The Great Cryo'd Outlet Test

Psychicanimal...That will be very easy to measure. You're on!

I am curious to see the outcome of this test. However, Ernie's opinions are more than good enough for me, and I will simply go with a regular old Hubbel 8300.

El, your system is much more complex than the average audiophile's, but I really admire your spirit. You are doing it for your own sake, and sharing it with us secondarily. I hope you find a definitive answer for your system which will provide YOU with the most performance!

As an aside, as a former R&D chemist/material science engineer in the electronics field, I am of the VERY strong opinion that a scientist who is not also an artist is not a very good scientist. Sure, you can do analysis, but you could train your 8 year old daughter to do just as good a job. To create something requires a person who blends his theoretical and book knowledge with the ability to relax, think clearly, be creative, and most of all, be willing to fail.

Not everything works the way they tell you it works, and you use this to your great advantage. It is exactly like being a chef. While the proper course of study is required to build the foundation, those who achieve possess a definitive artistic streak of greatness.

Was Leonardo da Vinci an engineer, or an artist? Is the Eiffel tower an engineering feat, or a work of art?

And Lak's still the world's expert on cryo'ed outlets...

I did an initial round of listening tests, and, not to keep you all in suspense, I did not (so far) hear any effect attributable to the cryo’d outlet. Following is a description of what I did.

1. Some say that ac power is most important for low level source equipment. The first test was simple: just power the Denon 2900 DVD player and Rotel 1066 with the cryo’d outlet, and play my best disc through the whole multichannel rig. (The Rotel circuitry is almost all bypassed in discrete multichannel mode: it serves only as volume control). I could hear no difference with the cryo’d outlet.

2. I realized that I could cut my rig down to stereo without rearranging a lot of equipment. I turned off the rear amps and the center front amp. I used the cryo’d outlet to power the two CarverPro ZR1600 digital power amps for the left and right MG1.6 and their associated subwoofers. Then I played the Stereo programs of several SACD. Repeated the exercise with regular outlet/ cryo’d outlet/regular outlet…etc. No difference.

By the way, neither outlet warmed up enough to be detected. Temperature of both outlet boxes was measured while they were being used with a thermometer…62 degrees which was the cellar temperature at the time.

3. Next, I turned off all the front amps, and fed the front L and R signals into the rear amps, Kenwood LO7M monoblocks that are fairly conventional ss amps. The rear speakers are also conventional MTM boxes, Madisound Odin. I powered the amps with cryo’d and non cryo’d outlet. No difference.

I selected discs to play as follows.
Multichannel test…Tacet DVD D107..Mozart Flute Quartets. Awesome audiophile quality.
Stereo SACD…Pentatone PTC 5186 024 Beethoven Piano Sonatas. Good clear recording appropriate for stereo.
Stereo SACD…Telarc SACD 60579 “The Sound of Glory”
Massive Chorus, Orchestra, Organ.
CD, Eva Cassidy, “Live at Blues Alley” Female vocalist. Recording with good ambience and “low level detail”.
I would still like to do one test of the “scientific” variety. I will feed the two monoblock amps with the same signal, and tweek gains so as to minimize the difference signal between the two Hot power amp output terminals. (Ideally there should be no difference). Then I will plug one of the amps into the cryo’d outlet, and see if the difference signal changes. I will also listen to the difference signal, (with earphones) as the spectral content might change without affecting the voltage measurement. This test will plainly determine if the cryo’d outlet affects the electrical output of the power amp.

So I don’t think that a cryo’d outlet would be much use to me. Perhaps my 115 volt power is nice and clean. Maybe there is no RFI where I live. (I know that cell phones don’t work at my house). And maybe, just maybe, the cryo effect is psychological.