Speaker Wires on Carpet

Well, I'd guess that the good news for a question like this is that there should be a measurable and repeatable test for this phenomenon. And, it doesn't even have to be a double blind test, although that sure would be an interesting (well, at least to me) addition.

If your carpet's acting as a dielectric with enough effect for you to hear a difference, then any actual effect would be a difference in the electrical signal being received at your speaker. That is testable. I don't happen to have the issue, and no, I'm not running out to buy carpeting or even a variety of sufficiently long carpet runner samples to perform such a test. But I'm sure that any number of folks with the appropriate technical background and available equipment could nail this one and/or at least help quantify the impact for us all.

From what I remember of any recording studio I've ever been in (no, not that many ;~) I can never remember seeing little cable risers anywhere. Wire strewn all over the place, and lots of carpet too, but no little cable risers. They probably figured that their shielded & balanced connections more than covered any such effect.

This is very simple tweak to test because it can be done real time while music is playing without disconnecting anything, no need to talk in theory. On a couple ocassions with group of people present no one could hear any real difference when any of my speaker cables were lifted off carpet.

There may be some cables that can benefit but none of mine did......I use many other tweaks that do work for me, so I am not anti-tweak.

Looks like I generated a lively discussion. :-)

Let me repeat one of my questions: does it make any difference if the positive and negative runs are twisted together (as they are in many inwall wires) or are running straight and parallel? I thought I remember reading that the twisted configuration was designed to cancel out interference.

I've been wondering if ceramic is a good choice for the elevators How does it deal with mechanical vibrations?

I know that some wire makers like to use a shear cotton insulator for there wire instead of plastic or teflon. Would a fluffy Disneyland type cotton monorail running under the speaker cable be as good?

No disrepect, to everone that can't believe cable isolaters work. I think you have to consider the cable route and shielding. I have Kimber Bifocal XL's over a berber carpet. When I added glazed ceramic elevators it improved or removed smear from what I thought was a great sounding system. I tried the experiement on my wife who could care less and she felt the elevators improved the sound. I'm in the data communications industry and cable type is critical in data communications for speed and accuracy. Also as everyone knows the cable route can effect sound. Like every thing in this hobby a person should experiement for themselves. Some improvements are real some are imagined(placebo effect). At the end of the day any tweaks that improves your listening pleasure is valid to YOU.

Enjoy your system Tweak reasonably.