That cryo-treatment has a positive effect on the sound of LPs, I have already revealed in the article about CoolTech. I was just too curious to know what the cold does to vinyl. More common and recognized, of course, is the process with metals. Audioquest and Göbel High End have provided cables for experiments.

I know of some, especially smaller cable manufacturers, who cryogenically treat all of their cables; other large ones, such as Siltech and Crystal Cable, prefer to heat the conductors by sending a high current through them for a while. Audioquest, on the other hand, subjects its LF cables to a controlled burn-in process starting with the Thunderbird. It is pleasing that Audioquest agreed to provide me with two sets of balanced NF cables each, just like Göbel High End, which does not provide any information about the conditioning of its cables. Although I have long owned Goebel Lacorde Statement XLR with which I am very happy after intensive use the two pairs have different lengths, and with so many hours of operation on the hump that they should not be used for a comparison with new, treated cables. So I needed and got two brand new sets.

After consultation with company owner Bill Low, who had already experimented with cryo treatments decades ago, did not recognize any great advantages, but did not want to exclude that cryo technology had also made progress in the meantime, Rob Hay, Audioquest's Marketing Director for Europe, also promised me two cable sets. However, they were to be priced in a different market segment than the Lacordes. In the end, we agreed on two sets of two-meter-long Yukon, whose conductors are made of Perfect Surface Copper+ and which are priced at 500 euros in one-meter lengths.

CoolTech boss Wolfgang Lausecker had put a pair each of Audioquest and Goebel cables in his cryogenic chamber together with the records and some tools, which I was not allowed to see, let alone photograph, and subjected them to CoolTech's own 15-hour cooling and warming cycle. In my listening room, the sticker-marked treated Yukon then took over the task otherwise done by my current favorite, the Audioquest Dragon, which is to transfer the signals from the DAC to the preamp. I did not listen to the Dragon again before the cable swap, since this and the Yukon are in completely different price ranges, and experience shows that price and sound quality are closely correlated at Audioquest.

Even without a direct comparison, I can say with certainty that even a frozen Yurkon does not come close to the Dragon. Even cryo technology cannot perform miracles. However, after switching to the original Yurkon, it is clear to me that the cryogenic process does have positive consequences: For example, the Yukon, which is subjected to cryogenic temperatures, provides a somewhat better definition in Ravi Shankar's "West Eats Meat". Although a certain amount of reverb surrounds the Tablas during the intro in the Yukon's original state, this results in a rather diffuse impression of space. With the treated Yukon, the spatial illusion is a bit more credible. The words, which can be heard three times and then twice in the following part thanks to the echo effect, fade away in the depth of the room in the cryo Yukon, whereas the virtual distance to the listener hardly changes in the "normal" Yukon.

In Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15, it is again primarily the space that makes the difference: it reaches a bit more into the depths when the deeply cooled Yukon is in play. This also takes a bit of sharpness out of the highs and makes them a touch smoother. Admittedly, these are small things, but they intensify the music enjoyment. If one wanted to achieve the same positive changes by using filters or new cables in the digital playback chain, for example, one would have to invest considerably more than the sum required for a cryo-treatment.

Let's move on to the Goebel Lacord Statement XLR. This time I start with the untreated pair - and am fully satisfied until I hear the treated pair. One of Oliver Göbel's favorite test pieces, "Calypso Minor" by Abdullah Ibrahim and Ekaya, is playing: The bass comes in sonorous and full of energy, the skin of the bass drum is clearly perceptible, and the horns have plenty of pressure - all this applies to both cables. The cryo version enlarges the imaginary space a bit, surrounds the snare with more reverb and moves it a few centimetres further into the depths. The grand piano's glassy stops seem even more impressive and the reverb surrounding them resonates much longer. This may seem hasty, but I could already pack my Göbel cables and head for Stanzach.

Not to be suspected of refusing to work, I'll play Mahler's Symphony No. 3 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra: Hearing the differences between the two cables is as easy as it is difficult to describe them. But that was already the case with the two versions of the records. Of course, the room seems a bit deeper with the cryo version, the reflections of the brass sounds on the left side of the recording room are now more clearly perceptible, the playback seems to be even a tad louder. These are - perhaps not entirely unimportant - details. But it is much more serious that the orchestra seems a bit more listless with the untreated cables, the performance simply lacks that certain something. With the cryogenically refined cables, the music is simply more fun!