Mapleshade brass tubedampers

I have read that metal dampers can actually cause tubes to retain too much heat. I've had good luck with Herbie's Hal-o dampers, which are cheap and not dangerous to your tubes' life expectancies (either temperature-wise or hardness-wise).

Which reminds me, one of my get round to its was to order some high temp o-rings (tube dampers without the audiophile mark up) from McMaster-Carr. Anybody gone to the trouble to figure out what size o-ring to buy for the common tube types?

Tried 'em, broke a tube right off the bat, boxed 'em back up and returned 'em.
Have kept the Herbie's Hal-O's and highly recommend them. They seem to remove just a tad of grain or noise from the sound.
You mileage may vary, but I like them!

I guess I was lucky, I got the mapleshade on and later off with no ill effect... but it is kind of a kluge with the grounding strap etc

since then I have learned (through reading the commentary of my learned compatriots here and inmates at the asylum) that a touch of microphonics is actually what contributes to the illusion of "air". in other words, too much damping is maybe a bad thing.

i have also proved to my own satisfaction that the only way to fix a truly microphonic tube is to replace it with another one...

I have had good luck with Herbies - the tube dampers and lots of other stuff - mostly I can't hear a thing but I figure its all cumulative and indeed I am sometimes thrilled by the way my system sounds

Like much of Mapleshade's products they are not for klutzes (read normal people). For those of us who are a bit more handy, I find the tube anchors to be the best I've tried and do make the sound better, lowering noise floor, removing congestion, tightening bass and revealing more tranparancy. Unlike most, they also act as grounded shields, if you choose to use the straps, contributing to the above.