Guidostrunk
Headphoneus Supremus
Appreciate the response. Made my decision easy. 50 seems fair. Just purchased a pair after reading your post. Cheers!
Yes, they're good. Yes, lots of people use them. Are they worth $50 for a pair? Only you can answer that for yourself. If that seems expensive, you could always try the cheaper ones available on eBay. I haven't, so I can't comment. I just sucked it up, trusted the Head-Fiers who recommended the Tubemongers you picture, and haven't looked back. I can say from experience, that Tubemonger stands behind their product 100%. When I thought I had a problem with one, they immediately offered a replacement pair, as they wanted to see what was wrong with it/them. Later, I isolated the problem to an interconnect, but they responded extremely quickly and positively. If that matters to you.
To the other question, yes, they are indeed "socket savers." If you roll a lot, they protect the sockets built into your amp. With the Lyr they have the added bonus of raising up the tubes to make it so much easier to swap tubes. A simple popsicle stick or tongue depressor (something not metal, at the very least) to hold them in place while removing the tubes is about the only caveat for using them. If you don't do that, you'll find that removing most tubes will bring the socket saver up with them, thus defeating its purpose.
HTH.