Cryo'd outlet in power conditioner?

If cryo is really da bomb like you and others feel, I wonder when it will be that the first manufacturer goes to the trouble and expense of cryogenically treating every single internal part and piece of wire in a component that the treatment can be safely applied to? How about voice coils?

I'm not here to rain on anybody's cryo'ing game. As I alluded to above Maxgain, I've no doubt that for the results you perceive yourself to have gotten, this was the best bargain of your audiophile life. One thing that you should know about me, is that I treat enjoying these discussions and enjoying my system as two different things. My system will always be flawed, but hopefully the arguments I put forth here will be less so. All I'm wondering is how can you attribute with surity a large part of the difference you hear to the cryogenic treatment itself? Again, I grant you that the point tends to matter more in theory and on the page than it will in the listening room.

There is however a practical reason I even care about asking: I am definitely a good candidate for improved outlets at the very least, but knowing myself, I will feel silly getting them cryo-dipped (however inexpensively) unless I actually have a prior reason to believe that it will make my system sound better than it would have otherwise. (Hell, I'm not even sure about just the premium replacement outlet thing itself, never mind cryo'ing, but the duplex I'm using now is a 45-year-old 2-pronger with an adaptor stuck in it, so I can certainly justify doing something!) Anyway, I am open to leaps of faith as long as they're based on something reasonable, and thanks for the encouragement. :-)

I have done some research and talked to people much smarter than my self(my brother, for one, he is the guy that designed the integrated circuit chips for Motorola that made, you may have heard of it,the cell phone, possible). Cryo in my understanding changes the metal in a way that makes it more dense and more conductive. It seems to have the same effect as a single crystal in reducing the diode effect between the less dense non cryoed metal. More conductive= better flow of electrons=better performance of the circuits hooked to them!

My God you are a curmuddgen! I bet your Mom used to say to you all the time "if all those other boys jumped off a cliff, would you jump too?"

The biggest drawback I can find with cyro treating any electronic item is what seems to be the very long burn in time. I guess if I realy cared about it the same way you do I would have my old cheap 85 cent Leviton's sent out to be cry treated and then try them, but why? In reality their ARE some differences in the construction between my old stock contracrtor style outlets(which were in generally good condition, without gross signes of age) and the Hubbell's. The difference I hear is just too great for it to just be simple construction.If you have a philisophical adversion to cryo then buy the Wattgate for $150 which is said to be about as good sounding. I have heard other stock Hospital style plugs in other peoples systems do almost nothing other than give the system owner peace of mind. Why do you want to fight this so damn hard? I believe what careful listeners like Albert and other members have found and I just tagged along on their coat tails. All I know for sure is that it works! You Left brain types have it harder than us right brainers! The left brainer thing can drive me nuts sometimes. I have a fine arts degree and have been over exposed to the world of art crticism. An artist creates a work that comes from an affective state of mind. The critic comes up with alot of ivory tower, rhetoric nonsense to try to explain the asthetic and emotive intention of the artist(snotty white art babble), instead of just experiencing the beauty of the work and perhaps just enjoying it for what it is. You like music so their is a right brain aspect to your mind, go their and enjoy the beauty and quit trying to explain it. It's time to jump off the cliff with the rest of the boys!

Very sharp deduction about what my Mom used to say (may she rest in peace). Since your right brain is perceptive enough to figure that one out, do me a favor and tilt your gray matter to left for a sec, just enough to realize that cryo'ing could only increase a metal's density if it simultaneously reduced its volume ('cause it sure ain't gonna increase its mass! :-)

(Actually, that very phenomenon is certain to take place *when* the metal is immersed in the cryo-dip, since the relative lack of heat energy causes the metal to contract in volume - the constant mass therefore becoming more dense - but that condition won't persist as it warms back up to room temperature, as you can verify be the fact that your plug still fits into the unshrunken receptacle.)

Regardless though, it's not really *how* cryo'ing may work that I'm harping on (I've always considered myself to be a proponent of not letting arrogance dictate that we demand to 'explain' everything we hear, else declaring important subtleties 'imaginary' if we can't), but rather just to pause long enough to do a self-check that it *is* the cryo'ing making whatever difference we might find in this case.

Remember what I said about my enjoying the debate separately from enjoying the music. In fact, I would say it's you right brain types (and BTW, please know that I don't really buy into the right brain/left brain dichotomy deal either, and hereby reserve my perogative to be both-brained!) who actually have it harder - that is, when it comes to reveling in the forums! Thanks for playing along anyway...

Zaikesman: I have done some pretty heavy experimentation with a number of stock receptacles. I have a couple of Arrow Hart 8200's here (which have been hacked up a bit to fit properly in my line conditioner but are mechanically fine) and would be happy to send you one to experiment with. E-mail me your address if you're interested. I am no longer using these obviously, but feel that they are a pretty decent receptacle, but not as good as the Hubbell 52-53 series or 82-83 models. I am currently using the cryoed World Power 5362's, both at the wall and in my line conditioner and would not be without them. For $55, they are, in my opinion, an absolute bargain. FWIW, I was as skeptical as you and now have numerous receptacles about the house: my washer and gas dryer are running off an Arrow Hart 8200, and my refigerator, as well as downstairs freezer are running off Pass and Seymour 5262's and 5242's. In any event, I'm happy to send you the AH as I am confident that it will be better than what you have (if not, send it back to me!) and may lead you on to better things.

Regards

Blake

Kaikesman, am I to take it that you feel I'm not holding my own in the debate?

Do you want to read some info on cryo? I can direct you to some sites that may answer some of your questions and perhaps raise new ones.