When you harden metals, you heat it up and you cool it down. In this process the metal gitter undergoes changes. And if you do a cryogenic treatment of a hardened tool (as an example) and you cool it down with liquid hydrogen you enhance this process.
Studies has shown that you can significantly improve the strength of a piece of metal by cooling it down. Kolla denna videon!
Cryogenic treatment of drill bits: tested 2X lifetime and microstructure analysis - YouTube
Studies has shown that you can significantly improve the strength of a piece of metal by cooling it down. Kolla denna videon!
Cryogenic treatment of drill bits: tested 2X lifetime and microstructure analysis - YouTube
Let us momentarily speak in terms of money. Does the extra expense justify the 'perceived' gains in performance? Regarding the enjoyment of audio I may be too mundane: copper of sufficient cross sectional area is more than enough. I would also probably be content with iron cables or aluminium cables.
In my 50+ years, this is the first time I am reading about prohibitively expensive methods to improve performance that is not scientifically and objectively proven. What does a milliohm of resistance increase do to audio cables powering speakers? It is nothing, not even perceptible. Why are so many people treating audio like some religion? Audio should be based on science and technology which are objective by their very nature. What is not objective by nature is marketing which always aims to convince people to spend more. Why so many intelligent people not realise marketing claims are primarily motivated to increase sales, and as long as, profits increase, they are successful?
Note: Please, be aware I am not against making profits, but against making false claims to inflate prices. I am one who willingly promote free of charge products which deliver what their makers claim, even if I have to pay extra.
In my 50+ years, this is the first time I am reading about prohibitively expensive methods to improve performance that is not scientifically and objectively proven. What does a milliohm of resistance increase do to audio cables powering speakers? It is nothing, not even perceptible. Why are so many people treating audio like some religion? Audio should be based on science and technology which are objective by their very nature. What is not objective by nature is marketing which always aims to convince people to spend more. Why so many intelligent people not realise marketing claims are primarily motivated to increase sales, and as long as, profits increase, they are successful?
Note: Please, be aware I am not against making profits, but against making false claims to inflate prices. I am one who willingly promote free of charge products which deliver what their makers claim, even if I have to pay extra.
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It is well known that heat treatment of copper makes it softer... It is well known that cryogenic treated copper changes thermal conductivity etc. And the german company that do cryogenic treatment of brass instruments (brass is also used in electrical connectors, you know the yellow´ish parts that mates) and hundreds of people whitness of huge differens in sound character. All solid metals undergoes physical properties changes during annealing as well as cryogenic treatment, in my world. Please correct me if there is a metal that does not.
From my own experience using vintage copper wire vs new copper wire for making a coil for MC cartridges does make a difference. Somehow coils made from vintage (30-40 years old) vintage wires have nicer, more pleasant and natural sound. Both are copper of the same diameter and the newer cable is of more purity.
Somehow it seems that copper crystal structure changes with time, it settles. All the stress that the wire gets during the process is gone with time. This could certainly be only a theory and maybe the sound difference is only caused by the difference of the purity. If time actually lets copper to restructure then actually cryo-treating can speed this process up.
Somehow it seems that copper crystal structure changes with time, it settles. All the stress that the wire gets during the process is gone with time. This could certainly be only a theory and maybe the sound difference is only caused by the difference of the purity. If time actually lets copper to restructure then actually cryo-treating can speed this process up.
As I already received a hint for a company doing such treatment I suppose this topic could be closed. I don't want to convince anybody as I am also not convinced of such cryo-treatment, I would just like to try it in case it doesn't cost a fortune, and luckily it doesn't.
I wish all of you lot of happiness while listening to your music collection
I wish all of you lot of happiness while listening to your music collection
I wish all of you lot of happiness while listening to your music collection
Thank you
No real answers were expected anyway. 
Snake oil for one and serious stuff for the other. This hobby is about personal tastes, beliefs and psycho-acoustics. If someone feels or hear any difference after any kind of treatment and it makes that person happy, then how come we judge that person?! If I don't try, I will never know.
Theory behind cryogenic treatment is based on evidences, they also do such treatment on tools made from metal. It might happen that it will not have any effect, but rather than reading other's opinions I would like to experience it myself
My question is how will you know they did anything? You send it off at ambient temperature, it comes back at ambient temperature, and all you can really say is if its cracked and lost vacuum it may have been cryogenically cycled since that might lead to differential contraction damage!
In industry cryogenic processing is done to tool steel to convert more austenitic phase to martensite, very specific to hardening carbon steels. Valves don't usually have any steel parts (unless nickel-plated), its all copper, nickel, tungsten, molybdenum, glass, ceramic and other hard-vacuum compatible materials that don't outgas significantly.
Sensible article on the issue:
Cryogenic Treatment of Tubes: An Engineer’s Perspective - Effectrode
Kondo-san makes lots of improbable (let´s be polite) and snake oil type claims.
Depending on the purity and annealing of copper, the thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity can actually be improved three orders of magnitude, while at roughly 50 Kelvin, the heat capacity basically goes away.
However, once the copper is returned to room temperature, we are unable to measure any change to conductivity. Note that we only measure using equipment capable of 100 PPM accuracy, as the beasts we test are rather expensive, and the cryogenic testing is quite demanding, especially the 20kA tests. The most difficult challenge is the control of room temperature to make such measurements, copper is .3% per C. We had a large temperature controlled room, +/- .1 C, and it takes 8 hours before we can test due to thermal stabilization. I suspect audio vendors cannot afford such accuracy.
I have not measured anything that went below 1.88 Kelvin however (superfluid helium), so my cryogenic experience is certainly somewhat limited. Perhaps some audio vendors have much more experience with really cold stuff.
There are just so many "interesting" claims out there, makes for humorous reading.
Jn
However, once the copper is returned to room temperature, we are unable to measure any change to conductivity. Note that we only measure using equipment capable of 100 PPM accuracy, as the beasts we test are rather expensive, and the cryogenic testing is quite demanding, especially the 20kA tests. The most difficult challenge is the control of room temperature to make such measurements, copper is .3% per C. We had a large temperature controlled room, +/- .1 C, and it takes 8 hours before we can test due to thermal stabilization. I suspect audio vendors cannot afford such accuracy.
I have not measured anything that went below 1.88 Kelvin however (superfluid helium), so my cryogenic experience is certainly somewhat limited. Perhaps some audio vendors have much more experience with really cold stuff.
There are just so many "interesting" claims out there, makes for humorous reading.
Jn
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