeners look interesting.  

Warren Gehl at ARC suggested that the two rings be pressed together and placed about 1/8th inch from the top of the tubes. No gap between the rings. It made a big overall improvement in my ARC electronics ... not subtle at all. 

Oregonpapa wrote,

"geoffkait ...

If the stock tube rings from ARC "suck," why is there such an improvement with them in the proper placement, and why the degradation of the sound when they are totally removed from the tubes?"

I was was referring to generic elastomer rings, never tried the ARC tube rings. I guess they're what you call an exception. There's an exception to every rule.  ;-)

Revisiting this "tweak",
I decided to go back in to my preamp and do some experimentation with dampers and pulled off the ARC elastomer rings, and replaced them with some original herbies teflon halo's that  I had in a baggie, in the audio"junk drawer". I placed them in the same spot, (high up as the stock ARC rings were as suggested by oregonpapa). To my surprise, they did in fact bring a sweeter sound, and brought a greater sense of bloom to the instruments, without adding any muddiness.  

The ARC rings sound constricted by comparison and almost give, dare I say "nervous" kind of presentation. The herbies brought a very relaxed sound, with an added sense of ease and weight to the sound. I believe the rings have something to do with the ARC gear having that solid state kind of presentation.  I also feel like the Highes are cleaner and less bright than before.

 Now mind you, these are the original halos, and not the current top of the line herbies dampers.  I'm impressed so far. I will leave them in for a while and listen to more material to really see what they are doing.  I do like the increase in bloom for sure. I think the rings constrict the bloom IMHO.  

Audiolover718 wrote,

"The ARC rings sound constricted by comparison and almost give, dare I say "nervous" kind of presentation. The herbies brought a very relaxed sound, with an added sense of ease and weight to the sound. I believe the rings have something to do with the ARC gear having that solid state kind of presentation. I also feel like the Highes are cleaner and less bright than before."

That's my experience with all of the elastomer rings I have tried as well as ALL other types of tube dampers with the notable exception of Herbies dampers. I also started with the original Herbies Halo dampers and have had the latest version as well. In fact, removing the elastomer rings and using no tube dampers at provided a more open sound. Could this whole thing be an example of expectation bias?

cheers