Tholt, I have always found wood robs the music of its pace and thrill. I would include bass in that. Try cd boxes, but if you really want the best go to china cups. I use special ceramic feet that look like electrical isolators but they are no longer made. They are from Rightway Audio.
Cable Elevators killed my bass
I purchased a set of 8 Cable Elevators locally on consignment recently for experimentations' sake and was shocked to hear how they seemingly sapped my speakers/system of a couple of hertz of bass output. I have stand-mounted monitors with limited bass so this effect was not subtle. However, every last vestige of grain, haze and artifice in the mid and upper frequencies was gone (and I mean GONE!) as well so this tweak seems to be a double-edged sword that I feel like falling on. Anyone else out there have a similar experience with disappearing bass?
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Maybe my 'tone' or choice of words came across harsher than intended. One of the downfalls of reading text vs seeing and hearing someone speak. I think it's stupid to tell people what they can and can't hear. I've tried a lot of 'absurd' things too. Some changed the sound (better and worse), some didn't. I tried hockey pucks and some Ikea wooden X-shaped book ends (a 6 Moons guy wrote about the bookends) as cable elevators. There was no difference to my ears. All of the tweaks I've used were either things I already had at home (like the book ends, butcher blocks) or things I could return for a full refund. I just can't wrap my head around how elevating cables and/or moving them and letting them settle can effect the sound. Unless you're getting them away from each other or something that causes interference, of course. |
Thanks Tbg. Anyone have any experience with the inexpensive ESD isolators or Signal Cable risers? This isn't something I want to throw a bunch of money at, but if I'm gonna do it, it would be nice if they looked halfway decent. |
Tholt, there is very little that I haven't tried from cardboard, wooden sticks, glass blocks, strings from the rack, 18 Kv isolators with the cables hanging down in between, acrylic pieces, etc. Most have a limited effect, some a substantial bad effect, and a few a limited beneficial effect. As I said, I would stick with ceramics, such as cups, soap dishes, etc. If you go to my system page, you will see that the 18Kv isolators don't look very good, especially when I had to tape Suspenders on top of them as they didn't sound good. They are heavy, however, and stay put. |
I ordered the ESD risers. $40 for 10 (b-stock. hopefully they don't look like they came from the bottom of a dumpster) to see if they're better than the current wood blocks I'm using. I have hardwood floors -- cable risers don't seem to make a huge impact in my system. Curiously, putting the wood blocks underneath speaker cables (Zu) sounds worse than when they lay on the floor. |
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