Cryo Valves (Page 1 of 2)

I guess my question was answered with this topic.

Joe, what are your preferred tubes and why?? by stratpaulguy86

Mine wanders all the time, which is why I think of stupid a** questions about cryo valves.

Zen focus.

Thanks.    The seeds are sown for an extra question while buying valves/tubes.

I've got more of a gear ADDiction.

Its good to day dream, some of the best ideas can be found lurking there.

Thats really funny.    I love non-scientists chipping in their tuppence worth.    But then again scientists don't do themselves any favours, hold on, I mean we scientists don't do ourselves any favours.

If we were sitting with an oscilloscope we would see the improvement on tubes, but add in guitar, pick-ups, cables, dodgy sockets and general electrical noise from the national grid and the improvements are lost.

It's funny that so often we assume that an improvement in efficiency or strength or some other physical attribute, will somehow result in an improvement in tone. Does cryo treatment improve the efficiency of the electron flow? It very well may. Does that equate to better tone? Maybe not. Perhaps a lack of efficiency creates some pleasing treble rolloff. It's like assuming that a hotter pickup will send "more" signal to the amp, and thus sound better. Or better yet, why bother with the whole short neck tenon vs long neck tenon argument? We could all play neck through designs, because they are structurally superior.  We all know now that hotter pickups have their own compromises, and if neck through designs offered universally accepted improvements in tone, we'd see a lot more of them. I think the benefits of cryo tubes need much more research. Buy several sets of standard tubes, put them in an amp and record. Now, send the tubes in for cryo treatment. and record again. The player(s) guitars, speakers and recording gear must be exactly the same. Ideally, everything was left in place and not moved. That would be a start. It's not enough to compare cryo tubes to normal tubes, unless a LOT of them are compared. It would be better to compare the same tubes before and after treatment. That way, the only difference is the treatment. Wish I had the resources to do the test.

Are cryo valves good value or just good science? And then the vote following was yes or no? To WHICH question part? Anyway, the answer should be neither for either! I'm assuming is all we are talking about is putting them through a cycle on a environmental (sometimes referred to as a "burn-in") chamber? If that's the case, the PROCESS is indeed helpful in discovering something about the tubes.  You can rest assured they will either be useless much earlier or much much later.  It all cannot escape the original pre-cyro manufacturing process(es).  How many manufacturers are doing this?

Rock On & Keep the Faith,
Rocket

"He still doesn't charge for mistakes! "
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Yeah thats my fault, there were 4 options originally, yes, no, good science and crack-pot science.

I didn't notice when I refreshed the page that it defaults back to only two poll options.   

The options being yes they are good value because my sound is awesome, no they are a waste of money because my $10 cable ruins any bonus the valves would gain, good science for the sake of science but not important enough to spend money on and crack-pot science because its just another con to rip off musicians. 

Seems to be one single company on the entire planet doing this.

Watford Valves.    Hmm?    Talk about niche market.

By the time I make it on here any "scientist" credentials I had have been used up.   Who's Martin?

Its always been a thought lingering in the back of mind "how can this be the only company doing this, if its so good?"    Without a doubt there would have a company in the US doing it, IF there was a market for it.    I might start doing it, always got an excess of liquid nitrogen kicking around the lab.    Freezing valves might be more fun than freezing flowers, vegetables, ping pong balls etc.

Morgan