Cryogenic Tempering

I would be pretty surprised if cryogenics didn't do anything. I forgot the name, but there is, or at least was, a company that offers this service to the public. They freeze engine blocks, brass instruments, etc. for around $50 depending on the size of the piece. I know first hand that cryogenic bass strings sound good, and last a very long time. The cryogenic technology involves freezing atoms, so they oscillate as little as possible. This reduces the space around them, so they are packed really close. The secret is to thaw them really slowly, so they distributed back out in to space evenly. This even distribution is the cause of the benefits associated with whatever your freezing. Dry ice is very crude approach, but definately worth a try. Just let the cable or whatever take a day or two to thaw.

I am a believer in Cryo, having done this to cables, phono cartridge and the power supply of my Soundlab U-1's. I think that the excellent suggestion by Sugarbrie would be an inexpensive way to find out on your own piece of gear. Just keep in mind, at least from my experience, the break in process is reversed as well, requiring a whole new run in to hear the benefit of the cryo process. The larger the piece the longer time is required. I nearly went nuts waiting for the transformers in my Soundlab power supplies to settle in. I estimate it was nearly 3 months before the cryo job settled in to be better than before the process. So, please be patient about conclusions.

In one of my other hobbies, shooting, everyone who wins long range (1000 yards) competitions is using a cryo treated barrel.

albertporter: when cryogenically treating a phono cartridge do you remove the body? does it make a difference of what the body is made? what was the sonic effect on the cartridge? TIA. -kelly

Kelly, the cartridge I got treated was done by a guy in Chicago ( I usually use Purist Audio ) who specializes in very small delicate pieces. The cartridge was a Benz Ruby 2, supplied by Musical Surroundings as an experiment. I do the photography for them, and we both entered into this to learn. The Benz was treated within it's original box, with the wood body left on. The idea was to reduce the shock to the rubber and glued parts and protect the delicate stylus. When I got it back and began to break it in, it took almost twice as long to get where it sounded right. There was an obvious change, and no doubt about the improvement. Most noticeable was in the transient response, the entire range of the cartridge from top to bottom and the speed with which it plumed the music was obvious. There was a completely relaxed and liquid character to the instruments, without any change to their position or to the image. The uppermost frequencies were greatly extended and increased in detail, but without the brightness that you might associate with this type of high frequency information. The only "downside" was in set up. It required even more obsessive attention to tracking and especially VTA. Missing the mark with all the additional information was brutal.