[andrzejpw]

lol, a few years ago I heard someone say that they were making recievers/amps, who's CASES had been dipped in LN2, and saying that it improved sound quality. . . <sigh>

but hey, I've got access to plenty of Liquid Nitrogen.

 

[Budgie]

I guess I should go on record as not being in favor of cryo treating NOS tubes. If yer gonna freeze some tubes, leave the limited stock of NOS tubes alone. It's a dwindling resource! Freeze some Sovteks instead.

 

[eric343]

Well, I've got the JJ ECC83 that came with my MG Head... I'd need another one to do a/b comparison with, though. Anyone want to send me one?

The advantage with cryo treatment is that a/b testing is very very easy - since they look the same, sound literally is the only way to tell them apart. I might make a black dot on the bottom of the cryo tube, so I could figure out afterwards which one was better.

 

[andrzejpw]

Hmm, how do you treat them with the LN2? Do you just dip them in?

I have access to LN2. Is that all you do?

 

[eric343]

No! That will shatter them. I would reccommend putting them in the freezer overnight, then slowly lowering them into the dewar over about 30+ minutes. I've got a very slow mirror-ball-rotating [or at least that was the original use] motor (~1rpm, ~5mm shaft with a hole in the end to put a pin through to hold string on the shaft) that I could use as a winch to accomplish this; the only question is how I would attach the tube to the string. A spare tube socket would make the process much easier...

 

[andrzejpw]

lol, I know plopping them in will crack them, I wasn't going to do that.

I was just wondering if I needed any special equipment, treating them before hand, etc.

Hmm, 30 minutes is a long time to hold them.

 

[Budgie]

If you put a black dot on the cryo tube, how will you know if the black dot isn't what's responsable for the sound of the tube?? (just kidding

)

 

[andrzejpw]

Quote:

Originally posted by Budgie If you put a black dot on the cryo tube, how will you know if the black dot isn't what's responsable for the sound of the tube?? (just kidding )

Its funny because its true.

 

[shorton]

Come on guys. EVERYONE knows that black dots make no differrence what so ever. That's just plain silly. It has to be a GREEN dot, and from that special marker pen. Jeez!

 

[dhwilkin]

Quote:

shorton said... Come on guys. EVERYONE knows that black dots make no differrence what so ever. That's just plain silly. It has to be a GREEN dot, and from that special marker pen. Jeez!

Ah, but did you know that using invisible ink dramatically increases transparency? Only problem is, you eventually forget which tubes you marked, you know, because you can't see the marks. So, just mark all of them every once-in-a-while. I figure the effects are cumulative.

 

[shorton]

Ok, transparent and then use a green marker to apply the disappearring ink with. Best of both worlds.

Only one problem, DH, if you can't tell which tube has been treated, did the improvement really happen? If a tree...oh, never mind.

 

[eric343]

Actually, 30min is just an estimate. You could probably get away with going more slowly, but I would reccommend you be very careful unless it's a "throwaway" stock tube.

 

[dhwilkin]

Of course the improvement happens, I was talking about being forgetful over months. Besides, for every tube I invisibly mark, I sacrifice a crappy Sovtek to the audio voodoo gods. They wouldn't let me down.

 

[andrzejpw]

Quote:

Besides, for every tube I invisibly mark, I sacrifice a crappy Sovtek to the audio voodoo gods.

LOL! That's wonderful!

Seriously, What I'd probably do is get some crappy tube, try it out, and send it to someone here. I don't have tube gear.

 

[Budgie]

Hey- I wonder if that is the purpose of the dot on the forehead like some East Indians wear?

Try these on your forhead:
http://www.shunmook.com