[Born2bwire]

Stick flowers or oranges in them, that's always good for effect. Hmmm, maybe I could try to seek in some of my tubes, but I have to take them out because we use a bucket of LN2 for the soap explosion and man those things will shatter in a neat effect though.

 

[millerdog]

I wanted to bring this thread up again....
Anyone read the Pearl thing on tubeworld.com?...If I can only get my hands on some liquid nitrogen, I have a kiln to anneal those puppies to whatever temp I want(the ceramic kilns we got are computerized). I kinda know the biology lab assistant...but....
The prices on those pearl cryogens are outrageous!
Then again, is there someone here to do a testimonial? Is it really worth it?
md

 

[millerdog]

Just another thought: since the basis of the treatment is to "flex" the parts of the tube, once you freeze it and anneal it, it shouldn't matter at what temp you "soak" it at. Meaning, the physical metal parts have been already "tweaked" so to say...
I don't think there is a chemical change in the mica or plates during cool off or heating up. At least not at the temps the Pearl Cryogen states.
Perhaps a metallurgist could comment on this.
In my mind freezing is freezing...does the molecular structure of the tube change?
The heating up part..the annealing..okay..heat changes some molecular structures...but at what temps? Just below the melting point I believe is when molecular structure changes...
I think I may be blowing smoke...anyone care to comment?
md

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Quote:

Originally posted by millerdog I wanted to bring this thread up again.... Anyone read the Pearl thing on tubeworld.com?...If I can only get my hands on some liquid nitrogen, I have a kiln to anneal those puppies to whatever temp I want(the ceramic kilns we got are computerized). I kinda know the biology lab assistant...but.... The prices on those pearl cryogens are outrageous! Then again, is there someone here to do a testimonial? Is it really worth it? md

Millerdog,
I've been reading the stuff on the tubeworld website. Got quite a chuckle from the outrageous prices of their normal tubes. Almost fell off my chair when I saw how much they charge for the cryo treated stuff. Seems they add one part to the process that most don't - that is raising the temp to +300 degrees to releive the metal stresses. (Their wording there)

As to the benefits, I am having some tubes cryo'd in the next few weeks. I will let you all know what I find. I will also send a few out and have them compared to untreated tubes in some good A/B testing to verify the benefits. (Or disprove them, either way!) All results will be posted here for all to read.

Beware of one thing though: thermal shock! When dropping these tubes down to -300 of so degrees, it can weaken the material permanently, and several cryo companies don't garuntee their processing of tubes. (IOWs - if they break it - TOUGH!) Most seem to follow a process of lowering the temperature over the course of 8-10 hours, saturating the tubes for a number of hours, then slowly raising the temp back to room temperature.


Lord Bless,
doug p.

 

[millerdog]

Doug,
that was my next post.
I think the raising of the temp has much more to do than the freezing process...
Does the molecular structure of mica iron and whatever change under extreme low temps?
I think they are more "tweaked" under high temps! At the point just under melting...I know silica undergoes a quartz inversion....mica is part silica?
Silica is in the glass of the tube...I gotta go back to see what temps they anneal to...
md

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Quote:

Originally posted by millerdog Doug, that was my next post. I think the raising of the temp has much more to do than the freezing process... Does the molecular structure of mica iron and whatever change under extreme low temps?

Not sure if they will release too much info on their treating process as this will lead to others copying their "Pearl Cryo" process!!
I don't believe that raising the temp will do too much for the metals in the tube. It seems that when you freeze something down to cryo temperatures the structure of the metal shrinks at the molecular level, thereby making it less inherent to noise, giving a slight increase in gain, etc. I believe that is what everyone who is buying the Virtual Dynamics power cords and ICs are experiencing. The cryo treated stuff makes a huge difference, and I have never heard of anyone else heating their tubes or cables to "make them sound better." Could be that tubeworld just does something new that no one else does yet????? It would seem, as they state on their web site, that it makes a smaller difference when compared to cryo treating, but a difference nonetheless.
I wonder if anyone has deep enough pockets, or credit left on a credit card, here on Head-Fi to buy a really good set of tubes from tubeworld and try out their theoies on their Pearl Cryo Tubes......

I am just having my tubes treated for about $15 at a cryo company I found online. As I said, after gettting them treated and tested I'll post the results and info on the company if anyone else wants to do this cheaply. Most companies I emailed wanted $5-10 per tube, or had minimum orders of $75-100!!!! This company only wanted $15 to treat 8 tubes, so as they say here in Ecuador, vamos a ver. (We'll see)


Lord Bless,
doug p.