Why "Cryo" anything?

Naturally, everyone is free to believe what they wish, but some of the sheep shearing I see in this hobby sets new highs in lows. I just took a break from working on my sailboat. If sailors bought into & embraced as much hokum as some audiophiles there would be a lot more lives lost at sea. I offer the following to bring a little truth & direct experience to the discussion.

"Adhesives will melt when cryogenically treated."

Not true. Nothing melts when it gets colder. At least not as long as the universe keep expanding. If/when the universe stops expanding & begins to collapse...then things might melt when they get cold...but that isn't likely to happen for a few billion years yet. Chances are excellent we'll have exterminated oursleves by that time.

No disrespect to Lak intended here..

"FROM JENA LABS"

This dribble from Jena is pure marketing hokum. They use a lot of technical jargon that sounds impressive, but actually says nothing.

"...In the liquid state as we use it, the LN2 is actually much colder than this temperature."

Absolute nonsense. They couldn't afford the science that gets liquid N2 colder.

"Exposing metallic objects to this extreme cold causes beneficial molecular changes to occur..... "

Pure fiction. The molecules don't exist...thus no changes can occur. I'm sure many of you have kids...ask one of them that has had even the most basic chemistry or physics courses.

"Working with LN2 requires very specialized and expensive equipment, and extreme care in process. It is very dangerous, as the cold is so severe that it can result in severe injury from accidental exposure to the liquid.... We feel strongly enough about the musical merits of the treatment, that we gladly make the investment in the equipment, the time, and the safety procedures needed to make the benefits available to our customers."

More marketing dribble. Handling liquid N2 in small quantities requires (typically) a 400# insulated low pressure tank that you dispense out of. From this tank you vent it through a stainless hose into a vacuum bottle (like a Coleman glass-vacuum thermos bottle). From this bottle you can pour it like water into any vessel or equipment you like. Yes it's cold & you have to be careful, but it certainly isn't any more dangerous to handle than many common tasks you do around the house everyday...like cooking & draining pasta. Jena includes this in their marketing hype so that you feel better about paying a healthy price for their 'service'.

Given my familiarity with handling N2 I supposed I could make a few bucks 'cryo treating' various items for folks...but I don't think I could live with myself after taking their money.

Back to reality & working on the boat. :-)

LOL! Very nice. :)

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.

.
Fishboat,
.
You have just ranted based on your ignorance. Cryo treatments absolutely do great things sonically for many (not all) audio pieces (results based on double blind studies).
.
Cryo treatment can destroy some materials like silicon and super glue.
.
Rgds,
Larry
.

Cello,
Can you point out the double blind studies that shows statistically benefit sonically?

HDM,
When you say that "cryo" treatment consistently shows an improvement, that's actually a worrisome statement to me. That usually shows a rather biased opinion.

Can you point out the link that shows the resistance measurement that says the resistance is lowered after treatment? That would be an interesting read.

Lugnut,
Engine block consitently operates at fairly high temperature and come back down. It does not surprise me that Cryo can do something but it has more to do with the heat and cryo cycle treatment.

All,
In order for change to occur in the micro-structure of a metal, you will need some kind of heat treament. Simply cryo will not do it.

If "cryo" and then some mechanical treament, physical change can take place but that is all macro-structure. That means break or crack the material when it's very brittle at low temperature.

Once again, none of the evidence offered up so far means very much to me. I was looking for someone to come up with a better scientific answer other than "I heard it; therefore, it's better".

Eric