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Lumber yard cable lifters bring improvements in sound.

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Posted on October 18, 2020 at 16:37:39
Sigmund
Audiophile

Posts: 1365
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Joined: February 15, 2002
Contributor
  Since: November 21, 2007
 So, I went to a local lumber yard and had them cut a six inch wide maple board into eight blocks which I put under my speaker cables to lift them off of the carpet since the carpet absorbs sound. What I got was more clarity, detail, sound staging, space and listening pleasure. Not bad for $30.

That was some years ago. Lately, I've been wondering if I could get more and better if I swapped out the maple for harder wood so, I got a recommendation from a luthier friend for bubinga, an African hardwood.

I tracked down a board at a local woodworking supply store and for $60 got eight 6x3 cuts which I put in place of the maple. What I got was more and less. More weight and definition to the sound, less space and the space around the sound was dark and felt like it wasn't breathing.

So, I substituted one maple block at the very end of the speaker cable closest to the speaker and voila! Weight to the body of the sound, great definition, detail, clarity and, most of all, the natural brightness and definition returned.

The music is now so lifelike, I sometimes look around to see who's in the house.

 

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RE: Lumber yard cable lifters bring improvements in sound., posted on October 19, 2020 at 09:28:25
Lew
Audiophile

Posts: 10911
Location: Bethesda, Maryland
Joined: December 11, 2000
 Without arguing whether cable lifters are audible or not, can you say how the carpet "absorbs sound" while the signal is still in electrical form traveling in a conductor? I've wondered about the rationale for cable lifting.

 

RE: Lumber yard cable lifters bring improvements in sound., posted on October 19, 2020 at 09:41:09
Tre'
Industry Professional

Posts: 17294
Location: So. Cal.
Joined: February 9, 2002
 I think he means that the carpet "absorbs" or disrupts the electromagnetic field that is around the speaker wire.

Tre'
Have Fun and Enjoy the Music
"Still Working the Problem"

 

RE: Lumber yard cable lifters bring improvements in sound., posted on October 19, 2020 at 15:01:21
Sigmund
Audiophile

Posts: 1365
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Joined: February 15, 2002
Contributor
  Since: November 21, 2007
 I can't speak to the physics of it, Lew. My experience is that with the cables on the carpet, music was less detailed, less clear, less life like.

 

RE: Lumber yard cable lifters bring improvements in sound., posted on October 20, 2020 at 07:11:39
Mike K
Audiophile

Posts: 13973
Location: 97701
Joined: September 23, 1999
 Cable lifters seem like a cheap enough tweak and so are worth trying. So I
got my speaker cables off the floor. Nothing. Maybe my ears are kaput.
Maybe my speaker cables do not need lifting. Maybe my lifters are not
exotic enough. Or maybe it is as Ben Franklin once observed, if you don't
believe it, you won't hear it.

Lack of skill dictates economy of style. - Joey Ramone

 

RE: Lumber yard cable lifters bring improvements in sound., posted on November 9, 2020 at 10:44:28
Byrd69
Audiophile

Posts: 2881
Location: East Syracuse, New York
Joined: August 23, 2004
 Have you considered changing the color of your carpet?


Your interest may vary but the results will be same. (Byrd 2020)

I can't compete with the dead. (Buck W. 2010)

Cowards can't be heroes. (Byrd 2017)

Why don't catfish have kittens? (Moe Howard 1937)

 

RE: Lumber yard cable lifters bring improvements in sound., posted on November 11, 2020 at 12:42:43
JonM
Audiophile

Posts: 292
Joined: December 29, 2000



One of my favorite ads.

"[A]s Ben Franklin once observed, if you don't believe it, you won't hear it." And if you do believe it, you may hear it. In my own experiment *many* years ago with the VPI "magic bricks" (mu metal in nice wooden cases that were said to absorb stray magnetic fields), if I told myself I heard a difference (without changing or moving anything, including myself), I heard the difference. It was all in my head, and the VPI bricks went back to the dealer. That showed me the power of the mind, and made me skeptical of tweaks that don't seem to have any basis in physics.

 

RE: Lumber yard cable lifters bring improvements in sound., posted on November 15, 2020 at 10:58:02
Brad225
Audiophile

Posts: 158
Location: Tampa
Joined: December 25, 2006






I made some years ago. I never really heard a difference but that doesn't prove anything either.
My obsessive side was much happier with the organizing. Making different heights makes it easy to separate cables.

 

RE: Lumber yard cable lifters bring improvements in sound., posted on January 5, 2021 at 11:10:35
peter3
Audiophile

Posts: 96
Location: So. Cal.
Joined: March 22, 2018
 Beautiful setup. What speakers do these amps drive?

 

RE: Lumber yard cable lifters bring improvements in sound., posted on January 5, 2021 at 12:44:27
Brad225
Audiophile

Posts: 158
Location: Tampa
Joined: December 25, 2006
 My speaker are Martin Logan CLX.
It is a very happy combination for my ears.

 

RE: Lumber yard cable lifters bring improvements in sound., posted on January 5, 2021 at 14:20:53
Brad225
Audiophile

Posts: 158
Location: Tampa
Joined: December 25, 2006
 Sigmund, the only thing I can possibly imagine is.

If there is some vibration, be it static from carpet of something in the shielding or non shielding of the cables, the tone woods the luthier mentioned could do what you described. That is not to day that the Maple is won't as it is used in instruments also.

It is interesting to hear your findings

 

RE: Lumber yard cable lifters bring improvements in sound., posted on January 5, 2021 at 14:27:27
Brad225
Audiophile

Posts: 158
Location: Tampa
Joined: December 25, 2006



Peter3
Here is a pic from listening chair

 

RE: Lumber yard cable lifters bring improvements in sound., posted on January 5, 2021 at 14:49:11
peter3
Audiophile

Posts: 96
Location: So. Cal.
Joined: March 22, 2018
 Thanks for the view Brad225. Stunningly beautiful!
Love the blue masking tape markings on the floor, only audiophiles understand it while the rest of the world think we're a bunch of nut cases. Haha ...
Have not seen those acoustic diffusers either, strangely they remind me of the Sci-Fi flix The Fifth Element.

 

What is under the Carpet...., posted on January 5, 2021 at 17:41:41
Cougar
Audiophile

Posts: 4574
Location: SoCal
Joined: June 25, 2001
 Wood flooring that is raised off the ground or Cement slab?

I posted this a few times that I used the porcelain Elevators when the were out back in the late 90's. It did make a difference in my system. Its hard to describe but it was positive, I get without them the system sounded more less lifelike and more on the sterile side? I had Cement slab under my carpet that has rebar running through it. So maybe the moisture and the extra capacitance due the rebar could have played a part in the sound of my system not sounding as good as with the Elevators used to lift the all the cable?

It wasn't a Jaw dropping change but a noticeable one.

 

RE: Lumber yard cable lifters bring improvements in sound., posted on January 6, 2021 at 12:37:00
Brad225
Audiophile

Posts: 158
Location: Tampa
Joined: December 25, 2006
 Peter, The blue tape is a permanent audio necessity. I don't like anyone cleaning my music room so nothing gets moved.
If my wife decides the room has not been cleaned, despite probably multiple requests, she will come in and vacuum. She will rough up the edges of the tape with the vacuum just enough to make me laugh and assure her I will clean more often. It's all in good fun.

The acoustical diffusers are a bit odd looking I admit. My wife had here tennis team over for a wine binge evening and she brought them to where I was hiding out. One of the women that is normally quiet and shy, walked into the room, looked at the walls, turned around and asked if this was some kind of
50 Shades of Gray thing going on here.. We all thought it was funny.

As for the difussiors.
My EE friend suggested making them after experimenting with them. They are disposable plastic Martini glasses without the bottoms. Foam core is the panel and they are super glued to them and then painted. I have then hung from the absorption panels so I can move then anywhere along the walls.

When I designed and built my listening room I wanted to start with an extremely absorbent room. The green panels hanging on the walls are made with Owned Corning 704 2" material. Behind that is no drywall but the 6" of fiberglass in the 2" x 6" framing of the room. The soffit around the room is built as a base trap. The insulation is 2' high and 3' wide in the soffit traps. The angled corners of the room are base traps with BaseBuster Cotton. The ceiling has 4' wide OC 704 panels from front to back.

The room is very quiet as you would imagine. I started adding diffusion a couple of panels at a time to create the deep and wide sound stage I hoped I could achieve. After 5 or 6 years I am still playing with their positioning but, it sounds wonderful to me.

 

RE: Lumber yard cable lifters bring improvements in sound., posted on January 10, 2021 at 23:21:30
KanedaK
Audiophile

Posts: 2519
Location: Brussels
Joined: April 27, 2010
 I believe thick carpet that would change the sound of a cable has to do with dielectrics

 

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