I purchased some cryo'd EL34 some years ago, these were hand picked SED. They were superior to my regular SED and Svetlana, cryo or hand picked meaning better spec and match, can't say which was most responsible.
Cryo Treatment: does it provide improvements in sound or longevity?
I'd be interested in hearing from audiophiles that have actually tried Cryogenic treated tubes and listened to them vs non-treated.
I would really prefer not to hear from folks from a theoretical point of view, or that have no experience.
The last time I bought a set of tubes for my amp, just for fun I got the Cryogenic treated ones. They are replacements on my Audio Research Ref 160s. My KT150s were approaching the end of life and I heard them getting hard sounding. So I switched them out. The new tubes immediately restored the amp to its beautiful normal sound. I heard no difference from Cryo... although if it was subtle... no way I would... this was no purposeful comparison. I guess I'll have to wait 3,000 hours to see if they last longer.
Just wondering if someone with good equipment and a trained ear has done listening tests (not measurements) and made a conclusion.
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I may be completely off track, but is not a Cryo'd Tube, a tube that has received a post production treatment to treat wire used for the tubes assembly, but as Copper is unsuitable within a tube, and Copper is usually the metal scientifically showing grain shape and alignment. Where the reports are that a particular shaping or grain orientation / alignment is beneficial to the signal path. It makes it difficult to see where metals used for the valves production will benefit from a Cryo' Treatment, when it comes to a electronic circuit is the consideration. Most of the metal inside a tube is nickel, which has a number of desirable properties. First, it has a high melting point. Copper, for example, would be unsuitable because it would soften and distort. Secondly, it does not absorb a lot of gas onto its surface (the technical term for this is “adsorption”). Such adsorbed gas is gradually released into the vacuum of the tube, and it is important to minimize it. An exception to the use of nickel is the heater (or filament) which is generally made of tungsten because of the high operating temperature. Additionally, Typical metals found in a tube are likely to respond well to a Cryo' Treatment if to be selected for other roles that a metal can be used. Cryo' will harden a metal which does make it have a longer usage life in another application, it does seem fair to suggest a tube being cryo' treated will have a selection of parts, that can be used for longer than the non-cryo' treated material. Probably worth mentioning the nano treatments on wires and metals are also known to have a very positive influence. The link is not quite nano treatment, but where the use of a Thermionic Valve might go in modern circuit designs ?? https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20190030489/downloads/20190030489.pdf Plenty to be familiarised with in this link. |
Cryo of tubes is hilarious, as when using the tube, it gets heated! Red hot heated! So the entire "benefit" of cryo literally evaporates when using the tube. LOL! AFAIK, cryo is most prevalent in tubes, so cast further doubt on it. The only half way reasonable argument I have heard is that cryo treatment puts stress on the tube and will cause failure of structurally bad tube due to cryo treatment. Not loosing sleep over that. Kevin sure is a great sales person. I have to give him that. |
@pindac In thinking back on my reasoning for purchasing the cryo'd tubes, one of the reasons was purported longevity. In my case there was also the benefit of being hand picked and closely matched, whatever the case last time I had these tubes checked and measured on Amplitrex AT1000 tubes measured fine, these estimated somewhere between 500-1000 hours.
I've only seen cryo treatment of tubes post production, seemed to be a thing back in early 2000's when I purchased mine, don't see that many offerings these days. |
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