It’s the most subjective way of measuring anything.
Hi Jim
Yes I do in our main active system makes a difference due to floor. In system 2 and 3 upstairs I don’t bother as floor is wooden and carpet.
Best
Yes it is…
Isn’t it what it bores down to, in our rooms, to our ears regardless of “analysis measurements” and what others say or think? I can’t measure anything in terms of sound, except with my subjective ears. Apart from buying a good probe and installing measuring equipment in the room. This is why, I try never to rush, despite my biases. Controlled A-B comparisons are so telling if we can get them (yet sometimes inconclusive).
So hard to qualify sound quality because we all perceive sound so differently. “Measuring” seems a feeble attempt to mitigate that subjectivity with some objectivity but it still doesn’t guarantee anything. Our ears can naturally discern what sounds good and acceptable to us, or not. Same for our eyes with an artwork on the wall.
There is no end to measurements : a marketer’s tools and numbers to sell at best, in the audio industry. Measurements matter to component manufacturers at their end for specifications they set to meet certain goals. The most zealous of us, the hardest core audiophiles might dabble with and try to follow some measurements as much as they will understand and wish to apply. Even then, no guarantee on the sound quality. I did think perhaps it is a case of trying to stroke our oft hidden insecurities, to be “more assured” when measurement figures are “in place” or we’re really trying our darn-est to qualify / justify our expenditures…
The only way I could fathom “measurements” somewhere in the mix is to get an acoustician over to measure a room, or when I read spec sheets for components, or make a feeble attempt to understand an audio reviewer’s reported figures from the lab, and possibly rely on a friend’s good and neutral ears I trust as check and balance for “measuring sound”.
Gold. Despite our biases which are very real. We are entitled to change our opinions as time wears on and views change when sonic preferences change.
The trouble is, these organs and their performance not constants! We don’t necessarily hear exactly the same all the time, day to day, and can even hear significantly differently across a very short space of time. Also memory of sound is not wholly reliable, and we can learn to like something, including sound, that first we don’t. Add to that the power of psychological effects like suggestion and bias, and these incredibly sensitive organs can be quite unreliable. Fortunately some limitations at least can be minimised by blind testing when comparing two things, such as new gear with old, or the effect of a reversible tweak, and, depending on the particular comparison doing that can be easy, though not always - carefully levitated cable vs lying on floor is not the easiest!
I’ve never once said this.
Wasn’t that PowerLines? I don’t recall seeing speaker cables on Frame bases.
MDF, I’d guess.
It was a mains block.
Having re-read your original post I apologise and I stand corrected. I must have read it originally in an alcohol induced haze, having just polished off a bottle of wine! I don’t really disagree with anything you said so please just ignore me!
At least I’m not the only one that believes placing your router on some form of isolation platform is beneficial!
Nah… amateurs. Vertical mount on birch plywood harvested from the gardens of Rivendell.
That’s where it’s at.
Sum of parts for me, never piecemeal.
I couldn’t discern 100% immediate quantifiable improvements lifting cables off the floor in specific A-B comparisons to leaving them directly on ground; any discernible changes were subtle but I definitely did hear appreciable lifts in refinement on my Nac-a5 (subjective 10%?) over time when things settled, with better sense of flow. Incredulous reality. I remember having used inverted plastic cups (LOL) with a cut out in the centre for the cable. Hardly audiophile grade lifters but anything to improve the sound even by a little, and the experiment did work. I was amazed. My Naca5s were completely uncoiled and snaked around the room. No bunching up, no figure 8 coils, or touching power cables. Yours could be a different experience so just do whatever works best for your room, friends!
When we do add all our tweaks up, it compounds after some time into the overall sonics.
I find touching any part of the system somehow affects its “flow”, and “shakes” things up a little; for me it is prudent to let things settle and sit sometimes for a day, even a few after making adjustments, before making conclusions. Whatever works for you. When the system just sounds right to me, I try not to touch anything after.
Maybe it’s got to do with electron flow.
I thought they had Tree Protection Orders on the birch in Rivendell.
My NAC A5 is slung under the floor in a large void. It’s impossible to get at once the carpets are back down, so it has the massive advantage that it is what it is and it isn’t going to be changed. So tweakery is banished so far as the loudspeaker cables are concerned.
If only I had that luxury…… wonderful!
Contract a hobbit to smuggle it out.
Here is a picture of cable risers under power cables. I have a mix of Shunyata, Audioquest and custom cable risers.