Cryogenic Treatment of Tubes, and why you should not.

I always choose cryod when I ordered my 9000es Modwright when it still alive. No problem. The laser gave up. 

@rumblestrip Binary thinking. 

Always interesting to read confirmation bias.

kofibaffour

415 posts

07-17-2025 at 04:21pm 

it never made sense and is part of the hoodoo voodoo schtick that is so present in this space.

Yeah, anything beyond zip cord and you are out. We get it. Over and over and over......

It’s a (maybe) engineer pondering things. In parts interesting, in parts long-winded, definitely not scientifically rigorous - just pondering, which I do a lot of myself. All we can really do is decide for ourselves. I have indeed thought about the "structrual" problem, and subjecting tubes to an unecessary freezing cycle. But what do I know? I’m not a structural, materials, chemical, electrical, nor tube engineer. Tubes don’t have a virtual machine or compiler for me to get into how they work.

I’ve had cryo tubes from various sources over the years. At times I thought some of them sounded "awfully" good for that tube type/brand. So when I started regularly buying sets of 6H30 and KT120 from Upscale (every 2 years or so), I would often tick the "Cryo" option, at an extra 8 bucks a tube. Did this for several sets over the years. But then just stopped - realized I wasn’t hearing a meaningful difference versus non-cryo sets of the same tubes. Got a mix of both now in my stash. But I haven’t bought cryo in years and won’t anymore.  I won’t kick the cypos out of the stash either, but it’s just a "meh" and "cool sticker" when I think about it now. Nothing takes the "exotic" feeling out of something like repitition and familiarity. 

Cryo'd anything is a marketing scam. Ask an actual metallurgist and they'll straighten it out for you.