Hi Wayne,

Great question! It might be that cable lifters are what is needed to elevate music to a higher level.

If so, sadly, in my case, my music will remain at nether levels. My cables all lie unceremoniously scattered about on my tile-over-concrete slab floor.

Perhaps even worse, they are a mixture of lamp cord of various gauges, inexpensive molded cables, and the like.

Poor me!

Happy listening,

Art

Well, Bro Art,
You are the only one to comment, it is appreciated.
I DO believe in having a little better cables than just lamp cord, though a LOT of people will yell snake oil at me.
I do love to have things neat, tidy, orderly, including my cables, not crossing over signal cables with power cables, not running parallel, etc. So for that alone, I do LIKE THE LOOK when I go to a high end audio shop and they have their cables lifted off the floor on cable risers. LOOKS NEAT!!!!

BUT there is NO WAY I can get all my ducks in a row or my cables out of the way of each other, let alone up on risers.
AND I do believe this is just snake oil, for SURE (In my mind).
I WAS gonna give it a try though, those of you who know Asia will know that chop sticks usually rest on some kind of holder when on the table, and these are made of wood and ceramics and there are thousands of them to choose from over here, thousands!!!!! All shapes and sizes and most of them would work well as cable risers (except they might not be high enough off the floor unless you used a LOT of them). Silly ones, cool ones, ugly, cute, etc. I almost bought a set of these to try them out to see how it would look and sound.
But I could not find enough of one style, design, no where near enough to even raise my speaker wires up, so I gave up on the idea.
Anybody else?
God Bless,
Wayne

Hi Wayne,

Snake oil is where you find it. If you can hear a difference in sound quality when you add a feature, then it matters not whether the difference is measurable or can be heard by someone else.

My physical setup limitations preclude some of these refinements. I am content to work with what I have and to enjoy listening to my music.

Happy listening,

Art

Well Boys, I read your cable elevator posts and I thought to myself how disgusting the back of my system looks. I spent 2-3 hours tidying up my cables and will say it looks better although not professional. I used Styrofoam cups as speaker cable elevators and pieces of string to get them off the floor. Later tonight I'll be listening to the T Refs and I'm absolutely positive I will be hearing my speakers for the first time and in a New Light...the grass will be greener and the sky bluer -- effects of Elevated Speaker Wires.

Anthem,

Your post and photo may open an entire new genre of refinements to explore. There are doubtless variable audio properties to be sampled, depending upon the nature of the cup being used. There's Styrofoam, waxed paper. plastic and perhaps other cup constructions to be considered. There is also the impact of size. Surely, there is a difference between a large and supersize cup. And, what about a MacDonald's versus a Burger King versus a Hardees and so on.

Now, what about bend radius? And, for goodness sake, what are we going to do about length, given that one speaker is generally farther away from the amp than the other speaker in a pair?

As I write, I am looking across the room at my visible cables. Currently they are lying helter-skelter along the floor as they emerge from their various hiding places behind books, old electronic gear in shelves, a stool, and a chair. The problem appears overwhelming to me, so I think I'll just let the sleeping cables lie.

Have fun!

Art

Good ol Snake Oil

I've wondered at times about cable risers, never tried them (great system you're trying, Anthem! ) I do have a mass of cables, power cords, interconnects emanating out of receivers, amps, players, SONOS, on and on. Not well enough organized for sure, lots of close proximity of stuff conducting electrical signals. I really don't know the value of elevating cables after they've left that electrical interchange mass, but have wondered about the theory. The theory makes some sense, that dielectrics can change/affect the transmission of signals, hence why cable designers work so hard to minimize that effect. Nearby dielectrics, with even higher dielectric constants than the cable's insulation, like floors, can change the dielectric constant the signal has to travel through. So getting those other dielectrics further away makes sense at some level. Again, can anyone detect that difference hearing wise? And, after the signal has passed through the maze of fields from all the nearby currents of other cables, power cords, interconnects when they're all so near the components, what can be the effect of trying to isolate it from further effects when the cables are on the floor?? No idea.

Anthem, if, your cup elevation system brings you to a new light, let us know! I do know I should be getting the maze near the components better organized and separated when I do the next upgrades, and add even more interconnects....

Happy listening, and speculating! Any comments from those who've tried elevators welcome.

Rick