Cryo-treating CDs?

Hifimaniac--who treated your cables and what happened? CI is one of the best, so if it was them that did your treating, I'm sure it was done properly. I have treated (or had treated) thousands upon thousands of feet of wire and never ran into a problem. Just wondering what in the Sonoran's makeup could cause problems.

As far as CD/DVD treatment goes, to make a long complicated explanation short, cryo relieves the stresses caused by the manufacturing of the disc. Polycarbonate (and most other materials for that matter) develops stresses/voids/imperfections when molded.

Deep cryogenic treatment, done properly, by virtue of the temperatures involved (-300F to -320F) works at the atomic level. The atomic bonds weaken at these super cold temps and the molecules re-align in a more uniform structure.

The above explanation is greatly simplified, but cryo does, if done properly, work wonders on most of the items we use to pursue our love of good sound.

Regards!

Blueranger....Cryo is just an extreme form of heat treatment which has been, for several thousand years, a technique for modifying the physical properties of metal. What happend to your knife has no relavance to CDs.

Guitarplayer, Charles did my Sonoran cables and the pvc lining inside that coats the wire was shattered and the microbearing steel that shields the entire cable was in contact with the copper wire inside. As a result the entire soundstage collapsed. In addition to that, the nylon sheathing on the outside of the cable cracked and the microbearing leaked out. So I lost a 7M XLR interconnect that cost me $1300 and 10Ft. speaker cables that cost me $860. This happened on all my Sonoran power cords too at a cost of around $325 each. I lost over $2000 of wire and power cords and I am not real happy about this. Charles should have advised me on the risks of the nylon sheathing and many other issues. My VAC power supplies for a pair of monoblock amplifiers had to be sent back to VAC too as they started to hum. Again, Charles said he had done many power supplies and none had trouble. Mine got noisy. I don't think they are ruined because I used them for a month afterwards with no problems, but Kevin Hayes thinks some of the caps could be damaged and he is looking at them. My Tice powerblock plastic casing split and the adhesive holding the mounts inside melted and the power supply hums more now than it did before. I dipped it because I was told that it would help the hum. So I am a believer in the CD's, but cabling and other stuff, I would be very careful. Wire is best treated before it is made into the finished product. I hope that helps.

Hifimaniac--Interesting. I have never had any type of jacketing or sleeving crack. When problems like this occur, it is generally accepted that it is due to "thermal shock". Thermal shock can occur if an object is cooled too quickly. Audio cabling and the like must be ramped down very slowly, much slower than metal tooling and the like. Thermal shock is why cryo took a long time to be, "perfected" if you will, due to objects being stuck directly into the LN2 and things becoming brittle, exactly the opposite of what cryo should do. Even metal tooling can become brittle if cooled too quickly.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Losing that much cabling hurts, and I'm not the one who lost the money.

As far as the case cracking on your gear, that's actually quite common. I don't recommend that entire components be treated due to the plastic that inhabits many components will flex and break upon encountering super cold temperatures. The other reason I don't recommend cryo-treating entire components is that IMHO, electrolytic caps should never be cryo'd. That is probably what is wrong with your VAC's. I would have Kevin replace any 'lytic caps, just in case...The transformers should be fine, as cryo generally does quiet them down. Does the Tice have any 'lytic caps in it? If so, try replacing them and it may quiet down.

Advice: If any of you feel they must have their cd player, or whatever component, cryo'd, please find a place that has a great deal of experience treating audio gear and uses a dry process. Take your faceplate off and slightly loosen any screws that go into plastic. However, IMHO, don't risk it.

Good night everyone. The Academy Awards are over and I'm going to bed!

I feel for you Hifimaniac. Hopefully everything will come out okay on the VAC's.

Guitarplayer, Kevin says the eltrolytic caps look okay, but I a taking your advice as they could fail at any time. I have requested a quote to replace them all to make sure they are at peak performance. Thanks for the tip as my units are there now.