I've always found the cork barrel springs on my vintage 8H's and 88H's to be useful but irritatingly noisy. I recently sold a vintage Reynolds Contempora Stereophonic, and in the brief period of time that I owned it, I noticed that the Reynolds also had cork barrel springs, which provided the same amount of travel as the Conn springs (~0.75"/2cm), but unlike the Conn springs the Reynolds springs were dead quiet. I had intended to pull the springs out and have a look, but life got busy, the horn sold, and I just didn't get around to it.

Can anyone provide some insight regarding why the Reynolds springs are so much quieter than the Conn springs?

Note: 0.75" is 2 CM, not mm).

I had slide springs put in my Yamaha 682 slide. Bob Osmun used a baritone horn valve spring cut in half. Most of the time it was pretty quiet, but occasionally it would be noisy. I found that if the spring was not tight into the cork barrel it got noisy.

It could very well be that the Reynolds springs were soldered in place or otherwise fixed in (maybe jammed into a wax donut or the like).

Thanks Bruce, pre-coffee typo corrected!

Anyone out there with direct experience with the Reynolds springs?

I find that if the springs are deformed and not round, they are noisy.

Also, only the end opposite the hand slide should fit tightly to the inner tube. That is the only way to secure them into the cork barrels.