Cable Risers can Improve SQ…?

Pinched this picture from a Systems Pics post by @AlexP

Any thoughts on using these self adhesive silicone cable tidies to lift speaker cables off the floor, attached to the skirting board, and interconnects to the rear Fraim uprights?

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Thanks Dave… interesting… I suspect anything that’s proven to be sonically inert, with as minimal surface area contact, will work more ideally. I’ve always taken to less is more.

It’s fascinating to me that some people who say regard a dedicated mains installation as perfectly acceptable and normal will nevertheless scoff at something like cable risers. It just goes to show that we all draw the line in different places and for different reasons, whether it be appearance and domestic acceptability, budget or whatever. I find that cable risers improve my system and I was happy to shell out around £200 for some Audioquest and Cardas risers. On the other hand I would not even entertain the idea of spending £500 on two Nordost cable risers! Why? I don’t really know, it just seems that it’s too much money for something like that. Yet I’ve spent around £2.5K on mains cables! So it doesn’t really make sense, even to me.

To those who would have it that the improvements from such things are purely imagined I would make the following comparison. There are enough reports of ghost sightings and related strange experiences for me to be convinced that the phenomenon is real. There are those that argue that it is a purely psychological thing and internal to the observer, ie. it has no external reality. That may well be true in at least some instances. The point is that to the observer, the experience is 100% real. The same with hi-fi tweaks. It may well be true that at least some of them do have a psychological component. The point is again that to the observer, if they perceive an improvement in sound, then it is 100% real to them. It is not imagined - it is a real experience. If that is the case then the tweak has worked - for that person.

At the end of the day - don’t knock it unless you’ve tried it!

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I would go for that, if I had to buy again. Around 70 euros for 4.

Cables elevators

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I’m not knocking it, I simply wouldn’t go there, and with one of the cables in a conduit it wouldn’t be possible anyway.

Dedicated mains is entirely different, with positive results reported by virtually everyone who has done it. Compare that with the report by @PeterR above, who has a fantastically revealing setup yet found absolutely no benefit from risers. Can they make a difference or are they just a way of extracting a lot of money from people selling something that costs pence to make? But if they make no difference but people think they do, it’s got to be good. For the dealers at least.

With you on this sentiment.

FWIW, it’s been positive for most who’ve spent or did their own DIY cable lifters and dressings.

PeterR, you need a new cohort of cable risers, Sir… to hear a difference :crazy_face: :sweat_smile: :upside_down_face: :hugs: (just horsin’)

Monsieur FR… I don’t know why, but they look like Teletubby toys to me… with my immediate apologies. Maybe from afar, they’d be just nice. Sorry no offence meant at all, just trying not to take everything too seriously…

How do you perceive the sound, Sir from using these? Cheers

Apple and Oranges. The type of circuit and gage of the cable has completely known properties for resistance per meter with knowable and measurable results on caps. And the effects of an isolated mains circuit or dedicate earth can be measured with comparatively simpler equipment and (importantly) quite limited skill. With a bit more skill, and more exotic equipment, common mode noise measurements are also readily performed.

Cable lifts, provide a far more different kettle of fish in terms accepted impact and impact on standard measurements. That is absolutely not to disregard their benefit. That’s not the argument I care to make, especially since I’ve used them in the past. But comparing them to mains? Not even two types of fruit. One is quantifiable and measurable with [common] tools from an electrical engineer’s toolbox. The other isn’t and would need far more esoteric test apparatus.

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I have already the Cardas myrtille blocks. The look of the elevators doesn’t disturb me. I feel their construction is well made and allows a good decoupling from the floor. But I haven’t heard them.
I think that good cables risers have to have high density and some mass . It seems to be the case here.

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As opposed to whether those who can see your backside consider the look great?

I didn’t think I needed to spell it out.

Naim go to some effort to decouple equipment from vibration by using internal suspension and mechanically decoupled “air plugs” on their Line and Superlumina range of interconnects and power cables. That many notice the effects of cable dressing and particularly Burndys touching the floor might seem to reinforce the idea that vibration control is important and beneficial. Given the cost of Superlumina speaker cable and the absence of air plug connections, I wonder if Naim consider vibration control not beneficial for speaker cables or if there is a technical reason similar mechanical decoupling is omitted.

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In demos Naim have also used frame bases to get cables off the ground. There were some pics and discussion on here a while back about it.

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I use these from Audience.
Screen Shot 2022-04-21 at 2.51.08 PM

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Nordost Sort lift. If you order 8, it will cost you 2,5 k. Whouah !

I’m beginning to see the light… Full marks for WAF.

:see_no_evil: :see_no_evil: :see_no_evil: :hear_no_evil: :hear_no_evil: :hear_no_evil:

I refuse to be poisoned…

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I wouldn’t put it like that myself. They are both tweaks, perhaps at different points on the scale of what is acknowledged to work.

And I have experienced a benefit from risers. So is one of us wrong or delusional? I presume the answer is yes and it must be me since that fits your point of view better!

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No. This is not the case. In what way can the sonic changes resulting from a dedicated mains supply be quantified and measured by the tools in an electrician’s tool box? Yes you can measure certain electrical parameters, but how do you know which of them, if indeed any, have affected the sound? How would you know it was not some mechanical property of the cable, eg. superb isolation from vibration, that accounted for it?

I would argue that the reasons for both types of tweak bringing improvements are not nearly so easily identifiable.

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I like the look of these and can see the logic, but suspect they would in my system be more a spider breeding outpost.

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