Does raising speaker cables off the floor really make a big difference?
I have no clue as to why folks think "raising wire off the floor" is a "cash cow tweak". There are numerous ways to do this and spend a pittance of money. Cups, CD cases, etc. Seems to me these individuals have little interest in experimenting with their systems to improve the overall sound. One must ask why they are commenting on something when they have no practical experience to back up their claim. |
jughead You don’t need risers with well designed cables spend the money on music and don’t buy into the snake oil Cash cow tweak. Audio is getting as bad as the video game industry $$$$$$$$ >>>>Gosh, you mean they have cables now that are self-levitating? Hey, that’s cool, but I already suggested magnetic levitation pods for cables last week. Hel-loo! |
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@dorkwad , Before I got the Ikea tea light holders I was using Yoplait Oui glass yogurt jars. The Ikea holders made no difference in sound than the Yoplait jars, but they look much nicer. Also, I don't think it would make a difference with your tile setup. You can only try it yourself with something cheap for an experiment to see if you would benefit from it, like uberwaltz said. All the best, Nonoise |
I performed an experiment a few years back when my system needed to be taken completely apart and moved to a different room in the house. I had an approximate total 300' of speaker cable running the tri-amped system. I know sounds ridiculous (actually great). The new location required much less cabling, but being a lazy SOB and doing this in stages I hadn't cut and soldered ends on the cable, so they remained way too long. I simply coiled them on the floor, yes bass mids and highs 10 gauge cable makes quite a stack of copper. An audiophile buddy correctly pointed out that those cables had to be inducing some kinda voltages in each other due to proximity. I agreed, but I can't hear it. Remember new room new SQ but no apparent problems. Fat story slim..........I only turned on the bass amps (two ARC mono-blocks) and let some music rip, greater than a kilowatt going to the two woofers. And guess watt (pun intended) neither the mid or highs made a peep! I was very amazed. Not a perfect experiment by any means, but that is watt happened. Hence I'm not into cable elevators. One last thing (before someone asks) all of the drivers will play the other drivers freqs. Tried that as well although at a very low volume. The tweeter will make some "bass" noises and the woofer will make some tweeter noises. The mid-range is almost full range. I never argue about tweaks, waste of time. |
Bob It is doubtful you would benefit much. I have the same set up of ceramic tile over thick solid slab of concrete and it was opined it probably would not change much. Again like your self I am very happy with the sound but if it is cheap I will give anything a try. And I still might on this just out of curiosity. |
nonoise, Do the tea light holders from IKEA actually make a difference in sound from having them on the floor? Have you compared them to other lifters that do make a difference? I currently have no lifters and have ceramic tile over cement in a dedicated basement room. My system is very nice sounding. At this point, I've been working on tweaks to make the sound even better--several SR products and will be getting more PPT products to go with the TC paste. Bob |
This concept is the epitome of snake oil, confirmed by GK's embrace of it. Try it it with styrofoam cups or empty rolls of toilet tissue for an experiment. Trust your ears and watch your pocketbooks, that is my best advice, or you might be apt to buy goofy crystals thinking it will enhance the sound of your system. Too funny. |
@simonmoon "
He likes those porcelain ceramic insulators. They can be found for a lot less money than the ones made for audio." Isn't this a bit of a tip that some audio vendors can be quite predatory? Also, I am suspicious of any tweak that is reported to take a few days or weeks to deliver it's benefits. That makes A-B comparisons extremely unreliable and magnifies the probability of user bias developing. |
avanti1960 I have the personality that I need visual order. Without judging anyone I believe that this is a form of expectation bias, a clean car with a fresh oil change seems to run better than a dirty one, a neat orderly system sounds better than a cobbled disorganized mess. >>>>>>Have you consulted an OCD specialist? |
I like everything in my system to be "just so"- e.g. cables organized, components perfectly aligned and centered in the rack, speakers positioned precisely, speaker cables run neatly, etc. I have the personality that I need visual order. Without judging anyone I believe that this is a form of expectation bias, a clean car with a fresh oil change seems to run better than a dirty one, a neat orderly system sounds better than a cobbled disorganized mess. I have heard no benefit to speaker cables being raised from the floor but it does look neat and orderly and I can understand how that works. |
I have a suggestion. Does the insulator on a speaker cable store and re-release an electric field capable of doing something to the sound? A way to find out is connect one cable pair to an amplifier but not to a speaker. If you use tube amplifiers, especially SET, you won't hurt the amplifier and it should be safe with much solid state. Connect another cable pair to a speaker, the more sensitive the speaker the better' but not to an amplifier. Tape the two cables against each other so the amplifier voltage in one cable pair is able to store the electric energy in the dipole molecules in the cables connected to the speaker. Turn up the music on the amplifier to the one set of cables and place your ear against the speaker with its disconnected cable. I do not think you will be able to hear the micro-volt effect of molecular dipoles tilting and returning to normal. That is one test where there is no danger of any placebo effect in a listening test. |
Why was this thread not started in the " CABLES " section ? Lots of posts in 10 days here about such a significant, audible improvement to be had, by doing this. I find, isolating all of my cables, mechanically away from floors and walls, and eliminate all negative, electrical, static, mechanical, and audible influences, the cables do not exist. @geoffkait ....I follow you completely, on the subject. |
I have to go wit the "made no difference at all" crowd. I have tried this in my systems as well as having others I know try it. Not many of us as there were only four total but not one of us heard a difference. And if there was actually some difference it was not audible, and certainly not worth the price of any expensive cable elevators. The most common method used were wood blocks, and all of us tried the Cardas elevators. Again, like everything audio, it is so system, room and home / environment dependent. One just has to try it on their own, or get enough feedback from places like here to make your own informed decision. |
Static electricity can be caused by friction, electrostatic induction or electrostatic conduction. I am no physicist but it appears the static phenomena between the wire and the carpet fibers is caused by either induction or conduction. Charging by conduction involves the contact of a charged object to a neutral object. In contrast to induction, where the charged object is brought near but never contacted to the object being charged, conduction charging involves making the physical connection of the charged object to the neutral object. I’ll leave it to others to determine which is the cause. FWIW, static is more likely to exist in a drier climate versus one that has higher humidity. That may be the reason some experience no sonic impact from elevating the speaker wire from the carpet. If you some cd’s, you can try this simple experiment (raise wires off the floor with the case) for $0.00 and a couple of minutes of your time and determine if you can hear the difference or not. |
Yes. Carpet static electricity is a real issue, especially where I live. Also bought a "grounding pad" that I touch before I touch any of my gear. And I went cheap and used CD plastic cases. Total cost under $20. This raised some 70' of speaker cable off the carpet. Audible drop in system noise floor. Less noise, more music. Pretty simple concept. Whether you can hear or not depends on the overall transparency of your system. |
kudelka8 Might work, might not. Only way to know is to try. I did ,and it made no difference. i spray my cables down with anti static spray ever couple days, and that makes for cleaner sounding music. And it likely does about the same thing as raising cables is supposed to do. I also so shut off my power conditioner when i’m not using it, and reboot my modem every couple of days (my system is server-based), and run a demag track every two days. Same general purpose. Music just sounds smoother, more lifelike, less grainy, more open. Like cable lifting is supposed to do. Everything you you try is going to be system and room dependent. Even when something makes a difference, it might well not be a good difference. And even good differences are almost certainly going to be incremental" there are no magic bullets out there. >>>>There are at least a few reasons why some audiophiles don’t get the results they were expecting, not all of which are flattering to the audiophile. Also, magnetism is not one of the reasons why cables should be lifted off the floor. Vibration is one of the reasons, though. |
Sure it does.
Honest... I ran out of gas. I... I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts! Get those things on the ceiling to make sure the electrons have a clear path over the special silver-chrome-molybdenum-steel banana plugs with the special gold set screws down to those titanium drivers in that specially laminated under 36.4 lbs of pressure teak/walnut/oak box. Well, that's what the electrons TOLD me, anyway. Merry Christmas, pal. |
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... it keeps going ... Maybe my posts are in a sort of superposition to your own, and if you never look at them or comment on mine, they won’t exist. But at this rate, without your being able to stop yourself, we’ll never know... ;-) We’re in this together, bud! |
Might work, might not. Only way to know is to try. I did ,and it made no difference. i spray my cables down with anti static spray ever couple days, and that makes for cleaner sounding music. And it likely does about the same thing as raising cables is supposed to do. I also so shut off my power conditioner when i’m not using it, and reboot my modem every couple of days (my system is server-based), and run a demag track every two days. Same general purpose. Music just sounds smoother, more lifelike, less grainy, more open. Like cable lifting is supposed to do. Everything you you try is going to be system and room dependent. Even when something makes a difference, it might well not be a good difference. And even good differences are almost certainly going to be incremental" there are no magic bullets out there. |
"The only thing that is obvious is that this is a claim with no merit or factual basis." very strange statement Actually what I do is all documented and has been since 1989 in High End Audio and back to 1975 in the pro-audio world. Sometimes you guys get too caught up in your own spins and fail to see that professionals have been on top of the research all along. This is why not many of us (professionals) care to hang around these types of forums for extended periods at a time. michael green |
I have found that any benefit of the quieter noise floor from lifting the cables is offset by the noise from the tapping feet of the mice that can't help doing the limbo under the cables. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq7pxUgjLz0 |
@wyoboy, Shopping tomorrow? I feel for ya. That, and having your birthday so close to Christmas probably made your childhood less satisfying than the other kids who had theirs in, say, summertime. I hope they work as well for you as they have for me since, after all, it was you that got me thinking about it and then ordering the holders from Ikea. I'll bet Ikea is wondering why those tea candle holders are flying off the shelves.😄 I hope your wife hears the differences as well. That would make for some great dinner conversation. 👍 All the best, Nonoise |
