A Couple Little Things I'm Wondering About

+1 rodman99999  Electric current is a motion of electric charge. The same amount of electric charge that leaves the source comes back to it.  Energy has to be delivered different way.  It is delivered on the outside of the cable (most of it between wires, but some outside) in form of electromagnetic wave.  Even when AC current changes direction electromagnetic wave doesn't - it is always from source to load.  Electromagnetic wave around the wires travels thru dielectric.  This dielectric affects speed of electricity, capacitance, dielectric absorption etc.  When you place cable on the floor some small fraction of electromagnetic wave travels thru floor impacting a little dielectric constant (wood has higher dielectric constant than air).  How audible it is I don't know.  In my system cables hang in the air between amp and speakers, but with other cables I don't remember hearing any difference.  It does not mean there is no difference.  Some people have better hearing and better systems than mine.

The current doesn't travel anywhere it isn't a thing but a concept. Electric current is the rate of flow of charge carriers in the conductor not in the dielectric. Electromagnetic energy flows outside the conductor,  most of it not all of it.  All the energy that flows in the conductor is used up as heat. The flow is close to the speed of light the miniscule amount of flow that is affected by a carpet or wood floor is barely measurable much less audible. The cable risers do nothing but calm the neurosis of the user.  If placing cables on risers affected the sound then your music would have a staccato effect as the flow passed over them. The whole notion of cable risers is ludicrous. 

jcole, I have what you would call a reasonably high end system. I do not waste my money on any of that garbage. Cable elevators are just a cosmetic thing to show off your stupidly expensive cables. Any sonic improvement they make is purely psychological. As for shorting caps, I tried them once and did not note any improvement in the system's signal to noise ratio. I have never used them again. Careful ground management and balanced cables where ever you can are the way to go. 

The audio industry discovered a long time ago that there is a visual aspect to people's buying habits. If it looks cool it must sound better and psychologically it does....for a little while anyway. Look what they have done to turntables. My own philosophy is that if it looks cool don't buy it.
I would prefer to spend my money on good engineering and parts selection than shiney chrome parts. Compare an SME turntable to a VPI turntable. The SME is far superior but is mundane looking in comparison.   

Sorry, but speed of electricity in the wire is dielectric dependent and is far from the speed of light (around 0.6 of it).  In practical terms it is approx. 5ns/m in typical insulated wire and 3.33ns/m in the vacuum.
Since dielectric affects the speed of electricity it also affects capacitance, dielectric absorption etc.   As for audibility - I don't know, but don't know enough to call it ludicrous.