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

Trust your ears and leave the arguments to the know it alls.

So when someone says "Given the well known problem of sighted bias, how do you know you really heard what you think you heard?"

Your response is: "Because I JUST KNOW WHAT I HEARD. So I can ignore you."

And, somehow, it’s the people asking questions that are the "Know-It-Alls?"

Hookay. ;-)

Andy and Nonoise +1. I hear a nice difference also. I put wood under my cables and my dog likes to get them back out and chew on them. It least it hasn’t liked to chew on the cables yet.

And, somehow, it’s the people asking questions that are the "Know-It-Alls?"

It's one thing to ask a question, another to belabor a point beyond what's accustomed or necessary. 😄

All the best,
Nonoise

I grew up in the 70's on Stereo Review and Julian Hirsch and so of course knew beyond any doubt that if the wire is thick enough and the frequency response is flat enough and the power is watts enough then that's all that matters. I mean this was beyond doubt. 

So when in the 90's with a good job and a remodeled listening room it was time to go shopping this was the frame of mind I was in. I would go and listen and find some good speakers, because speakers were different, because frequency response, see? And so speakers you audition. Everything else you can just buy by spec.

Totally convinced of this. Not a one of you professing disbelief can hold a candle to me back then. Not a one. Did any of you take your CD player to a store and ask to compare it side by side? I did. And interconnect. And amp. Made a real pest of myself. 

Oh and yes, ashamed to admit it but for a while there I made a real ass of myself spouting off in utter ignorance sounding every bit as much a loser wannabe noob as anyone around here today.

This all went on until one day by chance listening to one track on CD of all things it hit me. There was a quality to the sound of this particular recording that was different from my system and yet similar to some of the other really good systems I had heard. Nowadays I would say it was more liquid with less grain and glare. But back that vocabulary didn't exist for me back then. It developed only gradually over time and with a lot of effort listening to and comparing a lot of different things.

So I can sympathize with the people who have yet to develop the skill to listen. Its sad, knowing the better you listen the more you're able to build a truly great system, and appreciate the better music and recordings. If you can't hear, you can't do, and you just go on missing out.

Its not all bad of course. Not knowing what you're missing. How can you feel sad losing what you never had in the first place? Not to mention its easy to criticize when you haven't even the foggiest idea what it is you're criticizing. 

You can fell as good about it as you want. Just as long as you don't mind that nagging feeling that others really do know. But I'm sure that never happens.

prof,

I guess I was right.  You couldn't admit to your self-indulgence.  Not that it's a problem :-)