I once had a flood of water in my basement listening room. This was in the middle of winter and a freak warm front melted about a foot of snow in a few hours. My speaker cables at the time got soaked. So since that time I use cable elevators. Now I've just presented to the forum a 'Valid' reason to use them.! Additionally, I also think getting the cables off the vinyl floor tiles certainly can't be a bad thing in regards to eliminating dielectric absorbtion via the cable jacket touching the vinyl. Is it audible?- never really did the A/B comparison but it wouldn't surprise me one way or the other.
Ok now. Man I love this country and this web site because now I know all about cable risers. Now lets discuss what might be the best kind of dog for a listening room because everything makes a difference. Or maybe for those of us aspiring to be a champion audio-philies what is the breakfast of champions. Or do some shampoos have a positive or negative effect on your-should I say it?-ears and thus your ability to go to tranquil musicland. Or maybe riding home from work in what kind of car puts you in the best frame of mind for listening to 'uriah heep'. Or maybe do any of you think greenpeace can save anything so we don't loose the natural sounds of things to all artificial sounds. I don't want to get everybody atwitter but the dna of many things has been modified making things unnatural. Anyway lets move on to something way more intersting now we know all about cable risers.
Is there ANY phenomenon, man-made or natural, that DOES NOT affect high end audio systems? Is there any phenomenon in nature or man-made that an audiophile CANNOT hear? This includes anything occurring in the Milky Way. Cheers
The idea that synthetic carpeting can act as a dielectric is valid. However, the thought that an Audiophile would have bottom of the barrel plastic builder grade wall to wall carpeting in his listening room makes no sense at all. It's just a few $hundred bucks to hardwood floor a room. Throw a nice wool rug down, and you've got a cozy comfortable living space. With out the filthy allergen filled wall to wall garbage carpet.
People talk about flow of electrons like water through a pipe but folks, there is zero net displacement of electrons in speaker cables. Stop the voodoo please.
When you guys say 'dress' the cables, I use that term to mean a way of routing the wires so they don't cross or run parallel to each other, and keep the power cables away from the low level signal cables. That's what I use these things for. Syntax, you are such a cynic, I find that my cars perform better if they are freshly washed. Go figure.... :)
I couldn't hear any difference but they did dress up the wires, kept dust bunnies off the cables and because I used inexpensive foam elevators that stacked keep wires separated/organized around the racks.
Use cable elevators and mostly helps to keep dust bunnies from cables ( wood floors). Found them when helping a buddy tear down a wood shed after he bought resale home. No real sound improvement but less cleaning.
I use cabe risers for one reason only. They dress up the wires running across the floor. I have wood floors so the only reason mentioned would not even apply in my case. I use antique glass power line insulators that I got on Ebay for about $2 EACH. So, in my case, for only $16 I dressed my cabless to my SO's satisfaction. I bi-wire (let's not get started on the effectiveness of that...) so it actually looks like mini power lines running just above the floor!
" something for the eye to behold and cause you to say 'you are my cables aren't you?'. Then it makes the cable feel important and in turn the it makes the owner feel proud"
Does this apply to Elizabeth and her cables? Remember, they be on toilet paper thingys. :)
I think everybody has mentioned why they don't or do use them. I think the op needs us to explain(see the OP)what they do. So here is and explanation. Cables risers raise the cable off the floor. Got it so far? In doing so they dignify the lowly cable to audiophile status. It becomes not like a lowly beast of burden but something for the eye to behold and cause you to say 'you are my cables aren't you?'. Then it makes the cable feel important and in turn the it makes the owner feel proud. So to choose your 'raisers of the cable' whether it is toilet paper rolls or gold bars my recommendation is ask yourself how important do you want to feel. It is all in how you treat your cables I tell ya. So raise yourself up you noise lover and getcha some pretty cables rasiers.
Nonoise, I agree with your statement concerning the effect of synthetic carpet. When my cables are lifted off that surface there`s an improvement in clarity,or as you say less smearing. The change is subtle but consistent.I can`t comment on other flooring materials. Regards,
Use gold coins below your cables and you will hear the improvement immediately. Gold gets in reaction with the electrical field of the cables and improves the molecular flow (more shiny). Some say, the best are Krugerrands from South Africa ... but after long research I finally settled with white-gold Rolexes below my cables. There is a swiss precision added to details which is unique ...
"You can bet your bottom dollar that NONE of the various recording/mixing/mastering facilities are suspending their cables during the making of a recording."
I like that answer. All the recording studios I've worked in had the cables bundled together running across the floor or up inside a drop-ceiling. (We did keep power cables away from audio). But I would agree with the theory to keep cables off the carpet.
The interaction that occurs is when something like a synthetic carpet has cables laying on them. The synthetic carpets properties are similar to those used in cable jackets and thus, compete with and interfere with those fields mentioned that travel with the cables signal. They simply smear the signal.
Yes, they can be measured so it stands to reason that if something is nearby, let alone parallel with and touchung a cable, can interact with it, then it can mess with it.
To what extent is debatable but if you have synthetic carpets, then go the extra mile to get them away from the carpet but you need not pay through the nose to do so.
I'm lucky in that my Mapleshade Double Helix speaker cables are so taut that they are easily suspended with nothing more than themselves and whatever nearby is handy.
If you have wool carpets or wood flooring, I wouldn't give it any consideration.
Also, running wires parallel to each other and in close proximity over a distance is generally not a good idea due to em field interaction and risers are one way to avoid that.
Cable risers are for those are seeking "street cred" from their audiophool friends. You can bet your bottom dollar that NONE of the various recording/mixing/mastering facilities are suspending their cables during the making of a recording.
Nor do they place bags of rocks or crystals on their interconnects, speakers and such.
If folks would spend more time and effort acquiring the very best source materials to playback and fixing the response anomalies found in their listening room, they would be rewarded handosmely with a much better sounding system...
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