Cryo-treating CDs?

Guitarplayer, Charles did my Sonoran cables and the pvc lining inside that coats the wire was shattered and the microbearing steel that shields the entire cable was in contact with the copper wire inside. As a result the entire soundstage collapsed. In addition to that, the nylon sheathing on the outside of the cable cracked and the microbearing leaked out. So I lost a 7M XLR interconnect that cost me $1300 and 10Ft. speaker cables that cost me $860. This happened on all my Sonoran power cords too at a cost of around $325 each. I lost over $2000 of wire and power cords and I am not real happy about this. Charles should have advised me on the risks of the nylon sheathing and many other issues. My VAC power supplies for a pair of monoblock amplifiers had to be sent back to VAC too as they started to hum. Again, Charles said he had done many power supplies and none had trouble. Mine got noisy. I don't think they are ruined because I used them for a month afterwards with no problems, but Kevin Hayes thinks some of the caps could be damaged and he is looking at them. My Tice powerblock plastic casing split and the adhesive holding the mounts inside melted and the power supply hums more now than it did before. I dipped it because I was told that it would help the hum. So I am a believer in the CD's, but cabling and other stuff, I would be very careful. Wire is best treated before it is made into the finished product. I hope that helps.

Hifimaniac--Interesting. I have never had any type of jacketing or sleeving crack. When problems like this occur, it is generally accepted that it is due to "thermal shock". Thermal shock can occur if an object is cooled too quickly. Audio cabling and the like must be ramped down very slowly, much slower than metal tooling and the like. Thermal shock is why cryo took a long time to be, "perfected" if you will, due to objects being stuck directly into the LN2 and things becoming brittle, exactly the opposite of what cryo should do. Even metal tooling can become brittle if cooled too quickly.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Losing that much cabling hurts, and I'm not the one who lost the money.

As far as the case cracking on your gear, that's actually quite common. I don't recommend that entire components be treated due to the plastic that inhabits many components will flex and break upon encountering super cold temperatures. The other reason I don't recommend cryo-treating entire components is that IMHO, electrolytic caps should never be cryo'd. That is probably what is wrong with your VAC's. I would have Kevin replace any 'lytic caps, just in case...The transformers should be fine, as cryo generally does quiet them down. Does the Tice have any 'lytic caps in it? If so, try replacing them and it may quiet down.

Advice: If any of you feel they must have their cd player, or whatever component, cryo'd, please find a place that has a great deal of experience treating audio gear and uses a dry process. Take your faceplate off and slightly loosen any screws that go into plastic. However, IMHO, don't risk it.

Good night everyone. The Academy Awards are over and I'm going to bed!

I feel for you Hifimaniac. Hopefully everything will come out okay on the VAC's.

Guitarplayer, Kevin says the eltrolytic caps look okay, but I a taking your advice as they could fail at any time. I have requested a quote to replace them all to make sure they are at peak performance. Thanks for the tip as my units are there now.

Hifimaniac: Sorry to hear of your problems. I've cryoed a fair bit of cabling (Kimber 8TC speaker, 2 Cardas Golden power cords, 3 DIY JPS cords, another DIY cord made from 47 Labs OTA, interconnects made from 47 Labs OTA terminated with Eichmann bullet plugs, SVHS cables and component video cables) and had absolutely no problem. I am only speculating, but am guessing there was something wrong with the cryo cycle your cables went through. I've also cryoed two DVD players and two power conditioners (both Inouye SLC's). Both DVD players (a Toshiba and a Cyberhome) came through perfectly, although I do have a stress crack on the faceplate of the Cyberhome which may have been caused by me overtightening screws when I got the unit back. I cryoed one line conditioner first to see how it would take the process and it came through perfectly. The 2nd had some fairly serious cracking on MOV's within the unit, which I was initially very nervous about. The damage to the MOV's, however, seems to have had no detrimental effect on the conditioner. Interestingly, the two conditioners were manufactured at different times (I acquired them used for a song) and the MOV's were, in fact, different, which may explain why the cracking occurred on the 2nd unit and not the first. My cryo vendor offered to compensate for repair of the unit, but I declined as it seems to work fine and I really don't have much invested in it. With the damage sustained to your cables, I would think that the cryo vendor should particapate, to some extent, in making things right, particularly if he has stated that there have not been problems with other similar cables (and my experience is that there should not be).

I would say that cryoing the cabling in my system has been a great success and would highly recommend it to anyone. Both line conditioners benefited greatly as well and the Cyberhome was, in my opinion, really transformed by the cryo. Interestingly, the Toshiba, from my perspective, did not seem to benefit from it, and another audiophile from Toronto who had some Toshiba boards done recently told me he preferred the non-cryoed version of the Toshiba. So, I suppose the moral of the story is that, at least with respect to components, cryo may not be universally good.

The beauty of the Cyberhome, for anyone that is interested, is that it can be had at Walmart for about $40 plus another $20 to cryo it, so you are not out much money. In the past, I've owned Arcam and Cambridge Audio players and the cryoed and moderately tweaked Cyberhome is a far superior player that I don't beleive would be embarassed by players costing 10-20X what I have invested in it.

Hifimaniac--Happy to help!

Like HDM said, if done properly, deep cryogenic treatment of cables and other parts can yield tremedous benefits for a fairly small cash outlay.

I've got to go to Wally World and pick up one of those Cyberhomes. Sounds like just the ticket for my son's upstairs system!

Reagards!