In the past, most tube dampers added an abundance of "coloration" to the music or altered some areas of frequency response; if your tubes didn't suffer terribly, it was best to leave them alone. However, we have never heard a tube component that did not suffer from the effects, to some detrimental degree, of microphonic distortion.If you have a great-sounding tube component and don't perceive any microphonic "issues," you would probably be surprised after placing damping instruments on the tubes. With a sudden increase in musical clarity, you would realize you had been listening to some amount of "grunge" and distortion all along. You'll find there is much more "music" in the music.