The topic of using a home freezer has been around for about 15 yrs., if I remember correctly. And, I believe it was Peter Belt who first introduced the theory.
The suppostion was that if an audio item (tubes, cables, CDs, even equipment) was frozen in a home freezer (which is typically at about 0 degrees f) and slowly brought back to room temperature, there was very often an improvement in sound. A typical procedure would be to place the item in the freezer overnight and the following morning to move it to the refrigerator (for a slow warmup) and then, when you come home from work, remove it from the refrigerator and let it sit for a few hours before introducing it back into the system. Several of the early experiments suggested that a second freeze / thaw cycle could offer some further improvement, but essentially no change with any further cycles.
I have done this with many items over the last three or four years. There is no cost and it takes almost none of my time. I always use baggies to prevent any substantial frost formation. And, in my case, results are variable and often unpredictable. A particular cable or tube may seem to change substantially, while others may end up with ambiguous results. I have not noticed that any improvements have deteriorated over time.
Since the advent of cryo treatments (most of my power cords and a few of my interconnects have been cryo'd) some comments have been posted to the effect that home freezing couldn't possibly be any good because the temperature is so far away from true cryo. I certainly have no argument about temperature differences, but the success of one does not necessarily discredit the other.
Some carefully done experiments might help, but only marginally. For example, three identical sets of interconnects that have been fully and equally broken in. One remains a base line, one goes through a couple of home freeze thaw cycles, and one is cryo'd. If several listeners could, independently (group analysis is, IMHO, often flawed) all agree on which sounded the best, would the result extrapolate to other cables and equipment. No. It is all the blessed variables that continually entrance and confound us.
In any case, if you are interested, it might be worth a try. I've had enough good results, and never any negatives, that I will continue to experiment from time to time. A little success story -- I once had a DAC that just would not relax, no matter how many hundreds of hours of play time I put on it. Out of frustration, I carefully wrapped it in plastic and tossed it into the freezer for 24 hrs., then the refrig for 24, and a final slow warmup to room temperature (must be careful about condensation). The result was a very noticeable, nice step in the right direction. Tonal characteristics were unchanged, but the presentation was less mechanical, more immediate, more musical. Still is - that was three years ago.
P. S. Putting component equipment into the freezer makes me nervous and I've only done it a couple of times. A little moisture in the wrong spot could be big trouble when you turn it on again. If you wanted to try with an old piece of equipment, wrap in plastic carefully and, to be safe, when it gets back to room temperature, remove the plastic wrap and let it sit for at least another 24 hrs.
A great weekend to you all,
Brian Elliott
