Cable elevators...

hearingimpared

concealer404 wrote: »

I wish i could use these, i'd love to give them a try, but i've simply got too much cable down there.

Hey Bub, you could always rig up a remedy. One that comes to mind is taking some presure sensitive ty-wrap holders and placing them along the wall where your speaker cable lay high enough where you can make a conduit of sorts with ty-wraps leaving enough room to make loops then thread the speaker wire through the ty-wrap loops hence keeping the speaker wires off the floor. Easy and cheap tweak.

steveinaz

There are also some bigger diameter models under the "LAMM" brand on the same page. They are $5.85, and have a 5.5" base. I mis-quoted on the OP, the ones I posted a link for are $5.35/ea, and have a 3.5" base.

concealer404

hearingimpared wrote: »

Hey Bub, you could always rig up a remedy. One that comes to mind is taking some presure sensitive ty-wrap holders and placing them along the wall where your speaker cable lay high enough where you can make a conduit of sorts with ty-wraps leaving enough room to make loops then thread the speaker wire through the ty-wrap loops hence keeping the speaker wires off the floor. Easy and cheap tweak.

Ooooooooooooh!!! I like it. I'll check that out when i get a chance, thanks!

concealer404

steveinaz wrote: »

There are also some bigger diameter models under the "LAMM" brand on the same page. They are $5.85, and have a 5.5" base. I mis-quoted on the OP, the ones I posted a link for are $5.35/ea, and have a 3.5" base.

Well... part of the issue is that i'd have to elevate 2 pairs of RCAs, and a 25 foot pair of 10awg speaker wire that really only needs to be 8 feet long. I've got a big old pile behind the tv stand.

vc69

I am a firm believer in cable management, though to look at my system currently, you couldn't tell.
Separating power and line-level cabling is an important thing to do. No coils either. Everything neat and seperate. Now... to follow my own advice. :eek:

Ya need to cut those long runs down Concealer. And if I am not mistaken, the speaker cables are the first concern with regard to elevation. The line-level cables are not subject to the same problems as the speaker cable.

hearingimpared

vc69 wrote: »

I am a firm believer in cable management, though to look at my system currently, you couldn't tell.
Separating power and line-level cabling is an important thing to do. No coils either. Everything neat and seperate. Now... to follow my own advice. :eek:

Ya need to cut those long runs down Concealer. And if I am not mistaken, the speaker cables are the first concern with regard to elevation. The line-level cables are not subject to the same problems as the speaker cable.

I have some issues with too much cabling. To avoid "coiling" I have the cables laid out in an 'S' pattern. This seems to have done the trick.

Separating power and line-level cabling may be difficult to do with certain racks and configurations. As long as the power cords are perpendicular to the ICs or speaker cable there should be no interference problems.

steveinaz

All of my ac is routed under my Salamander triple twenty rack, thanks to leveling feet, and then I have only 1, .5mtr IC (preamp to amp), and 2 digital coax connections. A series of pull-ties/stand downs are used to keep all cables seperated.

hearingimpared

steveinaz wrote: »

All of my ac is routed under my Salamander triple twenty rack, thanks to leveling feet, and then I have only 1, .5mtr IC (preamp to amp), and 2 digital coax connections. A series of pull-ties/stand downs are used to keep all cables seperated.

I wish I had that luxuary Steve but I have 350 lbs of lead shot loading my rack so doing anything behind it or underneath it means taking the gear off of each tier, then removing the tier and repeating until I get to the bottom. By then the cables with the giant MIT boxes on the ICs get unpluged . . . what a nighmare.

pitdogg2

hearingimpared wrote: »

Hey Bub, you could always rig up a remedy. One that comes to mind is taking some presure sensitive ty-wrap holders and placing them along the wall where your speaker cable lay high enough where you can make a conduit of sorts with ty-wraps leaving enough room to make loops then thread the speaker wire through the ty-wrap loops hence keeping the speaker wires off the floor. Easy and cheap tweak.

I did this exact same thing I heard no difference from my 10ga. cable sitting on the carpet vs. ran along the wall (wood) with nylon loops screwed to the wall. I did it to keep my puppy from chewing on the wire when her toy would go to where the wire was laying on the floor. She would try to dig it up and run with the wire. Wire attached to the wall problem solved.

vc69

hearingimpared wrote: »

I have some issues with too much cabling. To avoid "coiling" I have the cables laid out in an 'S' pattern. This seems to have done the trick.

Separating power and line-level cabling may be difficult to do with certain racks and configurations. As long as the power cords are perpendicular to the ICs or speaker cable there should be no interference problems.

You are exactly correct. In pro audio concert systems, power and audio, if they must be near each other, cross in a perpendicular manner and all coils are "S" looped. When the wire crosses itself, it destroys the EM field or at least reduces it.

virtualdean

steveinaz wrote: »

It took nearly all day, but persistence paid off.

For those of you wanting try porcelain pin-type cable insulators, to elevate your speaker wires off the carpet/floor----I KNEW I could find them for far less than the common $20+/ea price seen at audio stores. How about $5.85/ea?

http://www.electriciansupplies.com/product.cfm/p/123381/Porcelain-Products-253-S.htm

For that price, I'll give them a shot! Talk about well-guarded secrets, it took alot of surfing to find a supply house that didn't want you to order at least 1000 of the bastads.

See the pic below...

You could buy a can of staticguard and eliminate any static on your carpet for pennies a spray.
But, like Sheryl Crow sings, "If it makes you happy.." It keeps people employed so I'm for it.

steveinaz

...or, I could use jelly jars turned upside down, with scotch tape--but what the heck.

dbnh

I have successfully used wine corks for a number of years to lift my speaker cables off the carpet, and to keep my power cables from resting on any other cables. Here in NH during heating season we get quite a bit of static electricity.

A nice part of the process is emptying a bottle or two with the Mrs. I note we have acquired a surplus of cable lifters over the past few years!:D

Face

Take a spring loaded clothes pin, wrap the center(around the spring) with a rubber band, insert grip side down into a wine/beer bottle. Fill bottle with marbles and you're set.

lightman1

I can "find" a variety of these at work.;) Looks to be similar. I shall give them a try.
http://www.powerlinehardware.com/pin_insulators.asp

dbnh

Face wrote: »

Take a spring loaded clothes pin, wrap the center(around the spring) with a rubber band, insert grip side down into a wine/beer bottle. Fill bottle with marbles and you're set.

Man, me and the Mrs. have been recycling all those bottles at the dump. Think of the $ we could have made - "The horror! The horror!"

nooshinjohn

lightman1 wrote: »

I can "find" a variety of these at work.;) Looks to be similar. I shall give them a try.
http://www.powerlinehardware.com/pin_insulators.asp

Let me know if you have extras as I am in for a bunch of them myself.

ESavinon

Whether it works or not to me it's not important. I MIND having my speaker and power cables on the floor. Besides, I don't mind showcasing my expensive PS Audio power snakes.
Thanks for the link. I'll order a few.

hearingimpared

dbnh wrote: »

I have successfully used wine corks for a number of years to lift my speaker cables off the carpet, and to keep my power cables from resting on any other cables. Here in NH during heating season we get quite a bit of static electricity.

A nice part of the process is emptying a bottle or two with the Mrs. I note we have acquired a surplus of cable lifters over the past few years!:D

If you find yourself with a surplus of corks (the real kind) please keep me in mind. I use five of them at a pop when I'm cooking octopus several times a year. An old Swede told me about using corks while simmering the octopus to tenderize it. He also told me to make sure they've been used to cork a wine bottle vs buying unused corks. I don't drink so I have to scrounge around the relatives to collect them for the octopus recipe.

I've been doing it for almost 15 years now especially Christmas Eve for the "Feast of the Seven Fishes."

Thanks,

Joe

dbnh

hearingimpared wrote: »

If you find yourself with a surplus of corks (the real kind) please keep me in mind. I use five of them at a pop when I'm cooking octopus several times a year. An old Swede told me about using corks while simmering the octopus to tenderize it. He also told me to make sure they've been used to cork a wine bottle vs buying unused corks. I don't drink so I have to scrounge around the relatives to collect them for the octopus recipe.

I've been doing it for almost 15 years now especially Christmas Eve for the "Feast of the Seven Fishes."

Thanks,

Joe

Joe,

I'm 1/2 Sicilian, so I know about Christmas Eve and fish. My grandmother did the the same re: octopus and corks. So noted.

hearingimpared

dbnh wrote: »

Joe,

I'm 1/2 Sicilian, so I know about Christmas Eve and fish. My grandmother did the the same re: octopus and corks. So noted.

I'm 1/2 Sicilian too . . . do you find the Sicilian blood hotter than the regular blood?:D

Thank you Sir for keeping me in mind.

dbnh

hearingimpared wrote: »

I'm 1/2 Sicilian too . . . do you find the Sicilian blood hotter than the regular blood?:D

That's perhaps a "nature v. nurture question!"

hearingimpared wrote: »

Thank you Sir for keeping me in mind.

No problem, drop me your address some time.

george daniel

Great find,, and very reasonable,, thanks for posting the link.

newsman

Be careful with the porcelain type cable elevators like this one:

These are industrial cable elevators for high voltage line coated in clear coat and sold as audiophile cable lifters. The top gray/black part is actually iron to prevent high voltage lines from sparking when bouncing up on the elevator. As such for home audio it might actually store EM energy around the wire with no way to drain it. This field will affect the sound over time, and I'm not sure many of us want to have that. I really wanted to buy these, but was warned by an electrician on one of the AV forums.

I opted for the Cardas Audio wood lifters instead. They are not as pricey, not conductive/magnetic and look really nice. They come in a package of 6.

The only thing I'm not entirely happy about is the finish. I had a chance of buying them locally and dealer let me assemble one package out of two. Some of them are not sanded enough, some have cosmetic defects. For around $65 for a set of 6, depending on the type you buy, I expect these puppies to be furniture quality. I ordered another set from AudioAdvisor and sending it back because I'm not satisfied with quality.
Good luck and support your local dealer.

nooshinjohn

newsman wrote: »

I opted for the Cardas Audio wood lifters instead. They are not as pricey, not conductive/magnetic and look really nice. They come in a package of 6.

The only thing I'm not entirely happy about is the finish. I had a chance of buying them locally and dealer let me assemble one package out of two. Some of them are not sanded enough, some have cosmetic defects. For around $65 for a set of 6, depending on the type you buy, I expect these puppies to be furniture quality. I ordered another set from AudioAdvisor and sending it back because I'm not satisfied with quality.
Good luck and support your local dealer.

I can make these for next to nothing with scrap hardwoods from a local funiture/cabinetry shop.:cool:

newsman

My point was to worn people of using ceramic cable elevators and share what product I opted to use instead. I'm aware of how easy it is to make these notched blocks, but I have no desire or tools to make them in an apartment. These are also made from Mytle Wood, which was picked by Cardas and couple of other manufacturers as best for cable lifters.

So if you can do that, more power to you. I tell you what: you can put your money where your mouth is and make small fortune along the way. Make similar cable lifters with a nice lacquered finish with round notch instead of straight and sell them here for profit. Maybe you can retire early! :eek:

nooshinjohn

^^^Lol! If I did such a thing, I would KARMA them anyway. What is pocket change among friends?


Myrtlewood is very expensive, and perhaps why it is the wood of choice for these things, but the last I checked, the conductive properties of a 2x4 or hardrock Maple and Myrtlewood were exactly the same.... zero.

newsman

Ah, but that's how successful businesses start!

steveinaz

Anybody receive their elevators yet? Mine are suppose to be here around 28 Apr.

Krazyz1

I went the cheap route and bought the plastic cups like you get when you buy a keg of beer. And painted them flat black. Work just fine.