DIY cable elevators

Twoleftears, what you describe will work just fine. You can experiment with the height off the floor to see if there is a better height, but lifting the cables 6" or more should work well (4" may also work fine, but going taller might make the difference).

Any paper or wood material should work well. I use corrugated cardboard in a crossing "+" arrangement (as seen from the top). Avoid plastics (which can store energy).

Good luck with your experiments. It's certainly inexpensive enough to try.

Ah, but have you considered the dielectric properties of plastic and acrylic versus wood...?

Twoleftears, what you describe will work just fine. You can experiment with the height off the floor to see if there is a better height, but lifting the cables 6" or more should work well (4" may also work fine, but going taller might make the difference).

Any paper or wood material should work well. I use corrugated cardboard in a crossing "+" arrangement (as seen from the top). Avoid plastics (which can store energy).

Good luck with your experiments. It's certainly inexpensive enough to try.

All of the above suggestions ignore one important element, resonance. I am a firm believer in the benefits of elevators, but there are three elements potentially at play: signal bleed and smear through the dielectric insulation of the cable into synthetic carpet, RFI/EMI (which is addressed by careful placement) and resonance from the sound energy in the room. The latter can be passed into the chassis of the components to which they are connected, regardless as to how well they are otherwise isolated, and have detrimental effects.

A simple, cheap solution I learned from dedicated and very knowedgable audiophile friend Al Sekela (an EE) who is a frequent contributor to the Cable Asylum on AA, is to construct paper cylinders (cut a strip of thick construction paper in the color of your choice 3-5"X12" and then bend and tape into cylinders which are 3-5" tall.) Place an appropriate amount of kitty litter or sand in a baggie, and place inside the cylinder, so that it's level is about 1" below the top rim of the cylinder. This provides damping and energy absorption. Make as many as you need to fully support the cable, with careful attention to placement near the components, thus absorbing that last bit of energy before its final connection.

When I first saw these at Al's home (in a very fine sounding system,) I thought it to be way too "tweeky" and unsightly to be acceptable in my own. However, since it costs almost nothing to try, I did. The results were major, and I have never looked back. Need a few more? About $0.25 each!!

A quite reputable maker of highly touted isolation stands once told me the best thing to use for cable elevation are razor blades.

the Hell you say! Razor blades? Well maybe under your speaker wires, but not mine. he was indeed adamandt about this approach however. Mentioning that the edge simply needs to be roughed off some what and to use double edged blades... sinking one sharp edge into ??? and the dull edge to support the cabling. Repeat as needed.

At the least, I'll give him an E for originallity.