genuine African Water Buffalo Horn egg cup Cable Raisers

[hatehifi]

At a town fair this weekend I bought a basket from a church flea market. Its contents were thrown in for free. Funny, but I had just that morning defended my purchasing several variations of an egg cup ("why would you even want more than one set of egg cups?") during my lifetime. Six carved horn egg cups were in the basket along with other [truly, non-essential] nick knacks.

So, what to do?

I've always wanted to try [loudspeaker] cable raisers and these worked out well! Is it the new curvature of my cables or whatever (?) but there is more 'chest' in vocals...  

[Graeme]

I can see why lifting cables off of a resonating floor may be a good idea.

[hatehifi]

Yes, Graeme, I follow your thinking (and there is the static electricity problem with carpeting too). But, my living room has 40-year-old parquet flooring... You are no doubt right. Some sort of 'insulation' is at work, and there is a general impression that the whole sonic scene, presentation, is 'quieter'.

I've seen a few member systems with cable raisers. I assume any old object could work. Maybe a pumice stone...?

[rfgumby]

  The static from carpet idea has merit and seems to be repeatable in practice.  Another aspect of it seems to be resonance, but in effect you're just dividing the cable into smaller wavelengths of vibration. Think of it as a piano or guitar string, the shorter it is the higher the pitch, and higher frequencies are more easily damped.  I've used risers for a while, but I've only come across a handful of situations where you could readily and repeatably tell the difference.  Those were usually with carpet and rubber jacketed cables.  In my system I'm using cables designed to damp the conductors with natural fiber, so I'm not sure it's as obvious. 

  But yeah John, I bet with your sensitive speakers and hardwood flooring you could very well have good results with risers.  I've started to be open minded to all sorts of ideas the longer I play with this stuff.  The higher the resolution of your system, the more readily the sound of tweaks show up.  The more "natural sound" in your description corresponds with some of results I've heard with risers, and is always a good sign (and impossible to quantify).

  One company offers foam blocks where the outside layers of foam are conductive, the idea being to drain the static charge away from the cable.  They sort of look like Oreo cookies, so Mr. Ed might want some.   

[hatehifi]

Right on Scott regarding the resonance and I assume you're right about the increased resolution. I've got Emmylou Harris' Duets on, #10 Gulf Coast Highway with Willie Nelson and I never even noticed till now that there is an organ churning away in the background... ( ) and lo!, now peeled away from 'smear' and 'present' like in Technicolor.

I'll post an update under systems when I get a breather. Have my [young] Boys arriving today till the weekend and time off to enjoy them!

Christian Schulz was here Friday en route to Switzerland and [liked] suggested I try minor position adjustment of my Zu Essences. Glad to get his 'OK' on them as the Martion Orgon horn was voiced by him (me not have €60k). I've gotten quickly used to the Crayon. I see myself 'DIY' constructing some German Highend ICs (some prototype super-duper pure silver stock wire on hand) as I conclude they (even the 'normal' grade silver) are better than Zu's Varial. Then I have to insert my Western Electric as speaker cable. If I like that, then I'll rewire to the chassis inputs and sell my Zu Libtec.

Bottom line, it is getting better and better due to only 1-3mm adjustments... What will it sound like after I clean all connections, etc. ?!

BTW, he brought my Gryphon PS1 phono as stand alone  ; a tranny the size of a hockey puck per side...   Kind of scared to hook it up but am saving for a rainy day