Not even Naim and it’s got big Snaics. Hissss 
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I don’t see too much discussion on the best weather to listen to one’s hifi….
Rain. Definitely rain 
Have a cupa (or whatever you folks say over there), turn on the fireplace, and spin a record. That’s the best weather for hifi 
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Vibrations control is extremely important indeed for microscopy. The point is that if you are imaging objects down to 20 or 40 nm resolution any vibration that would shake the object out of sync with the microscope will give a blurred image. It doesn’t have anything to do with the electrical signal. That is why having good vibration isolation for vinyl record players makes complete sense. But again micro movements of cables shouldn’t induce much, if any, signal.
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FR the point is that there should be some physics supporting the idea that suspending cables has a positive effect on the noise level. Physicists should understand how it could work and though we have been working with instruments the sensitivity of which goes way beyond that of audio equipment (*). I never encountered anyone physicists that has claimed that cable isolation from the ground changes the results you can get with these equipment.
(*) audio equipment are very satisfied when reaching 0.1% thd when mass spec goes to 0.0001% i.e. four orders of magnitude better.
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All i am going to say on all this is.
Go to any recording study, all cables are just very normal cheap ones used, but usually shielded.
They run all over the place, together, touching, coiled up, etc.
You won’t see anything like this at all.
Another product in the big list aimed at the gullible is my take on it.
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Yesno. There are many different studios like there are many different hifis.
- A lot of studios have custom cables made with things like Mogami, which is certainly low cost but not nasty. A lot of expensive cables are made with this because of course, it takes time and skill to terminate the ends.
- Furutech, the epitome of esoteric costly cables have a whole pro audio studio range. Again not nearly as expensive as their hifi range but hugely different from the cheapo stuff. That range includes $400 power leads aimed at the studio market.
- Yamaha have pro audio rack mount network switches specifically for audio. XLR terminated LAN ports.
The idea that you walk into “any recording studio” and see bog standard cheap stuff everywhere just isn’t true. I will concede that I’ve never seen them worry about cables on the floor. However studio techs are generally dealing with balanced connections and even then they operate a sort of organised chaos and pay attention to cable dressing like keeping AC mains away from line cables and crossing paths at right angles.
@michelw , sorry for my grumpy post. It was not directed specifically towards you. But some kind of posts , be it cables, switches, isolation devices….tend to exasperate me, so I need to write it sometimes.
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Not sure I can agree for your last sentence. A network switch on an isolation platform will impact a better sound than if not isolated. I experienced that.
Components on a good rack will give a better sound, the why for the Fraim.
A powerblock well isolated from the ground will impact too on sound quality, I experienced that.
Burndys not on the floor = better sound too.
So why not consider the speakers cables which carry signal to not being affected by vibrations ? For me it’s logical.
I just talked to the university professor who supervises the electron and photonic microscopy platform. I inquired about whether the cables were dressed and if any care was being taken to lift them above the ground. The short answer is that they don’t do anything special and that the microscope constructors, be it Zeiss, Leitz or Nikon, do not make any recommendation about it.
In addition, the photonic microscopes regulated lasers and all associated detectors are powered by very standard cables able to support the 16 or 32 amperes needed to feed them, plugged directly into the general power grid of the university.
The electron microscopes are protected by inverters.
These equipments cost anywhere between 200k and a million €. Adding 50k€ cables wouldn’t be a major problem if they’d improve the functioning of the lasers or detectors. But none of the constructors propose that option. I cannot but think that the reason is because it doesn’t improve anything.
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Perhaps they should try it.
Apples and Oranges guys. Different applications and tolerances.
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As you agree with me, you are not going to find any fancy cables anywhere.
Also you are certainly not going to find cable lifters anywhere.
I guess you could argue that if it’s good enough for the studio that are actually recorded it first hand,mthen why bother with anything else?
We also know every hifi manufacturer knows that they can get away with selling stuff like this, as you will always find some that will buy into it all. Plus the profits on cables and stuff like this is huge.
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If you go to a restaurant, the profit people make on food and, say, wine can be quite different - they certainly don’t want everyone to choose the house wine but it doesn’t mean the expensive or more exclusive wine is not better or that they are selling you “snake oil”, right? Of course, for some it’s all wine, others would not be able to afford it but this doesn’t mean it’s not a better wine that you might enjoy more or to go with the meal. Surely, some just have to order it because they can and want to show they can!:))
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Everything made has a profit or you would soon be bust. But cables have the biggest profit margins by far in the hifi world.
100% doesn’t even come close.
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Yes, if you only compare BoM with sale price.
But profit also takes into account design, testing, regulatory and legal compliance, postage, service, website, marketing, returns, energy, insurance, office, warehouse, admin, staff, taxes, and other costs.
I was once told the mark up on cables from a well known supplier and it was massive.
You can certainly see why they go down this route.
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Sure but that makes sense.
For example, I made up two 8m long subwoofer leads with Mogami shielded mic cable and Mogami RCA plugs. 16m of cable off the drum was $25. The plugs were another $25. Materials costs $50. But I spent an hour carefully making them up and testing them. I’m an experienced solderer so if I was charging for my time I would really be paying for my time, not the hour spent doing a simple task. Whether the task is easy or detailed matters not. My time is my time. Years in meetings with marketing and sales people telling me, “If the ROI is less than 200% we can’t be bothered” tells me then that this $50 cable pair would sell for $450 or $225 single. Then if I gave that to a retailer, they are going to want 40% on top so my $50 cables now becomes $640 ($320 single). I find it quite easy to see how a cable reaches the costs they do. These things are sold in low volume at the end dealers and unless the margins are very high, no one will feed themselves.
When you fork out thousands for these things, before thinking they are all automatically snake oil (yes I know most things really are but I won’t paint everything with the same brush), you should always ask, “well do I know how to make this to the same quality? And even if I can, is it worth my time?” Quite often, the answers are, that no the average person cannot make it themselves; or if they were skilled and knowledgeable enough, chances are their time is worth more than the cost of the cable.
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Indeed, but we shouldn’t confuse the actual Yamaha audio network switches, which are true network switches supporting the Dante standard, with the regular basic L2 Ethernet ‘audiophile” switches some audiophiles use at home with their hiifi. If I was sending say 32 stereo mixing channels across the network I would likely be wanting to use Dante.
Yamaha provide regular L2 switching products as well for small office/home office.
To your point, some recording and production studios are very refined affairs, they also tend to be very expensive to hire. Others are a lot less refined and hugely cheaper. But the end products to tend to sound somewhat different 
A good exaggerated example… listen to a Joe Meek production compared to an Abbey Road production from the 60s. Joe Meek even used his toilet as part of his recording studio!
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No that is just not true. Have you been to many recording studios?
There is even products to buy to help with cable management in studios. The planning and routing of cables are both for minimizing entanglement and signal interference.
Not that I have been to many studios and I most certainly haven’t been thinking about cable management when I have been.
But just a few days ago my musician daughter sat here and talked about how they had to arrange cables for best sound when recording. Sure they don’t have cable risers but neither do I. I do take care in trying to minimize interference between cables, same as in a studio.
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Just go watch some of the chasing the dragon video’s and you will see wires everywhere.
Even taped to the floor for safety reasons and then with anti trip covers over them pushing them onto the floor.
Plus cables coiled up, the list goes on and on.
But these recordings are among the very best and also the first and most important cables used in the recording process, so if it doesn’t matter here, then once you and i get it then it certainly doesn’t matter any more, as the damage has already been done if you believe all this.
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