Name that tube…
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Flux Capacitor? No
Dilithium Crystal? No
Wait, I’ll get it . . .
I Christen thee “Billy-Bob” (smashing a vial of Muscatel into the tube)
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The Russian Nesting doll. 
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My friends. I can definitely recommend Loctal driver tubes from Sylvania. These 7N7 tubes are built tough and were meant to be used military signal equipment upside down. You don’t need dampeners on these bad boys.
Excellent tubes. Highly recommended for people who like a lot of detail with fast-clean highs. This is not a sluggish or extremely warm tube where by the bass is presented as super thick. The 7N7 are very balanced.
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Okay, I’m officially tempted to try those tube dampers. Which model of Herbie’s are you coming from and are these like in realms of an interconnect or power cord upgrade? Do these affect bloom/fullness of sound? I have really basic stock dampers and found while they improve technical aspects it affects tube bloom, which I find good for some headphones not so much others.
I have the HALO III dampers and also some Ultrasonic RX (just because they were out of the HALO IIIs in a size I needed)
Yes. I would put the Herbie’s dampers at below both analogue interconnect and power cable in terms of amount of improvement, but the Mapleshades, I would put above analogue interconnect and probably tied with power cable for biggest non-component change in my system. I seriously couldn’t believe it.
Yes. Big reduction in bloom. If you want tube bloom, do not buy these. I do not want any tube bloom whatsoever, which is why I love them. There are very real technical tradeoffs between tubes and solid state (each is objectively better at some things), and while some people like some of the sonic characteristics of tubes’ imperfections, I generally do not. I want all the good stuff, and do everything I can to minimize the artifacts. These dampers go a long way for that.
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Update here. I got new dampers in and grounded them and… didn’t notice any difference. So, at least in my system, it doesn’t seem like the grounding really matters. YMMV, of course.
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Thank you, very helpful. Will probably pass on these then. I saw in another thread you got some isolation footers/platforms too, do those affect tube bloom?
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I’d put vibration isolation pretty much dead last on my list of tweaks. I do notice a difference, but it’s the smallest of all of my upgrades (but also relatively inexpensive). I don’t think it would make a big difference for tube bloom, but I certainly haven’t listened for this specific difference with the feet. They generally just add a bit of calmness and naturalness to the sound while slightly improving the blackness of background - but very slightly.
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That is a great photo. Makes me wanna fire up my tube amp and be left alone. 
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Thanks! The 5998 glow never fails to disappoint. I love being able to see the heaters between the domino plates. There’s nothing as cozy as kicking back with ZMF’s with the glow and heat of tubes in a dimly lit room, especially as the colder season sets in. Reminds me of the feeling of reading a novel while sitting in-front of a fireplace. The German’s have a word that better describes the feeling I think: gemütlich.
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Nice! Glad you picked this up. I’ll be interested to see your thoughts.
Is that a stock input tube? So bright lol.
Congrats to Chris on getting it sold.
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Well, the first time I fired the Stellaris up, my Elrog 5U4G failed. I figured it would take a while to get a warranty replacement, so I thought I’d give this a shot in the interim.
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Noooo! That sucks!
Are they taking care of you? They told me they weren’t making them anymore so I guess it’s easier to fix than a replacement. Maybe they can’t fix it so they have to replace it?
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I had to deal with Elrog directly and ship it to Germany. After inspection, I was told I’d get a replacement.
Apparently they don’t play well with the warm up procedure of a WA-33 according to Elrog.
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Awesome, I’m glad you’ll get it replaced.
Yeah I’ve heard the same about the WA33 and Elrog 5U4G pairing. So you think it was more the Woo and not so much the DNA? That’s good to know.
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