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Audiotechnique Magazine - August 2005 by David Kan Equipment Review (Translated from Chinese ) |
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CryoClear Silver-2 |
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“My editor-in-chief always wants me to write more reviews on audio equipment. To be honest, that’s not really my forte. I’m a music lover more than an audiophile, my goal is to enjoy music. To me, audio equipment is a means to an end, and I will utilize any means to achieve this goal – i.e., regardless of the choice of audio equipment. It is therefore not a surprise that someone like me, who’d even enjoy music on a mini-combo, has never paid much attention to power cables. It was not until recently that I had been victimized by my own sin of randomly plugging in some no-name power cords in reviewing an Audio Zone pre-amp/power-amp setup that I realized that power cables do make a critical difference.” |
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Cryoclear Silver 2 |
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CryoClear’s designer Steve Huang resides in Toronto. He holds a Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering and a Master degree in Robotics. Currently, CryoClear has three models: Basic Silver, Silver-1 and Silver-2, the latter being the one I was reviewing. Even though the Silver-2 is the top model, it only retails at C$ 395 for a 6ft length. The conductors used in CryoClear Silver-2 cables are 12 AWG military grade, cryogenically treated silver plated copper wires. Silver plated copper seems to be giving us the best of both worlds. Silver is the most efficient (fastest) conductor among copper, silver and gold. Silver manages to maintain its conductive quality even when it’s oxidized, whereas copper will drastically deteriorate under the same condition. However, silver is very brittle, while copper is endowed with flexibility. |
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Cryogenic treatment is a process by which the metal is gradually cooled down to –300°F over an 8 hour period, stored at that low temperature for 24 hours, and then gradually brought back to room temperature over a 10 hour period. Cryogenic treatment causes the molecules to realign themselves in a more uniform and compact structure, thus removing liquid and other contaminants, and reducing inherent stresses that might have been resulted from mass productions. Cryogenic process also clarifies and realigns polycarbonate in optical discs like CD and DVD. |
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Left: Richard Mak, CryoClear User Right: Steven Huang, CryoClear Designer |
