Tubes - Top hats, and Tube socks

For me the best bang for the buck is Audio Research tube rings. Less hastle,only 5 bucks ea.and easy to apply.

I have tube socks, top hats, and tube rings. They all work, but the top hats are the best. Also the most expensive. Hard to tell the difference between the socks and the rings. The rings are by far the most cost effective. But hey! This is high-end audio. Who cares about money! I just ordered some of the brass tube dampers from Andy at Vintage for my 6SN7s. Hope they work as good as the top hats for octal tubes.

Glreno--knowing Andy, and having seen them, I think they may be better.

Top hats are very effective, but that does not mean it will sound better. In preamp tubes a smidge of microphony can lead to a sense of "air" and with dampers the midband can harden up. So try it both ways as every tube and every situation is different. Don't assume anything. We go naked here.

Thanks for the input. Are there multiple types of top hats or only one for each tube size/type?