Cable Vibration

i saw in some pictures audiophiles fit their speaker cable and isolate them from floor for isolating cable from vibration.
did you had any experience about this tweek?
Thanks

 

I ask visitors to my hifi sanctuary to wear slippers, to the soles of which I have glued two layers of bubble wrap. This avoids footfall vibration being transferred to the speaker cables. My experiments with Stillpoint-based slippers have so far been unsuccessful

 

I think it is more to keep the speaker cables, which are unshielded, away from the mains cables which normally run under floorboards. Not so much to do with vibration isolation.


... or maybe it is to keep the cables further away from the earth’s magnetic field?!

 

I would have now added some pictures of people in bubble wrap suits, along with some jokey comments but it seems I can't take screenshots of media player playing divx files. Any advice on how to go about such a thing!? I tried 'HyperSnap' but it didn't help. I think its because it uses overlay stuff.

 

I spent the weekend in hospital after my angle iron, spike and glass footwear experiment...

 

I seem to remember Bub theorising that vibrations in cables, causing the contacts with the inputs/outputs on equipment to be unstable, might be a major cause for concern...

Vertex AQ claim this is one of the primary issues their cables and tweaks address - and they've been very well received by much of the hifi press. One point Vertex AQ made is that interconnects and speaker cables make extremely good conductors of physical vibration, as metals tend to be much better vibration conductors than air for instance, so if you're at all worried about vibration affecting your kit, you should be worried about the vibrations your cables transmit.

Seems far-fetched, but you never know - there could be something in it...

Dunc

 

Very well received by the press that they are paying to advertise with Great markup I bet!

I would like to see the affects on signal propagation via two cables in an identical setup. With the cable being vibrated by some contraption and then without.

It should also be possible to measure the vibration transmitted into the connector. Solid metals chunks vibrate but whether a flexible cable vibrates when surrounded by a plastic sheath is another question. String isnt very good at transmitting vibration unless its taut! Guitars being a good case in point. You could loosen an electric guitar string to be about a metre longer then it should be and try vibrating that to see how much noise comes out of the marshall stack.

 

Hmmmm interesting. The maker of my speaker cables swears that keeping them away from the floor improves the sound, and I can't see any ulterior motive on his part, but to be honest they sound so good running under the big rug we have I can't see any reason to create an obstacle or mini pylons or any of that nonsense...

 

Note: my speaker cables are solid core and not really what you'd call flexible (i.e. you can wind it round in a circle and it will hold that circle against gravity, so it's not your normal cable. Sounds great though. Perhaps its unusually inflexible nature makes it more susceptible to vibes, who knows...

 

That makes sense...

Dunc

 

I think you are worrying about this far too much - concentrate your resources where they count not where they best line the pockets of dealers!

 

Well as jtc said, isolating your cables from vibrations doesn't benefit the cable companies in any way, so if they recommend it you have to believe that they really think it works. It's certainly possible that the people behind cable companies are deluded, but it ain't necessarily so, and I'm sure there are plenty of things you can try for little or no money at all, so why not give it a go..? I can't really be arsed, but that's just me.

Dunc

 

No but it does benefit the hifi dealer and the company making the cable isolators. No I dont think the cable manufacturers are deluded - mostly they know they are selling snake oil. Plenty of them buy bulk rolls of cheap cable put fancy connectors on and resheathe it so noone knows and charge £1K/M. There is a thread on audiogon detailing exactly such practices.

 

Yup, but there are plenty (or, well, a nonzero number...) that don't. Must check out this thread.

Dunc

 

i think vibration cause alittle harshness is sound and less focus in stage

 

Amir, with respect - I think that comment is utter nonsense.

 

I think if we want to improve on the Hi-Fi technology we have now, the next big step is to use super-cooling to slow down atomic vibration as it smears the imaging and you get a more bumpy texture.

Hey thats not a bad idea... someone could sell those mini freezers you get for bed sits and stuff re-done as a hi-fi rack. Hey you could keep your beer in there too!

 

Krystal Kables, interconects at £38 have dramatically improved my rega mira / ear / planet's sound. As have the cardas (£138/ car sun screen mesh (£1) mod to my senn hd650.

I wouldn't have bothered with the cardas but the cables supplied are about 8ft long, and useless in anything other than a small room, so i thought it was worth a punt.

Mod'ing arm cables and spending £1k / meter on speaker cables or interconnects seems like a great idea if money is no object, but i think you'd be better off buying/moding better quality main components.

i

 

I found that damping the cable under a big heavy carpet:
a) prevented unnecessary trip hazard
b) sounded fine.

Surely if a cable is lifted off the floor it is more susceptible to air borne vibration, if it makes a difference at all?

 

Leonard, forget whether it makes a difference or not - as you rightfully point out, cables should be kept out of harms way - under a rug or carpet preferably. Even if placing them on little stands sounds fractionally better, there will come a time when a kid, pet or wife forgets about the cables and trips, bringing your whole ensemble crashing down...

So, under the rug they stay

John