To cryo or not to cryo

I don't personally see the opinions as cancelling each other out. The problem comes when you talk to electrical engineers, the not so smart ones, that think their models are more than just an approximation of reality. If they believe their 'characteristic impedence' formulae are perfectly accurate then they will never get cryo or burn in concepts. But if you talk to applied physicists and quantum physicists you can find that there is much science around how electrons channel a signal through a cable, that this is affected by the alignment or otherwise of metal crystals, and that this channeling can be formed over a period of time and depends on the frequencies the cable is subjected to. I am working with scientists on this phenomenon at present. Don't mistake ignorance on the part of some scientists as a lack of scientific evidence. And no, I am not going to produce anything more for you here until we are ready to publish - that's how I am getting the free input of these guys, they are excited to be able to apply their knowledge to a real world problem, but want to publish under their own names. I suggest you go to your local university and talk with the particle theory guys, and preferably the ones that are seeking practical applications of this science. I discovered this area of science when dining with a friend and describing some of the conductor treatment issues I was struggling with, and she burst out that what I was talking about was precisely what she did her Masters thesis in. Its real guys, its just that few are aware of it.

Yes - cryo does benefit copper and brass for the purposes of better sound. Gold, silver and palladium appears to me to benefit little or even get worse in some cases. As Chris Ven Haus reports plated conductors are also a mixed bag.

The naysayers are usually psychologically disposed to wanting the world to be fully explained and have an aversion to something that isn't - and have rarely tried to experience the issue for themselves. Then there are the gullible that want there to be new unexplained things and will buy on any marketing hype dreamed up. Both are simply classic personality types. Debate between them goes nowhere, and indeed as you say, cancel each other out. And they also create a lot of useless noise on these sites so that intelligent discussion is usually buried. But not too deep.

I was not intending to contradict you Rja, just to report that with a bit of research there is indeed scientific evidence of the effects of cryo treatment and burn in, so we don't have to be confused by the meaningless cancelling out of opinions between the naysayers and the gullible. In fact I pretty much agree with your points.