Trying to find someone with a cable cooker in Metro NY
mahlman, "By the way I found a cooker at Costco I think will work but I have a question. Should I use peanut or sunflower oil?"I have been working on a Cable Friteuse since earlier in this thread ("At the same time, I am working on a concept of Cable Friteusse. If cooking does molecules miracles, frying should elevate it to another level of sound delicacy"). I have been considering different oil viscosities for different levels of smoothness, mainly for mids. Cooker will not do. |
"...until no more sense can be made of the thread."Any thread that contains recommendations for freezer full of chicken and cables may be senseless. The only one that would beat it may be the thread with liquid nitrogen baths for audio reproduction equipment. Wait, this one has both. And geoffkait. And me. |
insearchofprat, Nobody is yelling here. One likes to be the star with ideas that are often unusual while rarely easy to support. The other one, reading it, gets loose associations planted in what he has dealt with before. It is nothing more than friendly exchange of ideas. Maybe "keeping tabs and reality check" at times. If you follow these threads, you will see many unusual approaches. Cable Cookers, liquid cables, some boxes as integral part of a cable, and what not. Some of these things seem simple (Cable Cooker), while some may be much more difficult to accomplish (liquid cables, I would guess). As much as freezing a cable is simple, even in liquid nitrogen it is not a big problem despite me disouraging you from such foolishness, it will be hard to find anyone with any merit who will argue hard against many things having their optimal temperature. If we take cables this seriously, they may need to be at the right temperature to perform their best. Not that I believe that cables are as alive as some imply around here, but if we play with theories let’s think of doing everything right and not just pick and choose based on.....what exactly? |
Back to thermal influences on food, electronic equipment, and humans. Cable freezing, cooking, and simmering. Most, if not all, of the things that surround us have their optimal temperature at which they perform their best. Ranges of optimal temperatures are frequently very narrow. With highly-sophisticated entities they can be within 3-4-5 degrees. Why is there no talk about maintaining these optimal temperatures for cables, or whatever else (this thread is about Cable Cooking so let’s stay with that)? Would it not be beneficial to have some warming/cooling device that would maintain the cable’s temperature at optimum? That might be more effective than sticking a cable in the freezer for a day, two, or three just to have it warm up within a half a day that follows it. What are the world’s greatest minds of audio reproduction doing? Where are the dealers? Where are the fans? Where are the threads on audio forums? It is 21st century. Possibilities are endless. Let’s get a little bit more sophisticated and caring than this stone-age approach of sticking a cable in ice. Cable that goes through the tube filled with fluid at constant/optimal temperature. That is what we need, Cable Simmerers, not Cable Cookers and freezers. Well, of course, we do need to discuss what the optimal fluid for this application might be. |
insearchofprat, The only thing anyone can say is "good for you". That is frequently used instead of "whatever" but I really mean it. At some point, not so long ago, a well-known person around here was preaching that orchestra would, in almost those terms, be sitting wider apart and what not once the cover was taken off the amplifier. It would improve/spread even further if some ties inside would be cut. In some sense, orchestra was incarcerated inside the box and would be freed with these manuevres. As it happens, most of the people were ridiculing this fairly extravagant concept. He was blaming everyone on not being right as they had never tried. So I tried. I took an old amplifier I had, which happened to have also been the one he was very familiar with, and unscrewed the cover. Nothing happened. Nothing that we were told would happen. I reported it to him and was met with dismissive statements how I did not do enough and I had just scratched the surface. Basically, failure of his imagination to be reproduced was my fault and not the fault of his bizarre idea. I do not doubt that he had heard different things, but after my experience and any logic applied, it was more likely observer’s bias than anything else. If I were not disinterested enough, I would stick some cables into refrigerator and report back to you. However, I cannot let even the slightest chance of it working materialize. That would make geoffkait right and that is a big no-no. I am still puzzled that you could not find anyone in New York metro area to lend you a Cable Cooker. What do people do? Use it every day? |
insearchofprat, I am not disputing that you hear differences and that they are for better. However, the list is so long and all-inclusive that it seems a bit exagerrated. A casual reader may conclude that sticking her/his cables in the refrigerator for a couple of days will transform $1500 system into $150 000 system. |
insearchofprat, I have no recommendations. Someone may have some experience with contacts etc. and may chip in. Slightly related to this, but nothing to do with cable cookers or freezers, I recently (a couple of months now) bought speaker cables. At some point, I disconnected them. I forgot why but I took whole thing apart. Everything was dusty except speaker cables. For some reason, they seemed not to have attracted dust at all. Just the other day, after maybe two or three months of not touching anything while being mostly away, I tried to clean them. No dust. Amplifier connectors, all other cables, shelves, floor, everything around them, was covered with dust but not speaker cables. If I could only cover the whole place with whatever those cables have... |
insearchofprat, "...and lying straightened out on the floor in the stereo room, resting."Another thing that selectively gets neglected in all these talks around here is what dust will do to whatever piece of equipment is discussed. I have no answer but, if any assumption about cables, fuses, etc. being significantly influenced by direction or cooling/burning is correct, ignoring the fact that dust can negatively (and possibly positively) affect the final outcome seems too cavalier. I am not trying to make it all seem irrelevant and not worth considering. Instead, I am trying to point out that some simple things get ignored while one could make a case why they could matter. If I were you and were experimenting as you are now, I would at least cover those cables so they do not get dusty. |
geoffkait, I do not have a dog. I have not given up yet. I get my inspiration for slightly mysterious approaches to audio reproduction from these forums. Sticking Post-It notes under the furniture is not much less efficient than sticking stickers on windows. It may just be a little less of an eye-sore. At the same time, I am working on a concept of Cable Friteusse. If cooking does molecules miracles, frying should elevate it to another level of sound delicacy. |
"Like you mentioned how do you condition air?"I see a business opportunity right here. geoffkait, Quick, get to Staples for some Post-It notes. That is the start. Green ones for clean Alpine air. Yellow ones for those living close to rivers. Pink ones for dense urban areas of major hipster conglomerates. Etc. Stick them under the furniture, it helps with undecided ions. Someone will buy it. |
I am aware of that website but had never heard of anyone who owns or used one. Even on this thread, with all the convictions pro et contra, there is not many people who have experience with it. On top of that, no audiogon members in NY metro area with one to spare? I saw many things for sale on Internet. Not all of them existed, or sold in any number worth mentioning. |
insearchofprat, "I would think this could be the Big Holiday Gift (LOL!) for the person who has everything and knows everything..." This is a fabulous description. It gets to the bottom of existence of cable cookers and similar machines/devices/tweaks. At the same time, if it is only $1000, I am surprised that you did not get any good-natured no-money-involved offer to try. This is the underworld where people talk about $5000 cables and $3000 phono cartridges as if they are a bargain. If this disputed cable cooker works, even slightly, it would be one of the cheapest things in/around some moderately serious audiophile’s music reproduction system. Where are they? What happened? How many people on this thread have actually seen one? Is it a Nessie in audiophile fog? Talked about, disputed, sworn it was there, but in reality missing in action. I am not sure how it applies to any theory here, but in food preparation if you freeze something and then cook it, it is cooked. It seems that people, in general, agree that things taste better when they have not been frozen before. Fried ice-cream comes as close as I can think of to this "cryo treatment before cable cooker" procedure. Thankfully, many people like fried ice-cream so there may be something to sticking wires in the refrigerator before cooking them. |
Going back to the original post, is it really possible that there is nobody with cable cooker in metro NY area? That is many people and not one has a cable cooker, visits audiogon forum, and is nice enough to offer the cooker? How many of these devices sell anyway? Is it tens, hundreds, or thousands? Is market saturated? |
"Not quite sure what this implies..."Nobody knows, but it gets repeated quite often around here. Fake wisdom, or something like that. On the other hand, chasing improvement by whatever is being discussed here is a very benign hobby. Nobody gets hurt. Unless you dip equipment in liquid nitrogen and do not have appropriate gloves. That is where the line may need to be drawn. And it has been, at least on this thread. |
I was not that far off with my "art installation in the local park" idea. It is a park and it is local for someone. https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state-parks/blog/the-lure-of-kiptopeke |
insearchofprat, I really have no experience with cooling audio equipment but am glad you decided to skip liquid nitrogen. It is a bit cumbersome dealing with it. However, it does look cool when you pull things out. If you are inclined to try, freezer in your kitchen seems like a much more acceptable idea. Regardless of the recommended way of cooling, theories suggested in some of the posts above leave more questions than answers. You make all the atoms, electrons, or whatever else, settle in their preferred spots. Sound should become divine and maybe it will, based on theories. However, your cable is likely not only metal conductor. It may have some shielding, jacket, whatever else around it. That material is almost certainly not the same as conductor wire and may react slightly different than the metal. What happens then? Is it possible that it will influence the final sound in a negative way? If you look at any of the cable threads, there are heated arguments about all the aspects of cable architecture and then, when it comes to cooling, even contributors to those cable threads seem to forget that there is more to a cable than wire. Enjoy your experiments, but think critically. |
geoffkait, "Yet I’ve never dipped anything in liquid nitrogen. How can that be, glupson?"Someone beat you to that way of making yourself seem cool and "out-of-box" thinker. If I had to guess, it was because you had barely heard about liquid nitrogen at that point. Nothing wrong with that, no need to be embarassed. |
geoffkait, I am not sure what Deliverance is but, at least in this thread, I may not be the only one with limited knowledge. Anyway, insearchofprat will decide which way to proceed and she/he will be happy for that. I just thought I would put a little less infatuated view of the proposed options for her/him to consider. |
geoffkait, "Nobody is suggesting dipping anything in liquid nitrogen." A few posts above is this... "Your cable or player goes in a chest freezer right along with camshafts, brake rotors, custom hunting knives and musical instruments. In goes the liquid nitrogen, down goes the lid, and we wait."Even you could understand. |
If your next step is to start dipping your equipment into liquid nitrogen, the one after that may need to be your cables’ lap or two aboard Virgin Galactic. It would truly bring your system to new heights. Just sit back, relax, and take recommendations with a truckload of salt. If nothing else, ask your real friends what they think of any recommendation you are considering. It is a wild world out here and not everything that glitters is gold. |
