Synergistic Research Cable Risers?

I haven’t read all three pages of posts yet and will delete if necessary but these are not ordinary cable risers. Note that they have a red ECT looking device on each one. This is probably the reason that using these risers focus the sound. Whether or not they act like the Black Box which was a failure in my system (cut off highs at 8Khz and above) I don’t know. I plan on trying them out in the future. I gave back the Black Box.

P.S. I 100% disagree with drbarney’s conclusion because there is an art to constructing cables that is currently not quantifiable and cannot be test equipment verified.  The sonic differences are obvious as I have been a cable tester for a manufacturer for two decades.  

Another fellow thinks the audio signal has frequencies. The signal is not the audio waveform. Hel-loo!

I read all the posts.  +1 goose.  Without the 32 HFTs in my custom listening room I would need extensive quadradic diffusion paneling on the front and rear walls.  The side and ceiling surfaces have extensive absorption paneling.  The sound in this room is comparable to at least $250,000 in electronics despite using a 30 year old $2500 pair of Legacy Focus speakers.  (The entire room cost $160,000 to build which eliminated the need for bass traps).  However, the Shakti Hallographs do make a more significant benefit in imaging.  The HFTs provide a huge soundstage and focus the sound.  

In my previous listening room, I had underground speaker wire conduit installed prior to pouring the concrete.  The wire sounded much better under the ground than laying on top of carpet (25' speaker runs).  I decided that inexpensive cable risers were at least adequate on the new build with no reason for anyone to walk near the speakers (previous room had 42,000 LPs/CDs/78s-so I would have to walk over the wires occasionally if they weren't underground).

I have 9 of the SR Cable Risers in my system, which has two 10' SR Atmosphere Level 4 speaker cables.  I got them because I have carpet in my dedicated listening room and I was worried about static build up within the cable, particularly in the drier winter months.  Their design is superior to others, including Nordost, because of how they insulate against static transmission.  

Do they make a noticeable improvement in system (i.e. speaker cable) performance?  Its hard for me do say because I have had them in place for a few years.  I have not bothered with an A/B.  I will say two things about them: first, I can't recall a noticeable performance uptick when I installed them, so there may not have been one in my system; and second, I really like them because they make the speaker cables more noticeable so I don't have folks stepping on them and it allows for easy vacuuming without having to lift the cables all the time.

The paradox is these admittedly expensive risers likely work better, from a performance perspective, on cheaper speaker cables.  Well constructed cables with excellent insulation or isolation from RFI and other forms of transmission interferences likely don't benefit as much from cable lifters.

Bottom line is: each to their own, and if you like the look and intuitively presumed benefits then what the hell.  I will say they look good.

Ray

@geoffkait

Grab em up second hand when they go on sale. 🙄

When I first started reading and actually learning things here I did not quite understand your posts at all. But now I find them quite refreshing because of your capacity to always find humor. ;)

@bdp24

You can get a package of 20 Grip Rite brand "Plastic High Chairs" (supports to elevate the rebar in concrete foundations) at Home Depot, product no. IHCP21420R (sku 7 64666 53838 2), $3.60 for the bag of 20. Put a "suspension bridge" across the gap (as Shunyata does on their cable riser) if you wish.

Well I’ll be damn! I work in concrete construction and never thought about using the plastic chairs used to elevate rebar to elevate subwoofer and speaker cable off of the carpet! I can get any height, width size and as many I want for free! Now I have something to go along with the clear Gorilla Tape I’ve been using when running cable on the baseboard molding. Thanks!