What do $2500 speaker cables sound like?

@sokogear,
Not all of the cable is 30" off the floor. I tried to depict the image of longer than needed cable drooping as I hung it, with sections of it at the 8" height off the floor. Not all of it is 30" off the floor. 

As the crow flies, one speaker is about 4' from my integrated and the other is about 2 1/2', while my SCs are about 8' in length.

The thought of static electricity ran through my mind as well. It's only on the synthetic carpet in my apartment that I can build it up to the point where I'll shock myself, so it stands to reason it may have been interfering with the sound of the cable all this time, acting as an additional layer of unwanted dielectric. Who knows? 

All I care is that it sounds much more convincing.

All the best,
Nonoise

So less of a change if the cables are lying on hardwood flooring?

I would think that real wood with have no impact worth noting, except for the vibrations that some say can have an effect. I've seen lots of photos of reviewers set ups where it's about 50/50 as to whether they're off a wooden floor or just lying on it. 

The reviewers who have them off their wooden floors claim to hear the difference. The others don't even mention it, kind of like here.

This is going out on a limb but the thought of a layer of non organic  clear coat on a wood floor (for that long lasting sheen and protection) could be a factor but you won't know until you try something. 

Like having a thin wire in a big tube, only a small part of the cable will be making contact with the floor so it probably doesn't matter. If I had wood floors, I'd still try it too see for myself, starting with something cheap and temporary.

All the best,
Nonoise

Why raising cables off the floor helps is like a lot of things due to more than just one thing. Vibration, static electricity, and dielectric material are all factors. Combine this with people having different systems and different listening abilities if you want to make sense of what is going on. Because for sure and for certain it works, just read the comments from people on my system page. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367

This is one of my favorite demos to do because it is quick and easy to do, and the results are always dramatic. No one ever fails to hear the difference. The last time I did it the guy said, "I wish you hadn’t done that!" He was really getting into the music and when the elevators came out it was a total let down.    

In no particular order, dielectric is a factor. Dielectric is the insulator around the wire. This material never is perfect. Signal peaks energize the dielectric, which then bleeds this energy back into the wire over time thus smearing or blurring detail. This definitely is a factor because I have tested it by putting different materials around the cables. Carpet, wood, concrete all have different dielectric properties. Obviously moving a cable away from these the same amount of inches will have a different effect with wood than carpet than concrete, tile, etc.

Static electricity is a factor. Anyone can demonstrate this for themselves, simply get some Static Guard laundry spray and waft it over your cables. That is all it does, eliminate static charges, and this cleans up the sound. Since static charges migrate along surfaces and the floor, be it carpet or whatever is a surface, there you go.

Vibration control is definitely a factor. Not only because the floor vibrates, but try putting your hand on a speaker cable some time while playing music with good bass content. Depending on your cable type and geometry this can be pretty dramatic. Maybe not enough to feel in all cases. But if you cannot feel it that does not mean it is not happening, more likely it is but just too little to feel. My Townshend F1 for example are supposed to be sealed in something for vibration control and I can’t feel them like I could my old Synergistic CTS. Both however responded very well to vibration control.

I know it was vibration control and not anything else because my rubber band mod was used on the same Cable Elevators, so maintained the same material and the same height above the floor. When you remove all the other variables leaving only one then you know what you are hearing is due to only that one. Which is what I did. With all this stuff.

So this is not guess, not conjecture, but tested and demonstrated. Not just on me either but lots of people. Any doubters, say again, read the system comments!

I keep mine off the hard wood floors especially the speaker cables. It certainly can't hurt, and the vibration from the speaker right there is definitely not good for the sound.