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

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 :-)

While I’ve never really tested the (non-)effect of cable risers I wouldn’t rule out they’re having an effect, whilst quickly saying that if expensive cable risers of some more or less exotic material are promoted as having the biggest, most positive effect I’ll laugh it off as a load of b*llocks, safe for acknowledging mere coincidence. Really, why in the hell is it close to always the most expensive materials (and configurations) that are the most highly touted in the hifi business - with the claim that they’re sonically superior, that is? Go to a jeweller and find out..

(De-)coupling of components has an affect for sure, but it’s assessing what approach has the most desired impact. I have a DAC/preamp on loan these days as a possible item to replace my existing DAC/preamp, and tried it out initially without my Ringmat Domes (made of compressed cork) underneath it. I was later shocked to find out that the biggest difference in sound between the two DAC’s was due to using or not using the Ringmat Domes. Not highly relevant to this thread, perhaps, but still a humbling experience that could be related.