Cable lifters/towers- voodoo or the real thing?

HI all ! The purpose of lifting the cables is to get them in the air with cable elevators everyfoot or so . Just sliding insulation over them just lets them lay on a flat surface which is where you started .Putting the cable elevators closer together makes the bass tighten up more. I like to put them slightly different distances apart to even out the string resonance of the cables.

Went with 5/8" thick foam rubber pipe insulators from Home Depot. No difference that I can hear. Insulated speaker cords and power cords. Nothing. At least I can now step on the cords with impunity and not worry about damaging them.

Six Moons also glowed about these - I'm not buying :)

Seriously, cables can be microphonic (probably depends on the cable) and isolating them from vibration seems reasonable. Inverted styrofoam cups are an inexpensive test.

Depends! I am not sure about the tonal effects of cable lifters but I do know they help keep my massive speaker cables from bending or pulling down from the terminals of my mono amps which are raised off the floor by virtue of sitting on amps stands, Copulare style.

My speakers are bi-wired and if I were to leave the cables hand down from the amps, they would bind really bad causing an eventual bending of the terminals on the amps and or the connectors themselves.

I did not want to stick plastic or cardboard as lifters to raise the cables so I decided on one of the high tension varieties that a lot of people are using, the ones that are used for telephone poles or electric poles. They work great in that I do not have cables that are stressed.

I do not think I ever noticed any change in sound in my system with or without them. My speaker cables are about as thick as the Pangea AC9's, they are OEM Neotech pure silvers, ahem, some other high end cables name is on them in other varieties.
Ciao,
Audioquest4life

Afc, OK your problem (if you have one) is mechanical vibration, and not electrical inductance. Standard wood frame construction which meets the building codes, can vibrate a speaker cable lying directly upon the floor or even on carpet. Vibration introduced to the conductors can affect the music signal, but 'if' and 'how much' depends on many factors, such as the construction of the cable, particularly the thickness and material of the outer jacket, the cable's length, the strength of the vibration, etc. So the foam insulators would be appropriate if there is a problem -- but that's the part that's hard to determine.

If your speaker cables have relatively thin outer jacket material, or even none, like the Speltz anti-cables, then isolating them from mechanical contact with the floor (assuming the floor vibrates) should result in a quieter (blacker?) program background, with instruments and vocals having better definition -- but it's a tough call, and only you know if your system is improved.

Nsgarch, I have a carpeted floor with plywood underneath....a carpet pad, too. Beneath the floor is the garage.

If you have carpet etc they work BIG TIME!!

And what kind of floor construction is under your carpet? And what exactly do you mean by "work BIG TIME"? What do they do, or what problems do they eliminate; and what kind of cables are you referring to?

If you want your experience to mean something to others, you have to qualify your remarks. Otherwise, it's just another empty opinion ;--)

If you have carpet etc they work BIG TIME!!

Afc, you never said what kind of floor construction in your listening room, but speaker cables are the most vulnerable to both mechanical vibration (wood framing over a crawl space) and ground inductance (reinforced concrete slab, either on dirt or in a steel/concrete highrise.)

You're right, power cables and IC's are exempt ;--)

voodoo

Went the Home Depot route with foam rubber pipe insulators. Looks kinda stupid, what with the insulators on the cables being about 3" in diameter. Don't know if it makes a difference. If it does, I can't hear it. At least it was cheap- like four bucks for a six foot long piece of insulation.

Now- what should I isolate? Just speaker cables? Power cords, too? Please don't tell me to isolate interconnects. LOL.

Thanks nsgarch for the clarification....your thoughts may be spot on dude.I may go the shunyata route.many choices.

I asked because it's the floor *construction* that determines if and what kind of lifters/isolators you might need.

In a floor like yours, inductive interaction from laying on (or very close to, even if there's a carpet) a grounded surface like a reinforced concrete slab, is not an issue.

What *might* be an issue is vibration, and usually this will affect both speaker cables and interconnects (unless you have carpet in which case the interconnects are pretty well isolated by the carpet.

Cable lifters that can transmit floor vibration may not be that much help. A better solution in that case will be swimming pool 'noodles' if you can find them in a decent color ;--) Slice them into 4" - 6" lengths and string them onto your cable. (Gray pipe insulation can also be used but needs to have the seam held together with contact cement.)
.

I have a simple rambler type home...crawl space.Plywood(under carpet) typical 70s flooring type plywood over crawl space...i do have a hell of alot of vibration(pisses me off).Hope i answered your questions?I do wish i had more stable flooring.

Digsmithd, I wasn't enquiring about the floor finish (the carpet;--), I was enquiring about the floor construction -- what's under the carpet?

Concrete slab-on-grade (dirt), or concrete slab in a highrise bldg.,
OR
wood joists over a crawl space or perhaps over another room, with a plywood subfloor?

.

I have wall to wall carpet...so they are"necessary".I also have small shunyatas for cabling.As i said its something you just have to try for yourself and either works and you hear it or you dont?

Digsmithd -- I'm curious. What kind of floor is in your listening room: concrete slab or wood floor over joists?

Somethings you just have to try,I was using just plain glasses for interim...got the ceramic towers.Man what a differance in 3d,air,ect.I couldnt believe it,wife even commented on what a differance it made.Im a believer after that initial experiance...could it be differant product to product?All i know is what i heard initialy...and it was profound enough for me.

You can try using empty CD jewel cases and see/hear what you think. I ended up getting the ones Shunyata makes for their aesthetics and because they help absorb vibration. I think the effectiveness of these "devices" (as Frank Zappa would say) depends on your system.

Paul McGowan from PS Audio just addressed this in his newsletter this week. He's using plastic connectors from home depot. If you can't find it on the ps audio web site, email me.

You'll get as many different opinions as you get answers on this one. Here's the latest active thread:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?fcabl&1266538117&&&/Cable-Elevators-What-do-you-use-
and another extensive one before that:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?fcabl&1215950921&read&keyw&zzcable=elevators
Have fun!