I did an A/B test with cryo treated cables. My buddy and I both had Audio Quest Anaconda interconnects that we purchased at the same time. They were both well broken in with a couple hundred hours of use when we did the first test. We confirmed that we could hear no difference between his cable or my cable when we inserted them in his system.
I sent my cable to Jena Labs to have it cryo treated and played it for about 15 hours before going back to my friend's house for the test. While I thought I could hear improvements in my system, I was only going by memory, so the only valid test was to take my cable back to his system which we used as the constant.
We both thought the difference in sound quality was significant and easily heard. The Cyro'd cable now sounded considerably different than our non-cryo'd cable. It's musical presentation had more "weight' and seemed more natural sounding. There was also a reduction in brightness. The music sounded more coherent and dynamic. We concluded that with this cable and in this application, there was no downside- everything just sounded better.
Based on this, I later had a FIM outlet cryo treated with similar good results. Prior to cryo treating, it sounded very bright, but afterwards it was much better. I recently re-wired my amp with Jena Labs Ultra Wire (also cryo treated), and while I can't say how much of the improvement was due to the cryo'ing, the net effect was huge- the best money I've ever spent in this hobby. So based on my first A/B test with the identical cables, I'm certain the benefits are real. The other two experiences would seem to bear out the benefits in other applications as well, but were not a rigorous test.
BTW, I was extremely nervous about having a set of interconnects cryo treated, but they were returned in perfect conditon, and remain so 9 months later.
I sent my cable to Jena Labs to have it cryo treated and played it for about 15 hours before going back to my friend's house for the test. While I thought I could hear improvements in my system, I was only going by memory, so the only valid test was to take my cable back to his system which we used as the constant.
We both thought the difference in sound quality was significant and easily heard. The Cyro'd cable now sounded considerably different than our non-cryo'd cable. It's musical presentation had more "weight' and seemed more natural sounding. There was also a reduction in brightness. The music sounded more coherent and dynamic. We concluded that with this cable and in this application, there was no downside- everything just sounded better.
Based on this, I later had a FIM outlet cryo treated with similar good results. Prior to cryo treating, it sounded very bright, but afterwards it was much better. I recently re-wired my amp with Jena Labs Ultra Wire (also cryo treated), and while I can't say how much of the improvement was due to the cryo'ing, the net effect was huge- the best money I've ever spent in this hobby. So based on my first A/B test with the identical cables, I'm certain the benefits are real. The other two experiences would seem to bear out the benefits in other applications as well, but were not a rigorous test.
BTW, I was extremely nervous about having a set of interconnects cryo treated, but they were returned in perfect conditon, and remain so 9 months later.