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Cable elevators - conventional wisdom wrong?

Reluctant to put any considerable money in them, the reasons for using cable elevators seemed intuitively correct to me: decouple cables mechanically from vibration and insulate them from the carpet's static. I have therefore built cheap elevators myself using Lego building blocks. (Plastic with a more or less complex internal structure; moreover, there is enormous shaping flexibility, for instance you can also build gates with suspended strings on which to rest the cables)
In their advertisement/report on the Dark Field elevators, Shunyata now claim that conventional elevators are actually (very?) detrimental in that they enable a strong static field to build up between cable and floor causing signal degradation.
Can anyone with more technical knowledge than I have assess how serious the described effect is likely to be? Would there, theoretically, be less distortion with cables lying on the floor? Has anyone actually experienced this?
karelfd
eweedhome
227 posts
 
Mmarvin19 - Truly brilliant summary, although I might offer a slight amendment to the last: don't even try risers if you HAVE a mother-in-law. They'll heckle you even if all they do is visit every now and then...and that will open the door to heckling from everybody in the family, except for the dog.

Speaking of dogs, one of my friends and I both have Shelties, and we've noticed that, if we can get them to lie on the speaker cables, the sound warms up just a bit after about 5 minutes. I'm not sure it works with any other breed.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Unfortunately, our conventional electrical understanding doesn't allow an answer to your question. If you try raising your cables and using different materials, you will hear differences. There are multiple components to these differences. Vibrations, static, EMI, RFI etc. all detract from the realism you hear from your speakers. My best advice is to leave your ears guide you as science, given our present understanding, cannot.

I prefer ceramic isolators, with one on every wire, including those with no contact with anything except at each end. I have, however, experience the benefits of wood on top these isolators under speaker wires. I also know that raw silk pads under these speaker wires at the isolators absolutely killed the sound. Also, with the exception of the Townshend interconnects, I have always rejected ferrite rings anywhere.
dave_b's avatar
dave_b
2,267 posts
 
Tbg might be on to something...today, after several days of settling in with the Dark Fields, I noticed that some of my favorite recordings were sounding a bit constricted in the midbass and middle C range of the piano etc... Highs were also sounding slightly dry. Hmmm, I will experiment further, but there may be a costly trade off with the risers.
dave_b's avatar
dave_b
2,267 posts
 
OK, I can say that there is definately a reduction in transparency and low level detail along with a dullness evident in the lack of sustain on instruments. Body and weight of instruments are also decreased. After trying various Shunyata products over the last two years I can safely say that the "House Sound" is a bit dull, lifeless, dry and lacking in weight and energy. Live recordings sound less exciting and piano in particular sounds damped and lacking in overtones and sustain (most notable here). I am returning my Dark Fields asap.
ted_d
85 posts
 
Dave,
It would be interesting if you could compare and report back on the Dark Fields to simple CD cases used cable elevators as outlined here:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?fcabl&1215950921&openflup&23&4#23

Yours in music,
Ted Denney III
Lead Designer, Synergistic Research Inc.
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