Best tube dampers that you have used

The king of the meat family for damping tubes of course is Hormel Spam, rolled into little rings, not too hard, not too soft. Just right. And the best part is when the meat is nice and done it makes a great Scooby snack.

I have tried  pearl coolers, and ARC silicon rings on both power and small signal tubes. I always end up removing them after listening for a short while. They seem to kill the life and musicality of my tube equipment. Never tried Herbies, as they are not cheap. They seem to get good comments around the web, so maybe they would work better. I would not use them unless I had some microphonics from the tube gear that I could not deal with. I am happy with the sound I am currently achieving in my room, so I won't F with a good thing. I have  also found the same life robbing effect when  using spike feet on my amps or preamp, crossover, etc. Think spongy rubber feet on my amps make an improvement, spikes are detremental. Spikes do improve my speakers though.

mg16
I would not use them unless I had some microphonics from the tube gear that I could not deal with. I am happy with the sound I am currently achieving in my room, so I won’t F with a good thing.

>>>The interesting thing about the Herbies dampers is they only barely touch the tube glass at all, just enough, the way they’re designed. The other interesting thing is they work even on tubes advertised as very low microphonic. I.e., all tubes are microphonic to some degree. All that’s required is knowing where the getter is.

I have tried  pearl coolers, and ARC silicon rings on both power and small signal tubes. I always end up removing them after listening for a short while. They seem to kill the life and musicality of my tube equipment.

This says to me you like a little microphonics going on that's alright too.
To test your tubes for microphonics , turn the volume to where you normal have it and just tap each tube with the back of your finger nail, with someone listening at each speaker, you'll find the one/s that "doinks"

Cheers George

After 15 years of faithful service from my Audible Illusions pre, I decided it was past time to change out the original tubes. Each Amperex 6DJ8 tube had a heavy band of some type of dark charcoal putty (approx 3/8" wide x 1/8" thick) around the middle of ea tube. As I bought the amp from my dealer as a demo unit, I’m not sure if the putty was put on the original tubes by the dealer or was put on by the manufacture. I cleaned the putty off of the tubes, intending to put it back around the new tubes, but never did. After a couple of hours of warm up, the new Amperex tubes sounded very good (no doubt restoring a little of the luster lost from 15 years of hard use on the old tubes) so I guess I never felt the need to go back and add the putty.
After another 10 years on the replacement Amperex tubes, I recently installed a set of Electro-Harmonix, but not sure if I like them quite as much as the Amperex. Some day I may get the urge to experiment with the putty, or other dampening products, on them and see if it makes a difference.....Jim