Tube temperature for ARC Ref 6

tattooedtrackman, I may have mislead you some. My temp reading with an infrared thermometer was thru the top cover and not directly on the surface of the tube. So the surface temp maybe higher and I am sure it is. And my highest readings were the 6550, and also were indicative of the amount of cooling I gained. The 6550 does run a lot hotter than th 6H30, which I am sure is some of the motive to replace them at 2000 hours instead of 4000 on the 6H30.

@docknow .........  I read what you wrote about you putting Herbies Ultra Sonic tube dampers on all the tubes in your Ref 6. Did that include the 6H30 and the 6550 in the power supply? If so did you use the Hal-O 111-9 and the Hal-O - 50 because of the heat with the power supply tubes? 

On the 6550:
(5429748) UltraSonic Rx-50 Damping Instrument     $30.29 X 1 = $30.29

on the 6H30's (# for both REF6 and REF150SE)
(5429716) UltraSonic Rx-9 Damping Instrument     $27.95 X 11 = $307.45

@docknow .........  Thanks for the info...I guess if you used the UltraSonic Rx-9 for the Ref 150 and that did not need the Hal-O III for extremely hot tubes, that would be safe to say about not needing that for the Ref 6 power supply 6550 and 6H30 .... So i will order 7 UltraSonic Rx-9 dampers , 6 for the analog stage and 1 for power supply ( 6H30's) And 1 UltraSonic Rx-50 for the 6550 power supply. I was concerned about the power supply tubes and NOT using the Hal-O III for extremely hot tubes and having UltraSonic Rx - 50 and Rx - 9 melt . 

Hi folkfreak: Ask Ron at Marigo Audio to let you audition some of his 3mm white dots underneath the smaller tubes of your preamp. That's what I've been using.