Why "Cryo" anything?

No disrespect Fishboat, but dropping items into N2 does not constitute "cryo treating" and I doubt if you'd be taking anyone's money after doing it with any audiophile gear/paraphanalia as you'd probably be destroying it. Proper cryo does require some fairly substantial equipment, but that does not mean that cryo needs to be expensive; it is not. I've probably spent a few hundred dollars having items cryoed; given the money I have invested in music and my very modest system (it is indeed very modest compared to many members' systems here), that is what I would consider to be a very small amount of financial outlay for a pretty decent improvement in sonics.

Advocates of cryo will say that it will change (and that change will remain following return to room temperature) the
crystal structure of metals, and both cabling and receptacles, for example, measure with lower resistance following cryo treatment (and without any heat treatment I might add). Whether this will result in improved sound quality is open for argument I suppose.

Whether Lak's terminology above on "melting" is correct, I cannot say, but he is correct about MOV's, although certain MOV's may be more prone to damage than others in my experience. I cryoed two identical line conditioners with MOV's that had different manufacturing dates and slightly different MOV's; one set of MOV's had significant damage (although that damage did not seem to hamper the performance of the conditioner) while the other had no such damage.

I can say that, in my experience, every piece of cabling that I have done, as well as CD's, has been a positive experience. I have also cryoed two budget DVD players, one that benefited greatly (Cyberhome) and one that did not (Toshiba) seem to benefit. Someone else, whose opinion I respect, also cryoed the boards out of the Toshiba, as opposed to the entire player which I had done, and reported to me that he preferred the non-cryoed boards in the Toshiba.

Eric: "Biased" or not, that's my opinion based on my experience. If you want the opposite side of the argument, I at least pointed out one example within my experience where cryo did not seem to have a benefit, and one where there was some damage. Then again, this is a cryo thread, which inevitably breaks down along the lines of those who have experience and seem to like what it does and those who have no experience and can't seem to believe that it will work.

To be fair, there are also those with experience who either hear no difference, or hear a negative difference with respect to cryo, but if you review the threads on this subject here or at Audioasylum, that view is represented by an extreme minority of those with experience. You can draw your own conclusions.

With respect to the resistance issue, I am aware of
no such link. Once again, it is simply my experience that I refer to. With respect to both cabling and receptacles that I have had cryoed, I have seen both items (the actual ones I have had cryoed) measured for resistance before and after treatment. The cryoed item has offered lower resistance in every case. Does this result in better sound? Who knows?

None of the items I've had cryoed have been heat treated, nor could they be without damage or destruction. The benefits of cryo have absolutely nothing to do with heat treating (once again, in my experience). Sorry, but that's the extent of science with respect to my opinion on cryo. I've used the process, listened for differences and heard them. Seems to me (not that I'm into science to explain everything because I am definitely not) that that's a bit more scientific than saying that there is nothing here that science can explain without trying it, but that's my bias if you want to call it that. There are many audiophile tweaks that I haven't or won't try because I am too much of a skeptic, but I don't really feel comfortable dismissing them with absolutely no experience with them. It's always ironic to me that most of those using the science cloak in these arguments won't embrace science by getting down to science basics and doing a little bit of experimentation.

I can't help but be amused here. Take a look at what we have: someone posing a question with absolutely zero experience with cryo now answering questions relating to its efficacy, reversability, etc. etc. It is precisely this kind of interaction on these boards which should be taken with an absolutely huge grain of salt.

I make no claims of universal or all knowing educational knowledge. Frankly, I doubt if there is any concrete answer to question 1) or 2) above as there are probably no audiophiles out there who have done the kind of research necessary to anwser those questions, and I really doubt if there ever will be. Question 3) I honestly don't know. Question 4) My personal opinion is that, in most cases, (say 90% of what I've cryoed) following re-breaking in of the wire/component, yes, the improvements are across the board and positive. Inevitably, there will be those that dismiss my view of re-breaking in as ridiculous; I can only say that in almost all cases (approximately 90% as listed above), the cryoed wire/component exhibits lots of positives (ie. increased transparency, detail, easier to follow bass, etc.) following treatment but also has a tendency towards some thinness and stridency which disappears and is replaced by a much smoother and less fatiguing presentation following some extended (in my exerience about 15-30 days) use. Your point (a) in #5, Lost in Space, is very well taken. I am with you 100% that judgements on these issues should be rendered only by those that are absolutely familiar on a long term basis with both the components and the recordings that they are listening to. I think it would be simply too difficulty to make a judgement with respect to whether the change was positve or negative without that familiarity. And even with that familiarity, it is not easy. I have been doing recent (further) comparisons with cryoed receptacles and my conclusions are not totally at odds with audiophiles who prefer one component with better quality recordings and one with recordings that are less than first rate. Ultimately I think any system should be optomised for top quality recordings, but I can certainly respect those that choose the opposite view in light of the poor quality of much of the software we have to listen to.

This is a complicated issue, but one that someone can delve into relatively inexpensively if they choose to. My suggestion is to cryo something (probably wire) in your system that you feel you can scrap if necessary and see how you make out. That's the way I started out.