Lifters ForGetting Cables Off The Floor, Worth It Or Snake Oil


  •  I'm looking at some porcelain cable lifters to get some power and speaker cable up off the floor.  Does raising the cables off the floor really make a difference? It's going to be about 200 bucks for 10 of them. Thanks.  
zar

I am agnostic on whether cable risers make a difference. Therefore, I would not spend a lot of money on cable risers, especially since my basement system does not have appearence rules set by my wife. That said, a few years back, an audio buddy ordered a bunch of thick foam cut into keystone-shaped pieces. They are ~5" high, and, I would guess, offer some vibration isolation. They were cheap enough that I bought them. IIRC, I think they were about $10 for a dozen of them. So, I use them, but I have never really spent the time to try and hear if they make a difference or not.


One post did catch my eye, though: chazro mentioned that he had coiled some speaker wire due to the length being longer than required. While I would not argue for unequal cable lengths, you should never coil speaker wire (or any wire, AFAIK), because the coil will act as a resistor(?), and reduce high frequency through-put. I had been making the same mistake after I moved my amp from my equipment rack to be closer to the speakers. Some audio buddies of mine saw that, and one asked "do you feel your highs are too rolled off?" I said, as a matter of fact, I do! And he said "that’s because of your coiled speaker cables."  He proceded to shorten my speaker cables. Veils were lifted. Highs were extended. The Soundstage widened. Unicorns flew over rainbows that arched between my speakers. YMMV, of course.

I noticed that statement too. I believe the mechanism involved in coiled speaker cables is induction, with the coil acting as an inductor, which, in series, acts as a low pass filter, reducing high frequencies, exactly as you noted.
How much induction could there be, you know, with one or two coils? Maybe the photons get dizzy. Did anyone consider that?

Mine were coiled about 6 or 7 times, so there you go.  Thanks, toddverrone, induction was what I was thinking of.  Yet another Senior Moment. 
This cable lifting phenomenon seems to be a case by case situation.

I requested my girlfriend and her friend to hold left and right speaker cables while playing a tune.

While it was a pleasant sight, I heard no sonic improvement. I will suggest  both of them wear bikinis  and give it another go.