Anyone have their power and speaker cables on the floor?

Tried it, made no apparent difference whatsoever!

 

Floor and I have moved them many times. I found no difference up or down. To me supports are snake oil.

 

I see Naim cables & interconnects mentioned in this thread several times. Can anyone tell me where to find them? I see only one dealer in the US and it doesn't look like they sell those times.

Thanks.

 

But did you recite the spell at the same time?

 

Oh man...... I forgot the spell !

 

Mine are hoisted in the air by angels who do shiftwork It's a nice improvement I think.

 

Yes the spell.
As you place the wires up on the suports.. repeat loudly: "Owa Tagoo Siam" Start slowly, say each word carfully.. and as you chant it start saying it louder and faster...

 

Every cable I have hits the ground.

 

I thought the issue was static electricity, not whether they were on the ground or not. If you have a rug there is more chance of static buildup, particularly in drier climates or in winter (non radiator houses), whereas if it's just bare floor the only issue would be keeping power cables away from audio cables.

 

On the floor. I have tried raising them and cannot discern any difference.

 

Mine are up on insulators. Watch the above video. You can skip ahead to 1:30 if you don't want the initial comments about shielding.

ccm

 

More trouble than it's worth (for me).

 

Fair enough, but it's about ten minutes work, at best. And you don't need to use expensive purpose-built stuff, you can just find any old blocks of wood or foam.

When I'm on land, I try to catch "insulator shows". People collect these old insulators, and sell and trade 'em. Why? I have no idea. All I know is that they make great cable lifters and aren't expensive at these swap meets.

I haven't done all of my cables yet, but I do the important signal-carrying ones like the speaker cables and the IC runs.

ccm

 

Life being too short and audio full of bats**it crazy ideas, I'm happy to pass here!

 

Well, I posted a video of the measurements here. That's about all I can do.

Most of the naysayers in this thread are famous for being all about the science/measurements. I bring you measurements, and now... it's not worth bothering about.

Whatevs, seekers

ccm

 

That explains it! You are an Angel yourself.

 

Well I watched the video and I still have a question in my mind about how (or whether) the sound going through the cable is actually affected by these "interactions". At least affected so that we can actually discern some difference when listening. I must come clean as well that my speaker cables are insulated all except for the back pair in my 7.1 set-up. I ran out of the very expensive cable I bought back in the 70's to do these last 2 runs.

 

We have these plastic stands (the ones I used are shorter than the ones in the image) used to prop up rebar at work so I put them under my speaker cables - at less than 20 cents a piece why the hell not:



http://www.rebarplastics.com/product/RC000

 

This is the correct link:

http://www.rebarplastics.com/product/HD000

 

Cool suggestion.

 

What I gathered from the video is that the better a cable is shielded, the less of an effect the interaction will have. However, I know there are a lot of SH members using speaker wire like Monster unshielded cable. That demo should certainly be pertinent to them.

Cardas has shown you with an oscilloscope that signals in a cable will be changed by dielectric interaction with a floor. I've got to ask, what more would it take to convince you? Can you suggest how dielectric interaction with a floor could do good things to an audio signal? Because the oscilloscope does not display a situation of no change.

Now THAT is an accusation that this sailor did not expect to wake up to!

ccm

 

The ones in the first link - the RC model - look like they would work even better but they are not the style that I have actually used ;-)

 

I forgot to mention I have one set of AC wires going up over the ceiling and then down.
The best outlet, right behind the distribution box and a single 20 amp with it's own breaker.. Run two Wattgate plugs from that duplex with four sets of 12 gauge silver plated milspec teflon insulated 600V in a pair of quad twist (With the ground between all tight in a wrap of more teflon. It goes UP over the ceiling to the living room wall and then down to my stereo stuff.
35 ft. (the manager approved it. so not a problem for me and them.
So that whole set is hanging from sticky pads with zip ties up over and down.. It is only about 5mm off the wall surface.. but that helps.

 

Interesting to come across this two years later. I would agree that the ZiTron Cobra has less "timing" to it than say, the original King Cobra V2 Shunyata made back in 2002. And I mean, significantly less so. That King Cobra V2 was so obviously - as Roy Gregory put it - "surging with power" that everything after that has seemed tame, although cleaner in the high frequencies. The "groove" you speak of is what people disparage as "pace, rhythm and timing." I doubt there is any Black music from the '60s that didn't have a groove if it was uptempo, and it wasn't something my friends and I needed to study: we knew it because when we danced, if it grooved, we "got down." And nobody needed to tell us (then) 15-year old Black brothers about "getting down." It was in our DNA. So when I listen with the Cobra Zi-Tron speaker cables I own (and I've owned every generation of their cables), I notice it, (even tonight, earlier, when I was playing Peer Gynt's 'In the Hall of the Mountain King,' which is all about rhythm, timing and sudden stops (on a dime, so to speak) but at the time I got the cable, someone was terminally ill in my family, so I wasn't as disposed to notice it as I can now. I also noticed it when MG Audio Designs loaned me their speaker cable two years ago: the difference was striking. I am a Shunyata loyalist, but I don't believe in dismissing other's assessments.
BUT, back to the subject matter. Cables on floors. Let me tell ya a story.
I was invited to the house of the publisher of Fi Magazine, back in 1994, when I started writing for TAS. He had a Rockport, Grashopper cartridge, Jadis JA-80 preamp, Transparent Reference XL speaker cables, And the Bel Mk III amp, and Wilson Grand Slamms. We were listening to an Elvis Presley recording, and I thought, "it's bright-sounding." Few, if ANY, Elvis Presley (original recordings done by Tom Porter) were bright, so I looked around on the floor. They had a power cable crossing the speaker cable. After the demo, I politely asked if I could make an adjustment. (By the way, the company assembled was Dick Brown (Bel's owner/designer), Sallie Reynolds, Executive Editor of TAS at the time, my colleague Tom Miiller, a couple of people whose names I forget, and Larry Kay, Fi's publisher. They said yes. I took a nearby book, lifted the cable off the floor (and away from the power cord) and we replayed it. It was instantly heard by everyone present. Tom called me a "showoff," but I pointed out that Enid Lumley - of TAS - had mentioned this years ago. And she's right. So, I can't speak to what you all are not hearing (and maybe cables are better dressed now, but I've owned Nordost Valhallas as well, and they were the ONLY ones that did not show a difference lifted off the floor). EVERY other cables (well, not the Goertz AG-2s, which are also ribbon) show a difference in clarity. I've used the Cable Elevators, CD jewel boxes, books, and 2 generations of Shunyata Dark Field Elevators. The 2nd generation DFEs were so immediately improved from the first generation, I wrote Grant and told him he should shove these at writers, but he said it was hard to get writers to evaluate accessories. Nonetheless, they are not snake oil. I will say it depends on the quality of equipment ahead of it, which is not to be insulting, but some equipment does not reflect a lower noise floor. I'm using an NAD C325BEE in place of my ASL equipment and it shows the difference, but I usually have to pick out an instrument in the orchestra (I use bassoons, clarinets, and piccolos) to hear the difference. But I've had my cables off the floor since 1989, and I also have an ASC wall-damped room. I suspect room acoustics - or lack thereof - mask certain improvements, which is why writers used to complain that most people ignored treating their room. I can certainly attest that my 23 x 45 basement allows the music - even with a ceiling that is only 7 1/2' high - to sound more powerful than the ASC-wall damped 13 x 20 room with 10' high ceilings, so I believe room acoustics mask improvements in equipment more than many people realize.
By the way, I read somewhere that Steve Hoffman commented that the Cobra Zi-Trons were weak in the timing department. I agree. The mid bass is thinned out a bit from my Andromeda speaker cables. The Goertz will arrive tomorrow (I loan any equipment I'm not using out to my friends), who are all in California - I'm in Connecticut - and I want to see the difference in the timing, but there's little doubt in my mind what will happen.
In any case, I'm not in your rooms and don't have your equipment, but if you think this is malarkey, well, nothing I can say will make the slightest bit of difference. And I don't need to convince others: I've heard it in too many manufacturer's listening rooms to have any doubts.