Dear @Oxfordian, I am not advocatimg for one way or the other, neither I try to convince you in anything as I have not experimented myself different set ups. Please exvuse me of I left different impression.I work since 1994 and never had this blinkimg monitor problem untill recently, bit the longer you live the more you learn ( of corse untill you start to forget more then you learn). Anyway initially thought monitors are defective and changed them, bit new ones had same issues. Then pattern came up showing they blink only when someone is passing by. We use server grade distributors and my desk is also grounded, so must be coming from the floor. Moving the monitor cables away from the floor solved the problem, believe it or not. Electrostatic charges negatively effect our audio systems and if you have TT you surely know that already.
Ah, unfortunately as an ex serviceman I suffer from an ironing affliction, especially around shirtsâŚ
Sure thing it does. Many people though think energy flows in the cable and electric fields or electromagnetic fields do not efgect the enery flow in the cable. Energy in the cable comes from the electric field aoumd the cable, that is generated from the difference of the electric potential at the two ends. Thus any outside disturbence in this elecyric field leads to disturbance of the energy flow in the cable. Once again I have not tested to what extend and which cables exibit significant influence, but to great extend it is important what is happening outside the cable. I donât want to go into theoretical discussions, but nowadays everyone has access to books and can do some reading.
You were talking about electrostatic charge were you not, which does not have a magnetic field by definition. A loudspeaker cable carries a flow of current and therefore has a magnetic field around the conductor as Dr Ambrose Fleming FRS discovered in the 19th C⌠and to be fair we all learnt this at elementary physics at school. These are not theories but axioms of which things like modern electronics, computers, motors, generators, radio ⌠the list is endless ars built on.
Now yes if you have a conductive area, there might be capacitive or inductive coupling with that conductive area, but the out and return current flow of the loudspeaker cable will cancel that out if the two conductors of the speaker cable are kept close together.
So we then can then consider common mode currents⌠well if the amplifier is earth grounded at 0 volts, this should be minimal to non existentâŚ
So sure there might be some other reason in your environment, but itâs not electrostatic charge is it?
Hi Simon, I am talking about electrostatic discharges ESD, that couses high frequency electromagnetic fields in the case with my monitors. I am also saying energy flows from the electromagnetic fields that go around the wires when the loop is closed and before the loop is closed there is only electrical field, i.e. no energy flows and also everything that would influence the electomagnetic fields would directly effect the energy flow and thus the sound quality in our focus of discussion.
No issues as far as I know with my cables being on the floor, my TT sounds excellent, no interference as far as I can tell.
@Simon-in-Suffolk , i have a question for you. Lets see if something may come out of it. The static charge creates electrostatic field and accelerating/oscillating charge would create electeomagmetic field. In your cables you have electrons (the charged particles). Now if your cable experince vibrations, the electrons within it would oscillate and create electromagnetic field or not?
So if you have a static charge - and then it flows to discharge to lower potential point or ground - a current flows and a magnetic field is created and clearly the electric field has changed around the original charge. If the static charge remains static and the charge simply moves but doesnât discharge - then no current and therefore no magnetic field is created as far as I can see. The charge has to discharge in someway for a current to flow and a magnetic field to be formed. A spark is an example where a strong electric field ionises the air creating a conductive channel and therefore a current flows. Sparks will produce a magnetic field.
So if your cable moves within a magnetic field a current will be induced - like a generator - using Flemings Right Hand rule with the three perpendicular vectors of current, motion and magnetic field. One might suspect that a cable suspended in free space might be more prone to movement from sound vibration in the air and therefore more susceptible to microphonic currents - but unless you have the cable suspended between strong magnets this is likely to be inconsequential.
Possibly the simplest way of explaining the answers to your questions:
A piece of wire has an equal number of positive and negative charged particles inside it (electrons and protons). If you move the wire in any direction then both the electrons and protons move together. The magnetic field generated by the acceleration of the electrons produces a magnetic field that is equal and opposite in direction to that generated by the protons. These magnetic fields cancel each other out.
Great, thank you. Now would you agree under the presence of external electric field the free electrons inside the wire will keep moving until electrostatic equilibrium is reached and that they will create a field which will cancel out the external field i.e. the electrons move to one side of the wire and now if the wire oscillates, in this one side there would be more electrons than protons?
A small effect on SQ like this may only be audible in a very high quality, sensitive, and highly resolving system.
The effect was definitely slight though, on a sprung floor, perceptable. But as I mentioned, the benefit was offset by the annoyance of having these things on the floor propping the cable up.
Buying better cables but chucking them on the floor was definitely a better way to go.
I might feel different about it if I had power amps next to speakers and only 1-2m to cope with. But Iâve got 8m runs so no way.
Maybe think of them as Art.
Like Chris Burdenâs Metropolis ll.
But how would you know?
If you have a single system then how would you notice this degradation in SQ?
This is the bit that confuses me, my speaker cables lay on the floor, I lower the arm on my TT walk back to my seat and listen, I hear nothing but music (the occasional bit of vinyl lovers snap crackle and pop but nothing intrusive).
Sure I donât have the best system in the world but if there were going to be issues wouldnât they appear on kit that was more entry rather than high end?
My speaker cables go from Amp down to the floor, along carpet then up to the terminals at the back of the speakers, the cable for the speaker furthest from the Amp goes under the TV stand and back onto the carpet.
As yet no one has been able to provide a simple explanation on why cables need to be off the floor, there has been lots of detailed posts on electrons and the like going into minute detail but nothing tangible. At least not yet.
For now I am not sure that I can subscribe to this cables off the floor theory.
Yes. I tried them on my speaker cable which is Chord Epic X. They certainly had a very noticeable effect which I didnât like at all. They are now in the garage at the end of the garden!
Previous to this I tried some Cardas wooden blocks and some home made things. They all had an effect, none as profound as the Audioquest, and nothing that I felt provided any benefit. Just different.
I did speak to Chord about it and I was told that in their experience none of their cables benefitted from lifters / supports.
My understanding is that (1) it reduces the effects of static charge on the cable, especially from floor coverings prone to this, and (2) it reduces the effects of vibration from the floor. There may be a little more to it than this but thatâs basically the size of it.
The beauty is that you donât need to understand the science - or indeed lack of science. All you need to do is try it and use your ears. You will either hear a difference or not. If you do then you can decide whether or not you like it. I didnât.
The floor is lava (according to my young ones).
I only did geology to âOâ Level and that was in 1977. But as far as I recall the floor is a tectonic plate floating on magma. Lava would burn your feet to a crisp in no time! 
Ultimate in underfloor heating perhaps?
