Speaker Cable off the floor

Help me understand what significance having your speaker cable off the floor? When I was at RMAF, I noticed this on some systems, but not on others. I was looking through some of the systems here on the ML site and ran across this picture. What wrong here? One side obviously has the cables off the floor, but look at the left side!!!! I saw the same type of thing at ListenUp's B&W set up at the show. I asked the presenter about it and he just stared at me like I was nuts. He couldn't and wouldn't answer my question of why one side was off the floor, but not the other.

Hi Doc,

Can't explain why you would elevate the wires on one side and not the other.

FWIW, many folks contend that carpet causes potential static / EMI / RFI interference to the speaker cables, which may alter the signal going thru the cable in a negative way.

Tis the reason why folks elevate their speaker cables off the floor.

GG

If your floor is over joists (ie not a conc. slab directly on the ground) and the finish surface is wood or tile, there is really no reason to lift the cables. If the finished floor is carpet without anti-static fibres, it couldn't hurt to get them off the floor to avoid static transfer (especially if the humidity is low.) If your floor is a slab on the ground, lifting the cables can help avoid the effect of ground inductance.

Personally, I understand the science, but feel the effect would have to be negligable with any cable better than common zipcord or raw wire like the Speltz anti-cable. An electrically and mechanically well shielded cable (spk or IC) like Purist would IMO be totally immune.

And there is a downside to the elevators which is real; and that's the cable's suceptability to mechanical vibration when not fully supported along its length by the floor.

I use cable lifts on my speakers cables in my main system but for a slightly different reason. I use them to help keep the speaker cables seperated from the power cords. I can't say I hear any difference with the cables lifted or directly on the floor but I like to keep them organized.

Hi:
I lift my cables off of the hardwood floor to keep them from getting under my robot cleaner (http://www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=122). I looked closely at the photo I recently posted of my system (http://www.martinloganowners.com/~tdacquis/forum/showthread.php?p=57631#post57631) and wouldn't you know it but the right speaker cable is on the floor! . Let me assure you that there is no audiophile theory behind this condition. It's like this only because my robot cleaner pushed the cable off of it's riser. Maybe the owner of the system in the picture you posted had a robot cleaner that did the same thing to his cables.

Perhaps the robot cleaner prefers the sound of the cables ON the floor.

I do it because it looks cool.
They were working on the power lines in my neighborhood a while ago, and extra power line insulators were laying on the ground under the poles for weeks. I drove by them every day thinking I can't take them because that would be stealing. After about 2 months, until you could barely see them under the mowed grass, I stopped and threw them in my car, cleand them up, and viola.
Take a look at my system.
And I don't think I can hear a difference.

Craig said:

I use cable lifts on my speakers cables in my main system but for a slightly different reason. I use them to help keep the speaker cables seperated from the power cords. I can't say I hear any difference with the cables lifted or directly on the floor but I like to keep them organized.

Click to expand...

as Craig, my reason as well.

I do it because it did make an improvement in the sound of my system. Keep in mind though that I live in the high desert plains of Colorado where it's usually dry as a bone and static is a very common occurence.

Sometimes I need to laugh at some of the things people do with there equipment. Can you really hear a difference or do you just think you can?

I asked one of the electrostatic manufacturers at RMAF about cables, large vs small. He said one should always use a smaller type cable on electrostatics. Not the huge garden hose variety.