Some of you guys are just quoting parts of my post, some things are more tweaks than others, better cables and racks, etc aren’t really tweaks in the same light as cable risers.
Cable risers come under the more obscure tweaking like cork pads, ground boxes, ground plugs, etc, etc.
Cables in my ears are the modern day bass and treble pots, you can tune the system using different ones
I’d imagine it’s more to do with the carpeted floor not being very good for heat dissipation. Putting a router on a carpet is asking for trouble and maybe a fire. Likely had some spare stands and put them to use rather than a deliberate act to improve sq.
These are the risers I made - don’t worry I’m not aiming for design awards.
I use 3 per side and they stand about 20cm tall. At no point does either cable drop much below that. Rightly or wrongly I assumed:
- the height would eradicate any possible issues from the carpet.
- the carpet + the lightly insulated fixing system would deal with floor born vibrations. They are quite stable.
I still use them (they help with dusting) and see no need to remove them (most are hidden). However, I will confess that due to the improved set-up of equipment I now have (tweaks/internal mods to speakers) from when I made them, it is possible that I would notice more of a difference if we’re to remove them from the system.
Whether a big difference or not it seems logical to me to try to lay cables ‘properly’:
- avoid power and signal cables running parallel to each other - cross them at right angles if required.
- avoid too much cable tension, squeezing or too tight a turn.
- avoid resting cables on things that vibrate/may cause a rattle.
3 Likes
Nice work.
1 Like
Did the same in 1983 with naca4.
We problady did the same after we read an article in Chris Frankland’s The flat response.
Reg.
Gerben.
1 Like
Hi Pete,
If you’d be happy to spend £100 on balsa wood shaped crowns based on the actual manufacturer claiming they don’t know how they ‘work’ then fair enough. Call me a cynic, but if something sounds like nonsense, looks like nonsense and is left to the vagaries of the most neurotic group of hobbyists know to man (audiophiles) then it’s likely to be nonsense.
I consider myself a neurotic audiophile, but everyone has their limits of feeling like a lemon, fumbling on the floor and flapping about caressing an inert object to defy gravity.
That’s not to say a difference can’t be heard, but that difference is so overwhelmingly likely to be psychological (so still a difference in fairness).
Best,
Barry
3 Likes
Happens to me every weekend.
3 Likes
I thought I’d give it a go, so designed these in 3mm laser cut acrylic. Material cost is £10 for 30 risers. Will install later and see if I can spot a difference… Happy to share the cad file if anyone is interested.
5 Likes
Cable lifters, expensive equipment racks etc, bullocks.
Young bulls?
2 Likes
Could you please point me out which cable risers you got, it’s an untouched area for me…
I trust they will be solvent welded to avoid any movement between the two parts. How did you determine the ideal surface area of the acrylic for the thickness you chose, to optimise vibration induced by sound waves? And how did you determine the optimum height?
Just a friction fit at the moment. I adjusted the design until the fit was tight as possible without cracking the acrylic - if you fit the two parts together without removing the protective film, the acrylic will crack. There’s no noticeable play or movement. As for your other questions, I thought a tripod structure with rounded ‘feet’ would minimise contact with the ground, I picked the height based on pure guesswork and I don’t have the engineering knowledge or skills to optimise surface area or reaction to vibration. As I said, it’s a low cost experiment for me at this stage.
Wouldn’t movement de-couple the parts a-la HiLine, and be beneficial?
1 Like
When I made mine, also in acrylic I used a tripod system and chose not to glue them together. I used rubber bands to support the actual cable. Artisanal rubber bands using rubber latex collected at 03:00 when there was a full moon. It makes a huge difference.
2 Likes
It is simply astonishing that enough of these items are made in order to price them (and make profit) at 80p each.
Hey Paul,
I once had a very nice pair of headphones (they were called ear speakers as I remember). If you wanted to know what affect coiled cables had i just needed to coil the headphone cable. As I remember it generated substantial losses with high frequencies and certainly wasn’t a welcome effect
Quite possibly, depending on the rest of your system and how it sounds
1 Like
