Cable Cooking/Burnin

I freeze for two days then slow thaw to room temp. It's permanent. I.e., irreversible.

Yapping wrote,

"1. Annealing is a process used to bring a metal closer to its equilibrium state. In this soft state, the uniform microstructure will allow for excellent ductility and workability."

Again let me ask, what does annealing have to do with anything when cryoing CDs? What is your theory why cryoing CDs improves the sound?

I haven't mentioned anything about cryoing CDs, other than the freezer thing! Perhaps it improves material transparency through assisting with creating a more uniform microstructure!

What are your thoughts? although I would prefer not to know them if you are going to be rude (unfortunately, it would appear that you cannot help yourself)?

Annealing, it would appear can be used to make a soft or hard structure/state with a uniform microstructure! The main thing that was mentioned is that it is used to create a "uniform microstructure" in metal or other materials and the word is even used in Biochemistry with a similar meaning (recombine) :)

Sorry for the AutoCorrect failure, unfortunate choice of words but not mine. I blame Apple. OK, so now we have a theory for CDs, Cryogenics or freezing improves the transparency. Without saying whether I agree with you or not, let me ask another question, What is the reason why LPs sound better after cryo/freezing? In fact, let me just cut to the chase and make a bold statement: cryoing or freezing ANYTHING produces better sound. Even things completely unrelated to the audio system.

Yep..energy is always in a search for a better pathway to ground. Whether energy is riding in it or on it. Tom

Tom, oh, no, not THAT again. Haha!

{Signal charge/energy} energy is always in a search for a better pathway to ground

Signal charge/energy ... sounds reasonable :)

cryoing or freezing ANYTHING produces better sound. Even things completely unrelated to the audio system

Maybe :)

Yping wrote,

""cryoing or freezing ANYTHING produces better sound. Even things completely unrelated to the audio system."

Maybe."

I trust you read between the lines that IF it's true, what I said, that cryoing or freezing ANYTHING is good for the sound it becomes harder and harder to attribute the reason to annealing or atomic structure reorganization or higher performance of the material in the traditional sense of the term: stronger, more ductile, harder, less brittle, etc. That is not to say these things aren't taking place. It's just that the operating mechanism is more mysterious.

From personal experience I would suggest that gold should "NOT" be cryoed because I believe it will degenerate the sonics. That's what happened in my experimenting.

Lak, I have the opposite results with cryoing gold.  I have cryo'd copper, silver, gold, aluminum, vinyl, plastic, ceramics, wood, brass.  All to good effect. There are some reasons why folks sometimes get negative results, not limited not waiting long enough to judge the sound after the item has been returned from the cryo lab due to the thermal shock involved that takes about a week to wear off.

I cook my cables using an old CDP and an old 25watt integrated amp, where I can set the volume, into a 10watt 5.5R resistor using a couple of music CD's that I like for this process :)

This is how I burnin my cables, ie ensure my cables have uniform microstructure, which works for me :)

geoffkait, perhaps you can tell us how you do your home freezer method.   Especially as it is a permanent method :)

The home freezer method is 1) place item(a) in freezer, 2) keep them in freezer for 48 hours, and 3) take item(s) out of freezer and place them in refrigerator section for 8 hours or however long it takes for the item(s) to reach the temperature of the refrigerator which is around 38-40 F. Then remove and place on a table until room temperature is reached.  If you are freezing CDs be sure and wipe off the haze that accumulates on the data side of the CD during the whole process. If you'd rather be safe than sorry repeat the entire process.  

GK

I use the Hagerman Audio Labs FryCleaner, an older kit version of their current lineup. They now offer three, pre-assembled products, all substantially less expensive than the audiodharma Cable Cooker.

Bob Crump (TG Audio) would string 100 or 150W light bulbs together in order to generate lots of current for his power cable break-in. He had all this in his garage. The cops came by one day thinking he was growing cannabis.

For for those who have the Audiodharma Cable Cooker or any other commercial cable cooker: have you tried to find out what kind of signal is going through the cables? Even if you're not a DIY person, you can clamp a cheap full range speaker/driver (dont use a tweeter!)  to the speaker or RCA jacks. I suspect a frequency generator that does frequency sweeps lies at the heart of it. 
If so, it would be relative easy to buy such a device (under $60 shipped on Ebay) that you can feed into a el cheapo or unused receiver/amp with analogue out (for the ICs). The frequencies can be set for IC (audio range x3 i.e. upto the 3rd harmonics of highest range you can hear AND your amp can produce it, otherwise keep it simple to, say, 25-30kHz which may be out of spec for older receivers/amps) and PC, say 30-300Hz. Female IC connectors need to be DIY with a 10k resistor as load and SC be shortened with a 5 or 10 Ohm larger resistor to close the circuit. For the PC I would recommend to "condition" all 3 wires which means including the ground wire as well if that is used (so for those who use a ground cheater or on older tube amps). Banana plugs could be used from the audio out to the plug and IEC .  I am not an IEEE engineer but have vague memories of some classes that I took many decades ago.

I would like to add another component in making cables sound better. Having good experience with products from Synergistic Research, anyone tried to burn in their PC with 220V (*) or higher? Analogous with Geoffkait recommendation to home freeze components, getting a bit closer to cryogenic treatment, I wonder if simpletons like us can get a bit closer to quantum tunneling by stepping up the voltage and/or current?  

(*) a simple step up transformer ($50 or less) would do the trick. You need a Shuko plug/adapter ($5) for your PC and of course, a 220V load or put two high wattage 110V lamps in series. 
SR claims to use 2 million volts and it sounds (pun not intended) pretty much but any Electro Static Discharge (ESD) that we've experienced in very dry conditions or walking over carpets and then touching a doorknob or something/someone has experienced what at least 3k (upto 30k) volts must have felt with minimal current of course (anything more than 50 mA may cause a cardiac arrest).

Easier than walking over static carpet on purpose with cable in hand, one could use a simple car ignition coil module that generates 7k V for the spark plugs or even venture to 40k V with a battery driven step up high voltage generator if you know what you're doing. I have just ordered one for $10 shipped. 

/Geoffkait: re the home freezer method, would repeated freezing / thawing be beneficial?
And which cryogenic treatment service would you recommend? I have a slew of DIY and high end cables that I would like to have it done.

/vinylvalet: interesting you mentioned TG Audio (I am pretty sure Bob is not there anymore but Frank is now). They (still) make a very good power distribution box that supposedly beats the well respected Weizhi PRS-6, both boxes are machined out of aluminium. 

hi,
have anyone tried using a cable cooker to burn-in audio equipment? by attaching cables to the audio component signal input & output, this would put your source or pre or power amp within the usual cable burn-in loop, then switch on your hifi equipment (of-course with volume level down).
would this cause damage or deterioration to the hifi-gears?
thank you for any advice!
-philip

Philipwu,
If I were you I would email or phone Alan at: http://www.audioexcellenceaz.com/ and discuss your question with him. Alan would know the correct answer.

Thanks Lak, if the answer is positive, i might just buy a cable cooker for "burning" everything. ;-)

Please post your findings...

I received my Cable Cooker the other day and love it.  I have a technical question for those more versed in the science than I.

I was trolled and ridiculed on Head-Fi for talking about the cooker with a couple of respondents saying 'you can do the same thing with a $75 signal generator or a CD of the signals used by the cooker.'

My understanding is there is a lot more science to it than that, particularly the high output levels the Audiodharma generated.  I was hoping someone could comment on that.

FWIW, I closed my account on Head-Fi.  While there are some good folk on that forum there are also a lot of losers that sound as if they still live in their parents basement.  I would never knock someone enjoying music on an inexpensive headphone based system because that's what they can afford (been there/know that feeling) all the talk of 'you're an idiot, my $10 interconnects are as good as any $2k cables out there' gets a little tiresome.

@ihmeyers 
Which cable cooker did you purchase?