Introduction
This is the first installment of what will be a multi-part posting describing my experiences with cryogenic treatment of audio cables.
In this installment, I discuss the cryogenic treatment of Kimber 8TC speaker cable.
Background
My combination 2 Channel/Home Theater system consists of modest (by Asylum standards) Rotel/Paradigm Reference/Arcam components.
I spend 70% of my time listening to CDs with the remaining 30% of time equally split between HDTV and DVD viewing.
When I last upgraded the system, with the addition of the Rotel electronics, I was quite disappointed. Although I had spent a fair amount of money I did not get a great sound improvement in return. In my searches of the Internet for answers, I discovered the world of ‘tweaking’ and especially the AudioAsylum. I have been aggressively tweaking my current system for the past six months and am now happy with its performance.
Tweaks employed include:
- Room Treatments – Jon Risch absorption panels and bass traps.
- 3 dedicated AC lines with Furutech gold plated outlets.
- Bybees inside main and center speakers.
- DIY PCs using JPS in-wall and Cardas Crosslink cable, Bybees inside, generous ERS wrap, external shield and Furutech gold plated connectors.
- Auricap capacitors applied across AC power at the IEC inlet (Furutech gold plated screw type) of power amp and preprocessor.
- ERS applied to electronic components to reduce EMI/RF noise.
- Vibrapods under all components.
- DynaMat Extreme used to damp vibrations in component cases.
- A marble slab on each component to further damp component case vibration.
- Homegrown Silver Lace DIY interconnects terminated with Eichmann Silver Bullet RCA connectors.
- Main loudspeakers bi-wired with Kimber Kable 8TC. Center channel, single run of 8TC. Rear channels, single run of 4TC.
Looking to further improve my system, I became intrigued with the postings about cryogenic treatment. Especially 2 postings indicating success cryogenically treating Kimber 8TC cable.
The Process
I initially looked in Toronto for a cryogenic facility but found company responses to be lukewarm at best. I ended up using the same facility as Blake, a small family-owned heat treating company located in south-western Ontario.
I had a large variety of cables and connectors processed in addition to the Kimber Kable. All items were placed in Ziploc freezer bags. The actual cryogenic unit had a stainless steel tub with the capacity of a small washing machine. Items were simply stacked on top of each other.
The actual computer controlled vapor cryogenic process involved an 8 hour rampdown from ambient temperature to -320°F, “soak†or hold at -320°F for 10 hours, and a rampup to ambient temperature of at least 24 hours. The times were confirmed by examining the temperature strip chart recorder output shown to me at the end of the treatment.
The Results
When I examined the cables after the cryogenic treatment they looked the same as before. There was no change in color or visible damage to the cable, dielectric, techflex sleeving, shrink wrap, or connectors.
I reconnected the Kimber 8TC to my system and burned the cables in for 36 hours before doing any critical listening, using an FM tuner at high volume (95db) which corresponds to approximately a 10 watt amplifier output through the cables given the Paradigm Studio speaker efficiency.
I have been doing critical listening for the past three days. At least six hours each day. FYI: Nothing else in my main 2 channel system was cryoed so all observations below are solely due to the 8TC changes.
My commonly used tweak evaluation CDs include:
- Norah Jones - Come Away With Me
- Diana Krall - Love Scenes
- Patricia Barber - Cafe Blue
- Chesky Records - Women of Song
The first thing I noticed was the improvement in female voices. Tonemaniac used the expression, "Sounds as if midrange congestion was eliminated", which I totally agree with. I had felt that the midrange was a bit forward before, but now I find it to be more natural sounding. I am also noticing greater detail and separation, and am picking up things in recordings that were previously obscured. In addition musical transients are quicker.It took me a while to get used to the extra detail. As Blake mentioned, the sound is a bit etched initially, but it is definitely smoothing out the more time I give it. All in all it's like I jumped up a few models in the Kimber line. Ray Kimber has a cryogenic unit, so it probably shouldn't surprise me that the 8TC responds well to cryogenic treatment.
Conclusions
I expected the cryo treatment to provide a slight improvement to the sound but the improvement was quite dramatic in my opinion. The music simply sounds more alive (open, detailed, musical, dynamic). I am crossing my fingers hoping that there is no down side to the cryo, but so far I am one happy camper.
I am already planning my next cryo appointment to get the remainder of my Kimber 8TC and 4TC treated.
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Topic - Adventures in CryoLand - Part 1 - Kimber 8TC - shuang 19:29:37 01/2/04 (47)
- Are You Guys in TO? - TonyB 05:28:09 01/7/04 (2)
- Re: Are You Guys in TO? - blake 07:33:09 01/8/04 (0)
- Re: Are You Guys in TO? - shuang 15:02:01 01/7/04 (0)
- Re: Adventures in CryoLand - Part 1 - Kimber 8TC - stillWater 05:39:08 01/4/04 (2)
- Re: Cables still need.... - alan m. kafton 08:12:34 01/4/04 (1)
- Re: Cables still need.... - blake 09:54:18 01/4/04 (0)
- How did you compare them to the untreated cables? - Magnetar 17:11:41 01/3/04 (0)
- You might want to be careful when Cryoing ICs. - Tony Montana 15:20:51 01/3/04 (0)
- Votes for the BEST cryo service available to the public ? - tonemaniac 13:24:04 01/3/04 (7)
- Re: Votes for the BEST cryo service available to the public ? - blake 22:22:21 01/3/04 (4)
- yeah, me, I did, in stages, sort of - tonemaniac 08:33:47 01/4/04 (0)
- Re: Votes for the BEST cryo service available to the public ? - alan m. kafton 23:22:52 01/3/04 (2)
- I did a batch of tubes too.... no power tubes though - tonemaniac 08:36:55 01/4/04 (1)
- Re: I did a batch of tubes too.... no power tubes though - blake 09:59:30 01/4/04 (0)
- Ice cube trays? (nt) - Rob Thomas 15:30:21 01/3/04 (1)
- wanted to see if they were less adhesive to ice - tonemaniac 08:41:57 01/4/04 (0)
- Re: Adventures in CryoLand - Part 1 - Kimber 8TC - rcrump 07:41:34 01/3/04 (24)
- Same results here. (nt) - stillWater 05:45:17 01/4/04 (0)
- Cryo isn't as straightforward as some will say - tonemaniac 08:47:29 01/3/04 (15)
- Yes.... - blake 09:55:48 01/3/04 (12)
- Re: Yes.... - alan m. kafton 12:36:14 01/3/04 (11)
- Cryrogenics International treated all but the speaker - rcrump 13:47:24 01/3/04 (10)
- Re: My results are *exactly* the opposite of yours...... - alan m. kafton 15:34:49 01/3/04 (9)
- Too bad about that and the listening panel mentioned - rcrump 16:21:51 01/3/04 (8)
- Re: Again, it's all about your personal preference. End of story. [nt] - alan m. kafton 16:30:06 01/3/04 (7)
- Try talking less and listening more! - rcrump 19:58:01 01/3/04 (6)
- Re: Et tu...... - alan m. kafton 20:08:27 01/3/04 (5)
- Re: Et tu...... - rcrump 20:28:48 01/3/04 (4)
- try this for fixing those CDs - pburke 09:31:08 01/5/04 (0)
- Re: Cool......have a safe and easy trip. See 'ya there. [nt] - alan m. kafton 20:46:32 01/3/04 (2)
- Race you to Prescott to the Gurlie Street Grill - rcrump 23:29:32 01/3/04 (1)
- Re: Race you to Prescott to the Gurlie Street Grill - alan m. kafton 08:06:10 01/4/04 (0)
- Re: Cryo isn't as straightforward as some will say - alan m. kafton 09:24:54 01/3/04 (1)
- I agree..... - Mike B. 09:11:43 01/3/04 (0)
- What cables did you use? - shuang 08:24:06 01/3/04 (6)
- Re: What cables did you use? - rcrump 14:00:36 01/3/04 (0)
- Re: What cables did you use? - alan m. kafton 09:33:14 01/3/04 (4)
- A question alan..... - Mike B. 10:12:18 01/3/04 (3)
- Re: Mike...... - alan m. kafton 20:11:21 01/3/04 (1)
- Re: Mike...... - Mike B. 09:43:14 01/4/04 (0)
- Re: A question alan..... - alan m. kafton 12:23:22 01/3/04 (0)
- The same can be said of my cryo'd CDs and SACDs - jeromelang 03:13:31 01/3/04 (4)
- Any benefit to cryoing CD-R copies of CDs? - shuang 05:47:30 01/3/04 (3)
- Re: Any benefit to cryoing CD-R copies of CDs? - pburke 09:35:27 01/5/04 (2)
- Re: Any benefit to cryoing CD-R copies of CDs? - shuang 14:29:55 01/5/04 (1)
- Re: Any benefit to cryoing CD-R copies of CDs? - pburke 10:00:28 01/6/04 (0)
- Re: Adventures in CryoLand - Part 1 - Kimber 8TC - speyer 21:17:22 01/2/04 (0)