Hey is this real?

I've done it and it does seem to improve the quality. I was skeptical at first so I used my hacked player that I didn't mind trying it out on. The sound was clearer with less background noise. If you do decide to try it, just be sure and follow the instructions from the first post.

this is nuts...

Thanks to all the brave lads who tried my experiment. I am happy that you were able to gain benefits to your sound from this. I've been experimenting with tweaks like this for years, so I already know it works. But it always helps to have confirmation from others. To the skeptics who didn't try it but nevertheless said it can't work because you can't understand how it would and weren't told already that it does, if you prefer to allow your beliefs to limit your sound quality, that is of course your choice. To those who would be inclined to fall in line with the naysayers, I maintain that from my experience of putting numerous mp4 players through the freeze process, I have not had a single problem with the units; and neither has anyone else here in two years of reporting success with this technique. So IMO, there's nothing to lose by trying it.

I did not really explain where this comes from or why this process should work, because it automatically generates controversy, and I did not want to weigh the whole thing down with theoretical debates, and the usual dismissals of "placebo"! But I think there are enough people now who have reported good results, vs. no one(?) who has reported it did not work, to dismiss the usual dismissals of "expectation bias" etc. If you have never heard of this process, it's only because you have never heard of it. In the application of CD's, for which it is better known, it was reported in The New York Times, Stereophile magazine, online audio magazines like Positive Feedback, and there's even a video on YouTube demomstrating the process. My idea of using mp4 players and their phones instead of freezing CD's however, is a little more unique. ;)

I understand that it is -very- difficult for people unfamiliar with the concepts behind this, to understand what's actually going on. For that to happen, it requires a lot of research into the phenomenon it is based on; which I have, but no one else does. What I mean by "difficult" is.... it has nothing to do with say, the idea that chips operate well under low temperatures (if so, the improved sound would disappear after a day or two when the player is at room temp. - yet the effect is permanent), or affecting the crystal lattice structure of the material the components are made of (this doesn't happen at the temperatures of a domestic freezer!). Those are just a few popular theories that try to fit the explanation into a conventional model of what is known and accepted. This phenomenon deals more with what is little known and little accepted. Trust me, the conventional theories do not "hold water", when you go deeper into researching the phenomenon (as I have).

The "little known and little accepted" reason behind the process, is that it affects the perception of the listener himself. Which doesn't refer to autosuggestion. That refers to the process of modifying the nature of energy fields the player and phones posess (as do all objects in our environments), in a way in which they become more beneficial to humans, rather than adverse. This reduces a kind of tension that affects human senses, which in turn helps improve perception of sound in general. See, if I would have said that, no one would have tried it in the first place! :) Anyway, this is better known as "the Belt phenomenon". The freeze process that I described here, and the phenomenon of energy fields in the environment that affect the human senses, was first discovered and developed by a British audio engineer named Peter Belt, some 25 years ago. (At about the same time, a Canadian engineer named Ed Meitner was discovering similar things freezing cd's and cables at cryogenic temperatures. It was Belt who discovered the same thing could be done at freezer temps, and who went further in understanding the actual reason behind the effect).

For those who are interested in the process, and want to know more about the man who discovered it, or other "weird" but free tweaks that could help improve the sound of your mp4 player and everything else, point your browser to my site: www.theadvancedaudiophile.com (n.b. For the time, it might take a couple of minutes to load the home page, but everything should be normal after that). If you want to try to understand the reasoning behind the freeze phenomenon from the master himself; this would be a good place to start: The "Freezing" Saga or this 3rd party review: Belt.

All those who have experimented with the Freeze Effect process have gone further than most high end audiophiles are willing to! So props to the pioneers. Because before every major new scientific discovery, observations had to be made. And if we don't challenge the conventional, we don't advance.

Sigmatel dude: This isn't about "reducing noise". So I'm surprised people are reporting it does that. The idea is to improve the quality of sound of your music that your mp4 player or other audio gear puts out, to make it sound more "musical", to use a term. There is no mp4 or mp3 player made that can't be improved by this process.

mp3gain dude: I use mp3gain, it's fine. I'm not entirely sure it isn't degrading the sound, despite claims to the contrary, but if you need to normalize, it's the best tool out there. However, understand this has nothing to do with my freeze experiment. It will not "improve" the sound of anything, as the freeze effect does. It will only normalize the volume.

Daremos: "anyway... what if we put the program mp3gain in the freezer? it will increase twice" Believe it or not, yes. Absolutely. I don't know about "twice", but your computer sound will improve, and so will everything you process through mp3gain from that point forward. Instead of dismissing it with rollyeyes, put your laptop through the process I described in my first post, and see if that isn't the case, that the sound coming off or through the machine improves. I have, if that helps any. Just make sure there's a full, slow thaw before you put it in operational mode, and you can avoid condensation by placing it in a plastic bag before freezing.

Awesome! Before doing this, my chipod sounds like crap. Now the sound quality is on par with my laptop (or with any ipod for that matter). The music is more detailed and sweeter, deeper than before.

hmm... It seems the sound from my laptop is still sweeter and fuller. The sound from my chipod is obviously improved, but still sounds drier and not as full as my laptop's.
Maybe I didn't freeze it enough :))

Heh, i'm glad this thread caught thru. Given that there are so many "audiophile" parts (especially tubes it seems) that claim better sound because they were cryogenically treated, i'm not surprised if there is a grain of truth to the whole story.

My old player had annoying background noise especially when watching clips, and it disappeared after i froze it. The key to it is to let it thaw slowly as explained.

Now, since i have again some players to screw around with (a dozen to be precise, but right now only one works and another one is about to be recovered, not sure about the other ones), i'll do some objective testing. I'll record a quiet song from all the players i manage to recover, before and after freezing. Then you can judge whether the improvement is there or not.

After spending two days freezing my mp4 player, headphone and mobile phone. My conclusion: IT DID NOT WORK AT ALL!!!!