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Adventures in CryoLand - Part 1 - Kimber 8TC

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:

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.

Tonemaniac's comments.

Blake's comments.

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:


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.



This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Atma-Sphere Music Systems, Inc.  


Topic - Adventures in CryoLand - Part 1 - Kimber 8TC - shuang 19:29:37 01/2/04 (47)


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