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Re: OK, here's the WHOLE PROBLEM


One glaring example of the print and many e-zines media in audio's reluctance to discuss 'improvements to audio equipment' is their unwillingness to discuss (or experiment with) the freezing technique. It is 15 years since Robert Harley's article "Cryogenic Freezing" article appeared in Stereophile. In my opinion, this article is one of the most significant articles in the history of audio,
Yes, there is the occasional reference to cryogenic freezing of cables and, less frequently, the freezing of actual audio equipment in such internet sites as Audio Asylum but, to my knowledge, there has not been serious investigations carried out or written about in the usual printed audio magazines.
I would seriously encourage people to ask the question why.
Could it be a case of 'not wishing to rock the boat'? Could it be in the best interest of the audio industry not to have any publicity given to this technique.?
How can an audio magazine have thousands of dollars worth of advertisements filling their pages AND, at the same time, have an article describing how a journalist had used the freezing technique on his amplifier/CD player/DVDplayer/speakers and gained a considerable improvement in the sound - when the advertisements which the magazine is carrying are from manufacturers and retailers of new and UNFROZEN equipment.
Clark Johnsen quotes replies from some angry subscribers after a preamp being reviewed was 'tweaked' and the effect of that particular 'tweak' reported. I can understand what they were objecting to - that they wanted to know what the particular preamp would sound like if they had purchased it 'as manufactured' by the retailer. But, looking at it another way, surely they were not also meaning that if they were contemplating purchasing a $1,000., $5,000., $10,000 item of equipment they WOULD NOT have wanted to know that it would have sounded so much better if all the components and bits and pieces had been frozen before assembly. I am talking here about exactly the same components used, the same circuitry used, the same bits and pieces used - nothing any different only everything frozen beforehand.
Robert Harley, in his Cryogenic article 15 years ago, relates how he had heard of the cryogenic freezing technique from Ed Meitner.
I quote Ed Meitner's own words - 15 years later (from an interview in July 2001 Hi Fi News).
"There was never a failure. We treated tons of solid state stuff, whole circuit boards, and the only bad thing that happened was that the electrolytic capacitors would lose their shrinkwrap. That was it. We even treated speaker voice coils.
What I've found over the last 15 years of being in high-end audio is that most of the minds are pretty closed. And this is strange. It's the opposite of what you would expect."

To quote from Keith Howard (from Hi Fi News July 2001) after he had spoken to Ed Meitner.
"I can't imagine how this process and it's benefits could fade into obscurity. Although Ed Meitner still uses cryogenic treatment himself, for everyone else in the audio industry it appears to have been a case of NIH (not invented here) or maybe IDU (I don't understand)."
May Belt.



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