Cables off the floor, why?

Actually not sarcasm at all. It is as realistic and practical a suggestion as supporting speaker cables off the floor if they go for any length around the room. Whether it appeals to someone, or is aesthetically acceptable in a room, are entirely different questions.

Cable lifters on lengths of speaker cables would actually help the cable resonate from frequency vibrations - Think a bridge on an acoustic guitar and the strings then fretted along the fingerboard -
Rather than lying ā€œdeadā€ on the floor.

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Is this really a valid comparison? A guitar string is designed to move but a speaker cable isnā€™t, or am I missing something?

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Plus a guitar string is under tension, whereas, speaker cable is not.

Totally the wrong analogy.

DGā€¦

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I put it in the bag of men guessing :smile:

A guitar string is only specialised in that it is designed to be able to achieve a particular frequency of resonance for its length within a certain tension range, with consideration for strength and construction (latter affecting harmonic vibrations). Certainly any string or wire stretched between two points will have a resonant frequency, the heavier the wire, the longer the distance between points and the slacker it is the lower the resonant frequency will be. So yes it will resonate, though if slack it is likely the resonant frequency fundamental of any section will be pretty low, possibly even below audio frequencies.

So if if was simply a guess, it was not a ridiculous one!

Look up the cable lift devices on the Nordost web site.
They use a heavy base with minimal bent wire to hold the cable. To allow the cable to freely resonate.
Most other supports offered from other companies that have the same function do similarly.
I have never seen a speaker cable lifter that clamps and damps.

Thereā€™s way more logic in this than anything Iā€™ve seen supporting cable risers.

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Hmm.

IMG_6249

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Yeah brilliant. And you would hardly notice it :+1:

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that would look terrible in my living room that!

i just imagined a Wallace & Grommit style pulley system when you said it

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Now that I hadnā€™t envisaged - but now you mentionā€¦!

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IMG_3282

IMG_3281

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Hold on tight Grommet!hahaha

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Is that system owned by a rollercoaster designer?

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Iā€™m sure if you showed/explained this to a performing musician theyā€™d think it an April fool jokeā€¦

Iā€™m just thinking how much fun our dog would have jumping in and out of those cables or what Mrs Oxfordian would say.

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The problem is that apparently, according to many very sceptical sources, they work and the manufacturer stands by their product and demonstrates systems with and without these crazy things. Furutech even have a policy that dealers should let customers borrow these things for free under zero obligation.

Which then brings us to an age old question in hifi, at what point does sound quality really matter ā€œmostā€? Iā€™ve been quite upfront on a number of threads that if I find the room unpleasant due to fugly gear and decor, it detracts more from the enjoyment of the listening session than the hifi is able to compensate for. So for me, it is more like, yeah okay, there is a benefit. These things work. But Iā€™m not buying them. Ever.

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From what has been said in response to my question I am inclined to believe that if you have a perfect listening room then there may be some small SQ gains if you go down this route of cable lifters and separators.

But for a lot of us where our hifi has to fit in with our daily lives our rooms are a compromise, any SQ benefit of high level cable management is lost by the fact that the sofa is not perfectly placed, the room dimensions are not right, that bookcase could be better placed, we canā€™t have speakers a meter from a wall etc etc.

However, it makes sense to have some basic cable management, and that is something I can take on board and work with.

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