Tube dampeners on ARC gear ... FREE TWEAK

one observation is that all or almost all other dampers have a lot of contact surface area with the glass whereas Herbies dampers have the extreme minimum contact area due to their very clever construction. As Isoclean the Japanese high end emporium states so succinctly, "be careful of over dumping."

^^^ Agreed.  I've had the experience of over dampening a number of times. It calls to mind an experiment I did with shrink wrap on my Well Tempered tone arm.  First layer - overall improvement. Second layer - no change. Third layer - a dulling of the sound. I settled on one layer and that layer remains on the tone arm to this day. 

Oregonpapa, if you have some herbies that aren’t in use, then I highly suggest that you brush the dust off of them and replace the ARC rings that are at least on the signal tubes of your pre. For me, the difference is not subtle. I do feel at first, you may think you’ve lost some of the highs as compared to the ARC rings, but I think you’ll agree, once you let the herbies settle in, that the ARC rings give a very highly tightly focused sound, but absolutely strangles the bloom of the instruments- Minimizing the full natural fleshiness of them. It may seem at first like a lower Rez, but you will actually realize after a little while, that the sound is actually more true to the real sense of the instrument. Yes, detail is very exciting to me, but it’s not everything. My stereo actually breathes now. I didn’t know just how much of the signature of my preamp was due to the elastomer rings. Yes, with the original herbies halos, the sound is somewhat slower than rings, dynamics are a teeny bit lessened, but the overall presentation is MUCH more tonally correct with more natural timbres, harmonic complexity and image sizes, smoother better defined highs, with better definition, * even if the noise floor seems ever so slightly higher. I’m in love with the new found bass weight. I may need to readjust my subwoofer...I look forward to hearing if you hear what I do. I wonder if the new top of the line herbies would be a worthwhile upgrade from my "old school"halos. The more I listen to different well known material, the more I realize just how the herbies blow the rings away.  I think they sound even better tonight than last night, after settling on the tube.  They are freaking amazing. Wow. Listening to Bon Jovi prayer 94 and it's become a religious experience. It's like a whole new song. In fact I would say. I'm actually hearing MORE resolution! I'm floored. 

I think it's worth mentioning that for larger tubes like 6SN7 and large rectifier tubes such as the coke bottle Tung Sol, a second Herbies damper placed on the base of the tube will further improve upon the first damper (which should be located on the glass portion wherever the getter is located. For bottom getters the damper should be placed on the bottom of the glass.