Why put speaker cables on foam?

Innocent Bystander posted:

Eoink posted:

nigelb posted:

ChrisSU posted:

This is all a con. Nailing it to the floor is the way forward, why else would they go to all the trouble of putting that nice wide flat bit between the wires? Total cost, about 25p 

We are talking a saving of 95p here (£1.20 vs 25p). Do you really want to risk transforming your system to save 95p? I think not. Anyway, hammering your speaker cable to the floor is so yesterday. Chris, things have moved on my friend. 

Surely one nails it up the wall and across the ceiling, that way you can maximise the amount of cable for optimal performance.

It also gets the wore as far as possible above the floor. 

However, to minimise interactions between the cables and anything connected to ground they should be suspended midway between ceiling and floor, and as far as possible to achieve midway between walls. The difficulty is what should be used to suspend: a low cost approach would be nylon monofilament as used in fishing, which would minimise the visual impact. The line should be anchored to both ceiling and floor, of course with horizontal stabilising lanyards.

Yes, that should look fine. I'm sure the wife won't mind.

nigelb posted:

This is now getting plain silly. 

Just now? Lol. I was thinking it started silly. 

spurrier sucks posted:

nigelb posted:

This is now getting plain silly. 

Just now? Lol. I was thinking it started silly. 

Sorry, my rather pathetic attempt at wit (or is that sarcasm).

As Andy Pandy used to say, 'time for bed'. (It's a British thing and would take too long to explain).

Night night.

I suppose if you have speaker that resonant then you will try any daft idea.  correct at source is the solution

Oooh…never thought my speakers might resonant. BTW, what does that mean?

nigelb posted:

spurrier sucks posted:

nigelb posted:

This is now getting plain silly. 

Just now? Lol. I was thinking it started silly. 

Sorry, my rather pathetic attempt at wit (or is that sarcasm).

As Andy Pandy used to say, 'time for bed'. (It's a British thing and would take too long to explain).

Night night.

Looks like I'm guilty as well and I'm not British. Lol Just having a little fun on the boards. 

You're all playing at it. Full decoupling off cable A from floor B? I have these blokes round to hold cables clear of the floor. Sorted.

Whilst I appreciate the theory behind this ideology, having tried it in the past with foam and 'proper' cable isolation devices I found that I could detect zero change/improvement to the sound.  Elevating your cables may very well reduce the amount of vibration passing through them via the floor, but what about the bass and frequencies that are air bound?  I know when I listen to my system loud the whole room vibrates so it's futile trying to mitigate against vibration!

Personally I think it's utter nonsense, but if you can hear a difference then all power to you

Here's mine, they looked cool but didn't do a lot otherwise....hand made from oak!

Effectiveness of a cable support could well be reliant on the way the cable has been made.  Some cables like those mahoosivly fat ones go to great lengths to shield and protect, others go the other way with absolute minimal shielding and acoustic open transference.

I have always assumed a bed of goose feathers is the best support for speaker cables, but only if the geese have been corn fed....

I have a family of bugs living in my carpet which I feed exclusively on baked beans. The resulting flatulents levitates my cables about an inch from the floor. I usually put down extra beans about half an hour before critical listening. 

Warning: This thread is destined for the Padded Cell graveyard if all the silliness persists.

Well, I suppose the topic itself is inherently silly. 

I am however still interested to know why Naim have (had?) raised their speaker cables in the factory demo room.

Lewis posted:

Whilst I appreciate the theory behind this ideology, having tried it in the past with foam and 'proper' cable isolation devices I found that I could detect zero change/improvement to the sound.  Elevating your cables may very well reduce the amount of vibration passing through them via the floor, but what about the bass and frequencies that are air bound?  I know when I listen to my system loud the whole room vibrates so it's futile trying to mitigate against vibration!

Personally I think it's utter nonsense, but if you can hear a difference then all power to you

Here's mine, they looked cool but didn't do a lot otherwise....hand made from oak!

 

 

 

 

Those cables could  be 10ft up in the air but I guess that the SL1200/10(?) with the Ortofon Red did not help much. 

I run my SL speaker cables directly on the lounge carpet in preference to suspending them from the ceiling or supporting them on foam or wood.  The secret to a successful installation is the quality of the carpet underlay, so often scrimped on.  Bare concrete, vinyl floor tiles and carpet tiles are to be avoided for sure...  spend as much per square yard/metre on your underlay as you do on the carpet itself and you'll experience true audio nirvana  (providing the rest of your kit is up to it of course).

Has anyone yet come up with a credible explanation as to how this might actually achieve anything useful?

rjstaines posted:

I run my SL speaker cables directly on the lounge carpet in preference to suspending them from the ceiling or supporting them on foam or wood.  The secret to a successful installation is the quality of the carpet underlay, so often scrimped on.  Bare concrete, vinyl floor tiles and carpet tiles are to be avoided for sure...  spend as much per square yard/metre on your underlay as you do on the carpet itself and you'll experience true audio nirvana  (providing the rest of your kit is up to it of course).

Without these Grip and Control goes out of the window don't scrimp on your grippers !

Huge posted:

Has anyone yet come up with a credible explanation as to how this might actually achieve anything useful?

For anyone with a conductive (e.g metal) floor, then the performance characteristics of any unshielded cable lying across the floor would be affected by capacitive coupling, and thus behave like a different cable, and so potentially affect the sound depending on the degree of change and the susceptibility of amp output etc. increasing the distance between the floor and the cable using insulating spacers would reduce the effect, proportional to distance. (Ditto cables by the wall if walls are metal (or other conducting medium like carbon fibre).
So for listening rooms in aircraft or boats the foam spacers might indeed make a significant difference.

It is harder to see how the same would apply if it is a shielded cable with the shield connected to ground and minimal resistance between ground and the metal floor/wall

I've yet to live in a house with significant metal (or other conductive material) content in either the walls or floors, let alone one where this is sufficiently close to affect a cable.

I am aware that some people have constructed dwellings from ISO shipping containers, and for those very rare locations you may well have a point.

For the rest of us?

P.S.  I love the reductio ad absurdum!

I was talking to one of the team at Audio T .... and he said he attended a demo set up by Naim team from Salisbury. They apparently took allot of time - leveling the Fraims, polishing the ball joints, de-stressing cables - spacing cables and lifting speaker cables off the floor..... plugging in and unplugging repeatedly all plugs.... all apparently to great effect....

of course it makes a difference

Listen to a track. Get up, go over, bend down, move cables around onto bits of wood or sponge or parakeet eggshells or whatever

Go sit down. It sounds better.

Now either its because:

a) the wood/sponge/parakeet eggshells have made a significant difference, or

b) the act of standing up, walking across room, bending down, standing up, sitting down again has caused increased heart rate, increase oxygenisation of the blood, the decision to pick up a wee dram on the way back to the seat...

now you can choose between a or b. If you think its a, then I have some wooden blocks to sell you. they are only 10 grand per block, but the increase in inter-transient velvety darkness is HUGE...

spurrier sucks posted:

Drewy posted:

My Axminster carpet is vibrating so much I must put some foam between it and my cables. 

Theres a main road about 12 metres from my house. I am also considering jacking up my whole house and putting it on coil springs to "decouple" it from planet earth. Not sure if I'll hear a difference but it will be worth it.

This is one of the better ideas I've read in a long time. Naim woukd be smart to get on this or at least announce its impending debut then work out the kinks to get it to market. 

This sounds more like something that Max Townsend already makes but you might get a bit seasick when your house starts rocking...

Phil

If the house is a-rockin', don't come a-knockin'.

It's pretty obvious there's a benefit - how else can you convince all your wanky, nerdy Hi Fi mates that you are at the bleeding edge without some exotic wooden speaker cable supports?

Forget pipe foam, unless it's a rare Brazilian hardwood, hand crafted and polished on the thighs of virgin beauties, it's nothing...

Dave