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Elevated speaker wire/cable

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DMLBES

Active Member
Does having speaker wire/cable elevated off the floor make a difference?

I was tinkering around with my DIY panels and my room was pretty cluttered so instead of laying my speaker wire on the floor I draped them over my second set of speakers and I noticed a sound change. Was my mind playing tricks on me?

Then I seen a video on youtube were he had his cables on some type of support stands that elevated the cables off of the floor which further intrigued me of my experience.
 
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DMLBES said:
Does having speaker wire/cable elevated off the floor make a difference?

I was tinkering around with my DIY panels and my room was pretty cluttered so instead of laying my speaker wire on the floor I draped them over my second set of speakers and I noticed a sound change. Was my mind playing tricks on me?
Click to expand...
Making physical changes to a system often changes perception, because hearing isn't just your ears, it's your brain -- emotions, cognition, knowledge, hearing, sight -- all working together to create the sense of sound. Your brain and state of mind are as much an effect on what you experience as the sound that enters your ears, even more than some would like to admit, though the effects of cognition are generally accepted, like being tired or ill can make your hifi system sound worse or ingesting various substances can make your hifi system sound better.

So it's not your mind playing tricks; it's your brain demonstrating normal brain behaviour.

That said, there are some who claim that raising cables reduces static pick-up or has other electrical effects, though there seems to be little physics or electronics basis for an audible influence of static (or other floor effects) on a low-impedance (relatively) high voltage and current speaker circuit. There's no evidence for it in other areas of electronics outside of audio, either, but rather than dismiss it entirely it is perhaps an area that needs more research.

Of course, there may be simple explanations too, like a poor connection being improved/worsened a bit by moving the speaker cable around, or the cable being wrapped around a metal or magnetic core enough to significantly alter the cable inductance (though this is unlikely.)
 
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To be more precise the sound didn't change after tinkering with my panels, it only changed after I draped the speaker wire over another speaker due to almost tripping on the speaker wire. I never even fathom that elevating a speaker wire off the ground could change the sound. That is why I am very curious to know.
 
It is likely an affect of your mind. The physics we know pretty much actually puts better audio out of the picture. There is a lot of physics we do not know at all. I just heard someone say that we know what gravity is now. No we don't. We just know how to measure it. I am too old to see the unification of quantum physics and general relativity. We are a long way from this. So raising your speaker wire off the ground may in fact improve audio through a process we don't understand. We do know now that observing some phenomena actually affects the outcome. Maybe you did that. I think we understand as much about our universe as an ant understands astro physics.
 
ironcoder said:
So raising your speaker wire off the ground may in fact improve audio through a process we don't understand. We do know now that observing some phenomena actually affects the outcome.
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Maybe.

But if so, we should see evidence of the same effect in equivalent non-audio circuits -- which we don't -- and there's zero evidence that audio is a distinct process from other physical phenomena.
 
Have any of you tried elevating your speaker wire/cables off the floor to see if it made a difference? If so what is your experience? Did it sound different or remain the same? Those that haven't its easy to do and let me know your results. Thanks.
 
DMLBES said:
Have any of you tried elevating your speaker wire/cables off the floor to see if it made a difference? If so what is your experience? Did it sound different or remain the same? Those that haven't its easy to do and let me know your results. Thanks.
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A buddy and I tried years ago, though with nothing like the appropriate controls to make it a scientific test, as even our usual casual blind tests weren't practical with all the time and faffing it took to prop the cables up on stacks of books, wood blocks and magazines.

No difference was noted.

Though to have any scientific validity, tests like this should be done under double-blind, controlled conditions. Otherwise, any results can only be considered subjective and inconclusive.
 
No difference whatsoever. But then again it didn't make any difference when I ran it through the attic, through the wall, through the basement etc etc. I really don't think the cable has a preference which room it's in either, tried the kitchen, bedroom, living rm etc etc, I guess I have multi-environment wire lol. I've also noticed over the yrs the wire sounds the same when new as it does when covered with dust bunnies lol.
 
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Where you place wires can have an impact ( Never drape network cabling over a commercial A/C unit, trust me on this. ) but if you have one of the typical rf noise proximity issues that can arise in a home environment you are likely going to already be painfully aware of it. That you heard a difference may be due to the actual moving of the cable especially if you did get tangled with it and gave it a tug. I have, in the past, elevated my speaker cables to get them clear of obstacles or hidden from curious cats. Sound didn't change unless I moved the speakers themselves.

Mark Gosdin
 
I don't know if raising cables makes any audible difference, so I shall read on with an open mind.

After a day of cleaning the house, the dust bunny comment caught my attention, I am so easily amused.....yes those dust bunnies are dangerous


Sorry, a moment of levity, back to the topic at hand.

Rob :)
 
I use them on my main rig to keep them off the carpeted floor and organized since I have 4 sets of speakers wires going to each side. Three pair to the Maggies and one pair to the subwoofer. It works great in that application, but as far as sonics I'm not sure, but the rig sounds great and it couldn't hurt.
Regards,
Jim

20180403_064913.jpg
 
DaveVoorhis said:
Making physical changes to a system often changes perception, because hearing isn't just your ears, it's your brain -- emotions, cognition, knowledge, hearing, sight -- all working together to create the sense of sound. Your brain and state of mind are as much an effect on what you experience as the sound that enters your ears, even more than some would like to admit, though the effects of cognition are generally accepted, like being tired or ill can make your hifi system sound worse or ingesting various substances can make your hifi system sound better.

So it's not your mind playing tricks; it's your brain demonstrating normal brain behaviour.
Click to expand...
Johnny on the spot with the same old judgement and opinion that everything that changes the sound of a system is in our brains.

But if we take the OP at their word, there was no expectation of anything. They didn't do it to make it ascetically pleasing, money wasn't invested nor was it an attempt to make the system sound better.
They simply moved the wire out of the way and heard a difference. This has nothing to do with the brain effecting our hearing, but a change in sound was heard.

DaveVoorhis said:
That said, there are some who claim that raising cables reduces static pick-up or has other electrical effects, though there seems to be little physics or electronics basis for an audible influence of static (or other floor effects) on a low-impedance (relatively) high voltage and current speaker circuit. There's no evidence for it in other areas of electronics outside of audio, either, but rather than dismiss it entirely it is perhaps an area that needs more research.
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Yes there is, for one thing why do you think they put shielding on a wire?
Even in our systems we hear changes moving wires or even touching them. I'm sure we have all heard a hum and touched the wire and it changed. I'm sure we all have heard a hum and moved the wire draping it over something else or moving it to eliminate the hum
DaveVoorhis said:
Of course, there may be simple explanations too, like a poor connection being improved/worsened a bit by moving the speaker cable around, or the cable being wrapped around a metal or magnetic core enough to significantly alter the cable inductance (though this is unlikely.)
Click to expand...
Unlikely?
Why?
There can be many bad connections in a system, not to mention in this case the OP draped the wire over a magnetic field, the speaker!!
 
4-2-7 said:
Johnny on the spot with the same old judgement and opinion that everything that changes the sound of a system is in our brains.
Click to expand...
Not true. Many, many, many things have direct acoustic effects, but heard differences can be due to non-acoustic effects, so it's worthwhile considering them. One of the reasons audiophiles are so often reviled in (at least) the electronics community (they're frequently called "audiophools") is because of a persistent unwillingness to recognise that hearing is ears + brain, not just ears, and both have to be considered when looking for non-obvious causes of heard changes.
4-2-7 said:
But if we take the OP at their word, there was no expectation of anything. They didn't do it to make it ascetically pleasing, money wasn't invested nor was it an attempt to make the system sound better.
They simply moved the wire out of the way and heard a difference. This has nothing to do with the brain effecting our hearing, but a change in sound was heard.
Click to expand...
Expectation bias is not the only reason for perceived changes.
4-2-7 said:
Yes there is, for one thing why do you think they put shielding on a wire?
Click to expand...
Shielding is needed on relatively high-impedance, low-voltage, low-current signal leads like interconnects because induced hum voltages can be as high if not higher than signal voltages and are easily amplified by the preamplifier and amplifier. Shielding is not needed on speaker leads because any induced hum is far too low level compared to the relatively high voltage, high current, low impedance speaker drive to have any audible effect.
4-2-7 said:
Even in our systems we hear changes moving wires or even touching them. I'm sure we have all heard a hum and touched the wire and it changed. I'm sure we all have heard a hum and moved the wire draping it over something else or moving it to eliminate the hum
Click to expand...
Hum is easily induced in unshielded low-level signal leads where it is amplified by the preamplifier and amplifier. Normal environmental hum can't be induced via the speaker leads into the speakers.
4-2-7 said:
Unlikely?
Why?
There can be many bad connections in a system, not to mention in this case the OP draped the wire over a magnetic field, the speaker!!
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It's unlikely because unless the speaker lead was coiled multiple times around the speaker magnet, merely draping it over a speaker cabinet is unlikely to come close enough to a speaker magnet, or be coiled enough, to create audibly high inductance in the speaker lead.

A bad connection is possible, as I suggested.
 
DaveVoorhis said:
Not true. Many, many, many things have direct acoustic effects, but heard differences can be due to non-acoustic effects, so it's worthwhile considering them. One of the reasons audiophiles are so often reviled in (at least) the electronics community (they're frequently called "audiophools") is because of a persistent unwillingness to recognise that hearing is ears + brain, not just ears, and both have to be considered when looking for non-obvious causes of heard changes.

Expectation bias is not the only reason for perceived changes.

Shielding is needed on relatively high-impedance, low-voltage, low-current signal leads like interconnects because induced hum voltages can be as high if not higher than signal voltages and are easily amplified by the preamplifier and amplifier. Shielding is not needed on speaker leads because any induced hum is far too low level compared to the relatively high voltage, high current, low impedance speaker drive to have any audible effect.

Hum is easily induced in unshielded low-level signal leads where it is amplified by the preamplifier and amplifier. Normal environmental hum can't be induced via the speaker leads into the speakers.

It's unlikely because unless the speaker lead was coiled multiple times around the speaker magnet, merely draping it over a speaker cabinet is unlikely to come close enough to a speaker magnet, or be coiled enough, to create audibly high inductance in the speaker lead.

A bad connection is possible, as I suggested.
Click to expand...

DaveVoorhis said:
but rather than dismiss it entirely it is perhaps an area that needs more research.
Click to expand...
I think I'll use this comment of yours^^^
 
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