Has anyone cryo'd a tonearm,or phono cartridge?

I think the cryo treatment undoubtedly ruined the rubber suspension part(s). At such low temps, even silicone rubber permanently loses its elasticity and becomes brittle and hard, which is why the cartridge wouldn't "break in." I'm sure the tension wire is now all that's holding the poor thing together!

On the other hand, there would be nothing wrong with cryo-ing all the metal parts before assembling the cartridge. (Doesn't ZYX do that?) expecially the coil wire.

I just received my ZYX Airy 3 Silver SB yesterday. Some of the internals are cryo'd prior to assembly. Give me a month and I'll comment again if this thread is still showing up on My Page. You may write me later privately if you remember and are still curious.

The ZYX UNIverse is one of the absolute best cartridges I've heard and it is done the same way. It's higher up the food chain than my Airy 3 though.

Dear 76doublebass: I think that the treated cryo audio items are differents from the originals. That process change the whole characteristics of the original one, so the cryo audio item is a " new design/build " audio item.

Maybe the " new " cryo audio item could " sounds " better or maybe not, that's is up to you.

I think that the point here is to try/test where this treatment really do a real music reproduction improvement, because a " different sound " not always means: better.

I think that we have to take great care about.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Hello 76doublebass,

I haven't tried cryo on a cartridge and I would not want to do it because of the delicate rubber suspension for the cantelever, as Nsgarch already mentioned. Albertpoter experiment just reinforces my reluctance.

Do you remember the investigation of the space shuttle Challenger disaster? Richard Feynman, the late Nobel physicist from Cal Tech, convincingly demonstrated the cause of the fatal accident on live national television. He did it with an elegant, simple experiment: he dunked a rubber O-ring into a glass full of ice water and showed how the cold o-ring turned brittle and could no longer seal properly!

With a much colder cryo treatment, the question is will the rubber ever regain its original elasticity? Better yet, what does the rubber have to gain from the treatment? I see mostly negative effects for the rubber and few if any beneficial ones. For a cartridge, the cryo treatment should probably be done without the rubber, prior to full assembly.

Actually, I am cryoing a cartridge this weekend. I've done others before, with mixed results. this time I'm doing a fairly high dollar cart, whereas my earlier experiements were with "backup" carts.

I'll report my findings after the cartridge breaks back in after cryo.

Like Albert mentioned, cryo is not a panacea and is not suitable for everything, especially electrolytic caps. Also, different parts require different cryo "profiles" to elicit the best performance from them. One can't treat fragile audio gear with the same profile as used for tool steels and expect optimal results.

BTW to elaborate on Albert's comments, cryo is great for transformers, with two caveats: The cryo treamtment house MUST use a profile with a VERY slow cool down rate. And, yes, break in seems to take forever after cryo, although once the tranny is run back in, in my experience, it is much quieter.