wrote in message
A few months ago, both ScottW and Howard chided me for
remarking that a pair of headphones I had for review, the
ALOAudio Grado SR225s, had cryogenically-treated,
cotton-insulated cable.
So Marc, in the interest of science, you obtained a stock pair of Grado SR
225, and did a thorough technical and listening-based analysis of both, and
compared them in a bias-controlled listening test.
I didn't think so! :-(
Of course Howard dismissed such
a product without hearing it, as he always does.
Even as a librarian, Howard knew the difference between hype and technology.
My
comments, however, weren't in favor of cryogenics, just
to state that I heard an improvement over the stock
phones.
How do you know that is true? How do you know that the cryogenic-cable
Grado SR 225 sounded different from from one with the standard cable?
Where's the science? Where are the carefully-done listening tests?
This could have been due to the cotton
insulation, the oxygen-free copper, or the custom- made
rosewood ear cups.
None are likely to make a big audible difference, but of the bunch the
rosewood ear cups have the greatest potential. Anything that interacts that
closely with the driver has at least a snowball's chance in Orange County of
having an audible effect. Of course that presumes that the stock ear cup is
a resonant POS.
I didn't know just how much the
cryogenics had to do with the improvement I heard without
taking it out of the equation.
Scott and Howard jumped in, saying that cryogenics was a
crock. But then I read something that intrigued me.
Cryogenically-treated precision drill bits last up to
four times as long as untreated bits. Obviously
cryogenics does something to change the composition of
the metal. Why, therefore, is it ludicrous to believe
that cryogenics could make a sonic difference?
It's ludicrous because you're talking about the passage of electricity
through a good electrical conductor (copper), not the life of a cutting
tool. There is some science behind thermal treatments of metal cutting
tools. There is some science behind thermal treatments for the resonant
components of musical instruments.
However Marc, as usual you don't have your facts right. It turns out that
the scientifically-proven benefit of cryogenic treatment of drill bits is
about 1/4, not 4 times.
http://www.nitrofreeze.com/cryo_twist_drills.html
The rest is hype and anecdote.
But getting back to cryogenically-treated headphone cables, they can't and
won't make a sonic difference because from an electrical standpoint, they
are vastly overbuilt. Their resistance, inductance and capacitance is even
less important than it is for speaker cables.
The fact of the matter is that the most relevant characteristic of headphone
cables is not how they sound, but how they last.
Finally Marc, didn't you know that for consumer listening, headphones are
fantastically passe . In 2008. it is all about IEMs, Marc, or don't you
know? ;-)