Cable elevators

i made some by attaching (glue) a 2x2 square of ceramic tile to the bottom of a tea cup (one without handles) then attaching a chop stick holder on top of the tile. you rest the cable on top of the chop stick holder and since it is curved you can even use a rubber band to go across the holder to keep the cable in place.

I bought 6 cables elevators : i couldn't hear any differences.
It just convenient when you need to clean the floor... but nothing more :)

I want to believe in these things, because it is a relatively cheap tweak. I did notice that there were just a handful of set ups at the recent audio show in NYC that used any kind of cable lifts, I mean like 2-4 out over 100 rooms. I found that more than interesting. But you know, for a couple of hundred bucks I am going to give it a try - they do look somewhat cool, and I'm pretty sure they can do no harm. Hope I'm blown away, but won't be too disappointed if I'm not.

It is extremely important to keep the height even and avoid even the slightest sagging between elevators as this can lead to harmonic resonance. Someone explained to me that every quarter inch of sag leads to 1% harmonic distortion. Alternatively you can adjust the spacing between elevators so that none of the sags reinforce eachother (i.e. they are all at different frequencies) ;-)

Like a lot of things in high-end audio it depends on your system. If your cables are not shielded very well they will make a bigger difference. I had some Mapleshade speaker cables they made a big difference on, for example. My current set-up is very well shielded but during the winter, when static electricity sometimes builds up in my carpet, the elevators take away a layer of haze in the treble that is there when just laid on the floor. I also think it depends on how long your speaker cables are. Longer runs will need elevators more than small runs - after all speaker cables are nothing more than copper/silver wire wrapped in sometype of protector i.e. big antennas. So, I don't think cable elevators are hocus pocus but they may not be for everybody or be needed in every system.