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Cable elevators - conventional wisdom wrong?

Reluctant to put any considerable money in them, the reasons for using cable elevators seemed intuitively correct to me: decouple cables mechanically from vibration and insulate them from the carpet's static. I have therefore built cheap elevators myself using Lego building blocks. (Plastic with a more or less complex internal structure; moreover, there is enormous shaping flexibility, for instance you can also build gates with suspended strings on which to rest the cables)
In their advertisement/report on the Dark Field elevators, Shunyata now claim that conventional elevators are actually (very?) detrimental in that they enable a strong static field to build up between cable and floor causing signal degradation.
Can anyone with more technical knowledge than I have assess how serious the described effect is likely to be? Would there, theoretically, be less distortion with cables lying on the floor? Has anyone actually experienced this?
karelfd
tbg
5,263 posts
 
I find soft objects dampen dynamics and remove the decay of the signal. Most hard objects, including glass and metals, lack the sharp edge of impact and brass. I think the glaze on insulator makes a difference. Also a single insulator is superior to multiple insulators.

I have demonstrated this to others, including in rooms at shows, but as always these are personal preferences, YMMV.
stevecham
3,340 posts
 
Three bamboo chopsticks held together as tripod with a rubber band about any inch and a half from top forms a nice perch for cables and works wonderfully. I use this method on my speaker cables and can tell the difference between that and on the floor.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Stevecham, given how thin chopsticks are, this is probably good.
sabai
2,027 posts
 
Tbg,
I have so many cables that it is impossible to prevent them from touching. I do my best. Getting them off the static tile floor was the biggest challenge. The next challenge is to get them off one another.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
what is the consequence of leaving the cables on the floor ?

i use boulder's foam elevators. i'm not sure they are made anymore. i don't experience a loss in dynamics.
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