The Great Cryo'd Outlet Test

Zaikesman - The problem with the ice-brewed beer analogy is that the ice brewed beer was heavily promoted in the industry; this is not the case (no pun) for cryoing audio gear. I'm pretty sure cryogenic treatment of cables, records, CDs etc. will never become a fad. Interesting that you accepted on face value the distributor's story (as told by the salesman, who heard it from the "master brewers)." I can't help wondering if anyone drew a conclusion regarding ice-brewed beer based on experience? No need to answer, rhetorical Q...

Geoffkait: It was meant to be a funny story on a slimly related note, not really a perfect analogy. You read it slightly wrong though, it was the owner of the distributorship (who employed me - I was one of the salesmen) that visited the breweries periodically and was told this directly by the brewers. (Yes, there really are people with the title 'master brewer' working in breweries - had I stayed in that job longer, I would've also toured a brewery and met one. In fact, some breweries conduct public tours, but I doubt you'll get told the truth about 'ice-brewing' if you go on one.) Anyway, we were in turn told it by him, our boss. He had nothing to gain by being so honest and open about the issue with his sales force, but getting educated in beer was part of our job, and he was an intelligent, approachable guy who knew the official explanations were kind of fuzzy and that there was snickering in the ranks when the stuff was introduced, so he checked into it and gave us the straight dope. It does make more sense to me than the nebulous implications of the ice-beer ad campaigns did. Plus, my grandfather (who was still alive at the time) had been a brewing chemist at a consulting company in that industry for many years, and although he was long retired when ice-beer came out, he concurred that he could devise no scenario in his mind by which ice-brewing (as the method had been described to me, the details of which I've forgotten by now) could make any real difference. As to your question about whether ice-beer tasted different, there were confounding variables - it was not exactly the same recipe as any of the other beers. Which I'm sure was done deliberately, otherwise it would have tasted just like another beer, so it was really just a creative excuse to come out with a different beer with a different marketing angle. (And about whether cryo in high end audio is officially a 'fad' at this point, I don't know that we can define that one either, but I see elements of faddish behavior surrounding it, just like a lot of things in this hobby.)

Anyway, I just finished up installing the Porter Port and am playing the music I listened to last yesterday, Wayne Shorter's "Juju" (RVG ed. Blue Note CD) and Lorraine Ellison's "Stay With Me" (Warner Bros. W7 green label LP)*. Do I hear any differences? Who the hell knows? It's been almost 24 hours and I don't even know what my volume settings from yesterday were. But overall my system sounds about the same, maybe just a tad worse (could be nothing, could be anything, but it's true that the system, after being unplugged while I worked, probably isn't in the same state of warm-up as it was yesterday). This despite that I also polished the contacts of my wall plug and removed the 3-prong adaptor in addition to installing the new outlet and restripping and polishing new bare wire ends inside the box**. Of course the only thing this 'proves' is that I can't detect an overwhelming difference, not that I couldn't hear any improvement at all under different circumstances. But it sure sounds a lot like no improvement at all (does this support the supposed break-in requirement?). We'll see if I suspect any differently over the next few days...

*If you're a fan of Aretha Franklin's late-60's Atlantic work, don't pass up this little-known Jerry Ragavoy-produced gem from the same era should you ever stumble across it (or a reissue). The once-legendary but now almost forgotten title single (not the Faces tune by the same name) has an epic intensity to surpass Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High" and a more magnificent pathos than "Layla".

**What represents an acceptable ground voltage reading across the neutral and ground terminals? I think I'm getting a little over 1v.

I may have misinterpreted your analogy a bit, I seem to recall tasting ice brewed beer once and thinking it tasted "watery" but then I'm not a conoisseur. It seems like almost everything in this hobby is debatable, even more mundane items like amps can sometimes be controversial, or at least sound quite different in different systems. Not to mention cables. Cryo treatment (and freezing) probably fits in the category of "how could this possibly do anything?" Plus there is the problem of how to make any money out of this puppydog, as initial investment for equipment is very high and prices for service must be competitive (i.e., low). Cryoing will prob. continue to be a quirk and debatable, at least for audio - doesn't even make a good conversation piece as you cannot see it.

The "ice-brewed beer" method of increasing alcohol content is an age old method, best known for Jersey Lightning. This is fermented apple cider which you put out the window in the fall so that the water freezes. Then you pour off the liquid residue, which contains a high proportion of alcohol.

Cryo is just a form of heat treatment, used to alter the physical properties of a substance, usually metal. Cryo treatment of a brass instrument like a trumpet will change its timbre, as will other forms of heat treatment. Interestingly, I am quite willing to believe that cryo treatment of vinyl recordings may affect their sonic quality. For better or worse I don't know. The vinyl flexes a good deal as the stylus traces the groove, and if the vinyl were made stiffer, or more flexible, the sound would change.

It *is* interesting how cryo never seems to be alleged to make anything sound worse, or that its promoters don't seem to find it ineffective in any area...

Speaking of there being no money in cryo, I don't know if that's true across the board, but I do want to restate for the record that not only is Albert Porter basically selling his outlets priced to just cover his costs (and maybe time, though I'm not sure he isn't essentially donating that), but he even offered for me to keep the outlet he sent me for free if I didn't hear an improvement. I paid for it anyway of course, but it should be clear to everyone that Albert is only doing this because he finds it helpful and wants to help others, not to make money. He was also eager for me to try the PP even though he must have known in advance that chances were I wouldn't report hearing a difference and might write here saying so. Were he not the stand-up guy he is, he'd probably be on this thread right now pointing out that I carry my own psychological prejudices into this audition which might well prevent me from hearing a difference no matter what improvements the outlet may make, so I'll stipulate to that again myself.

I also want mention again that Hdm previously offered to send me one of his spare outlets without charge as well, and that although I have expressed my doubts about this tweak in excruciating detail and suggested that the pro-cryo'd-outlet rhetoric has been a bit over the top, I don't think for a second that any of the A'goners here extolling it are doing so for any reason other than to share their enthusiasm with their fellow audio travelers. I may be a skeptic and have my criticisms, but I don't think this cryo business is some kind of nefarious plot, and I appreciate all those proponents who've accepted my commentary at face value and in good grace.