Cable Lifters

[AvSat44]

Hi vivianbl.

If you (and your partner) think that there your mod "quite distinctly improves the SQ of your system" then run with it. I can only use my experience as a defence. The only thing that I could possibly see that doing this might alter is the capacitance of the cables.

I read a lot about people who use all sorts of devices to raise their cables from the floor and improve sound quality but they never tell me why it happens. Maybe you can tell me why your sound quality improved by using bar chairs. I would love an explanation. 

[Bilbo]

20 hours ago, vivianbl said:

I put a post in one of the Quad Hifi forums recently about Speaker room interface. I included a photo from my listening seat. I did not expect the response- howls of derision about the speaker cable lifters they spotted at the back of the photo.

Whilst I took it all with some humour. I had to ask them why they were so concerned about me spending $6 for a bag of 20 plastic bar chairs and a few polyester batts  that I bought from Bunnings!  ( Tried them out after getting the idea from members of StereoNet) Mind you they did make a sizeable improvement in SQ! Best bang for the buck!

I use the same reo bar lifters and they work a treat!

Love the painting lifters - it's great when someone applies some lateral thinking - well done @powerav !

 

[Kaynin]

22 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

I use the same reo bar lifters and they work a treat!

Love the painting lifters - it's great when someone applies some lateral thinking - well done @powerav !

 

Vertical thinking in this case

[vivianbl]

2 hours ago, AvSat44 said:

Hi vivianbl.

If you (and your partner) think that there your mod "quite distinctly improves the SQ of your system" then run with it. I can only use my experience as a defence. The only thing that I could possibly see that doing this might alter is the capacitance of the cables.

I read a lot about people who use all sorts of devices to raise their cables from the floor and improve sound quality but they never tell me why it happens. Maybe you can tell me why your sound quality improved by using bar chairs. I would love an explanation. 

I didn’t put the post to convince others about the sonic benefits of cable lifters. It was just a fun trial, benefits were realised and they are now part of my system.
 

I don’t feel I have to justify my experience and give “ scientific “ explanations to convince others. Depending on the position you come from, no explanation may be accepted anyway.

 

Anyway, I do have a natural curiosity and search for possible explanations for the result in my system and acoustic environment. Firstly, the specific describable improvements were in the lowering of the noise floor, the more ambient/ acoustic space  detail and lower level detail becoming more obvious. Basically it seemed the cables were “getting out of the way” - the signal getting through cleaner.

I’ve got long cables (6m), so more chance of interference. Each speaker lead has two separate ribbons. Keeping them together with the slits in the bar chairs impacts on capacitance.

 

The batts were used to get height/ distance from the floor and reducing resonance (physical) from the floor. The height off the floor was to reduce electromagnetic fields from the cables being impacted by the floor.

I hope that I’ve given you a good explanation.

 

I made all that up, but it sounds good!

[htnut3]

I suppose it could depend a lot on what your floor is made of/covered with too.  I could imagine a nice thick concrete floor being a low resonance, low static ground source but a suspended wooden floor being quite bouncy and liable to static with no grounding.

[vivianbl]

20 minutes ago, htnut3 said:

I suppose it could depend a lot on what your floor is made of/covered with too.  I could imagine a nice thick concrete floor being a low resonance, low static ground source but a suspended wooden floor being quite bouncy and liable to static with no grounding.

Yes, there are so many variables that can impact on the outcome. Mine is a suspended floor with carpet on particle board. There seems to be plenty of energy between/ behind the speakers, so one layer of batt helped to reduce that. 

[Terry Beard]

Shame they only have the yellow ones because the black ones sound even more amazing.

[AvSat44]

The black ones are available from concreting suppliers and are cheaper than the yellow ones. If you decide to get the yellow ones from Bunnings, they also sell aerosol paints that stick to plastics so you can have a variety of colours.

[075Congo]

SHUNYATA RESEARCH have a new cable lifter design on their website .......the Mobius Cable Suspension System. Have a look..........not cheap but an ingenious design.

[muon*]

On 31/12/2022 at 10:49 AM, audiofeline said:

I haven't used them.  I that when these are used on top of speakers they can dampen vibrations on the top of the cabinet, which theoretically can improve the sound.  I suspect that they are an indication that the speaker cabinet should have been made of thicker/less resonate material in the first place, so they would not be effective in a well-made speaker. 

I would also think that the door stops it could dampen vibrations that could interfere with performance from CD players and valve amp's.  But could benefit some devices and probably not benefit others.

The weights are relatively cheap, so not much to loose by trying them. 

 

I haven't blind-tested the weights on myself. 

I prefer to look after my vision, and feel that the only thing weights would do is to reduce my blood circulation and cause bruising. 

 

 

The weights did nothing placed on top of my ML-1 speakers.

 

Replaced them with Lenehan Toppers that do make a big difference.

 

Now the door stops are used as door stops, we did need some

[075Congo]

Those Lenehan Toppers have quite a reputation.......some talk about a new version in the Lenehan Pipeline.