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In Reply to: RE: What ever happened to cryo treated tubes? posted by unclestu on April 03, 2014 at 16:03:47
Thanks unclestu for the info! I really appreciate the input and actually discussing the matter. I find there isn't enough info from a single source that completely covers the intricacies of the process. I feel there's just a lot of "up in the air" info one has to take for granted. Or you have to ask a dozen gurus to be certain. And even then, again, what's a cold bath for an already cherry-picked tube?
I can see why a tube would not suffer damage. I was aware the materials were selected for their expansion rates, but I just didn't know if it applied to both hot and cold extremes and whether it all followed linearly. And thanks for telling be about how the grids are assembled. I thought they were more delicately installed than that.
As for the spare gasses infusing themselves into the tube's materials, I guess it's possible. But wouldn't operating tubes for a time excite any of those gasses, leaving the getter to do its work? I wish I knew more about metallurgy hahahaha
And for the solder bit, that's what I meant (pins and bases on power tubes). Ya, everything else is a weld. :P
JoeKool - Do you have any A/B comparison experience you can share?
And geoffkait, ya, the physical consequences seem to be nil (at least perhaps for most tubes). However, the jury's still out on whether it does anything beyond that. Share your experiences with your 6SN7GT's you get the chance!
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May your tubes be lively and long-lasting. Holy be thy heater.
Follow Ups:
It only took one A/B comparison for me to 'buy' into the cryo-world, a pair of cryoed TungSol 12AX7 vs. a stock pair.
The cryoed pair sounded 'better' to my ears than the stock pair, better midrange density, better soundstage depth/width, better percussive tone...my comparison was done long term, I lived with the stock tubes for 3 months, then switched to the cryoed pair for a couple months, then switched back to the stock tubes, that's when the impressions were starkly in my face.
And since Cryoset sells cryoed tubes for almost the same price of stock, to me it was a no-brainer. Now my experience is limited to small signal tubes, dunno if the hotter power tubes yields 'better' performance, never tried those.I also had a power cord cryoed, copper wire with rhodium connectors, sounded terrible imo. So maybe cryo is not for everything. Cost me $25. for that lesson.
Tube tests took place in my CAT pre line stage. Was not triple blind, double blind or even just blind...so YMWV.
Edits: 04/04/14
Interesting... hmm, I'll have to give it a shot some time. Just to see if I can really tell what's going on here. Again... skeptical because I don't believe everyone has the whole behind-the-scenes picture. And, well, the reps who sell them haven't chimed with the data. But, if there's experience and merit to it all, maybe it's not crazy...
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May your tubes be lively and long-lasting. Holy be thy heater.
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