Does raising speaker cables off the floor really make a big difference?

I’ve just read through this thread and it would appear there are people in both camps.

I am not surprised some people hear a difference and others do not, because we are all using different cables 

The one omission throughout the thread was
- NO ONE in either camp has identified the cables they are using.

What difference does it make? you ask...
- due to cable geometry, some cables carry so much internal noise that hearing the difference cable risers make is next to impossible

- others geometries reduce the amount of noise, so using cable risers with those would demonstrate the improvements.

- Also the insulation used in cables has an impact on the amount of noise generated internally.

Many years ago I tried cable risers with one of my older speaker cables and they made no difference, but with the cables I now have, lifting them off of the floor did improve the sound.

So - how much benefit is heard depends on the "geometry" of the cables and the insulation used.

- If you use simple geometries i.e. two wires side by side such as Van den Hul CS-122 or the NAIM speaker cables the improvement would be difficult to detect

- with geometries like the Planus III cables used by the OP, I believe they would benefit from the use of cable risers.
---- those big flat cables sitting on carpet or wood would have more internal noise than if suspended on cable risers
---- As one of the other posters mentions it’s all about dielectric influences of the floor on the cable/signal
---- Man Made Fibre Carpet is especially bad - wool would be better

For myself - I use a HELIX geometry in all my cables
- the signal wire is suspended in the center of a Helix Neutral coil by spaced wood beads, so a high percentage of the dielectric between the signal and the neutral is actually air
- also the coil acts like a faraday cage, so external RFI/EMI in the signal wire is very low
- the resulting signal that reaches the speaker is almost noise free
- hearing the improvement was quite discernible

I use DIY wood risers with a ceramic base that lift the cable up about 3/4". I did try lifting the cables higher, but there was no improvement.

Regards - steve

@nonoise RE:...

I ordered some of those Ikea tea light holders from Ikea and am getting 12 for $11

I like your style - I went to the Dollar Store and bought a couple of sets of children’s wooden Alphabet blocks - $6 for two sets of 15 blocks.
- I stuck some craft sticks on the sides to stop the cables sliding off - an additional $3
- And a 2" tile from a bathroom project as the base - just to stabilize them
- worked like a charm

I didn’t know if it would do anything positive but as it turns out
- one of my cheapest tweaks to date - that worked :-)

Regards - Steve

@drbarney1 - RE:...

That is why I am a little suspicious of over-priced cables and the questionable physics describing why you need them.

The only proven method to gauge the effectiveness of a cable is to try them.

But the good news is - there are some very good cables to be had out there.

Here are some general design points that I have found contribute to good cable performance:...
- conductor material - high quality copper, silver plated copper and solid silver
:- insulation type
----- Teflon is OK,
----- "foamed" variants are generally better
---- cotton is very good- e.g Duelund wire with cotton/oil insulation is amazing
:- conductor gauge...
---- cables with a larger neutral generally provides better performance
---- larger gauge cables does not always provide superior performance
:- cable geometry
----- I use a helix geometry - like the Anticables IC’s
----- ribbon geometries as used on Nordost speaker cables are also very good.
---- braiding as with Kimber Kable generally offer better performance than parallel wires, but beware of high capacitance in braided speaker wires

Hope that throws some light on a very complicated topic

Regards - Steve