[blip]

Hey all,

I was thumbing through the latest music direct catalog when I saw these: http://www.musicdirect.com/products/....asp?sku=AELEV . Basically they are "cable elevators" which raise your speaker cables off the ground to reduce capacitance (supposedly) and microphonics (maybe).

These seem like a crock to me (especially at that price eek!), but if they aren't it got me thinking... wouldn't these be insanely easy to DIY for a very small bit of cash?

What I was picturing would be essentially a wood block with a nice custom groove cut for the cable, mounted on like a flat vibrapod or other foot. A higher end design might have two layers separated by blu tack or something similar. Maybe $5-8 a piece... or even cheaper if you don't use a vibrapod... say $1-2.

What do you think? Worth looking into one of these days or is cheap snake-oil still snake-oil?

 

[Blind Tree Frog]

I wonder how much voltage one would need to run for this to really matter.

 

[blip]

Yep... Probably snake oil... but easy to manufacture snake oil! Just add oil and.... ummm... snake.

I doubt capacitance is really enough of an issue to warrant these things... but maybe microphonics could be? It seems reasonable that it would help with such things... but enough to be audible... well... I suppose that is the question. (But probably not)

Here is another easy to copy example: http://www.musicdirect.com/products/...ADEDCABLETOWER Basically two pieces of acrylic matched up against each other to form a V. Drill a hole through them for the cable and you are home free.

 

[Hevimees]

You could use Lego blocks if you have them lying around. The big blocks (I think they are called Duplos) would probably be the easiest ones to use. Put a little blue-tack underneath to keep them in place.

No, I haven't tried these things myself, but I once saw them used in a Finnish movie. Can't remember which one it was, though.

 

[SoundGoon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hevimees /img/forum/go_quote.gif You could use Lego blocks if you have them lying around. The big blocks (I think they are called Duplos) would probably be the easiest ones to use. Put a little blue-tack underneath to keep them in place.

That is genius. Put some blue tak on the bottom as you suggested and maybe a bit on the top where the cable would rest and there you go!! awesome idea!!! Then you can sell them for big $$$$$

 

[Hevimees]

Or one could use the regular sized Lego blocks and build little houses with a hole in the middle for the cable... I wonder where my chidlhood Legos are...

Actually I can't even consider tweaks like this, even if I wanted. My dog would chew those legos to bits as soon he got his teeth on them

 

[mephisto]

hmm...

http://www.ngk-locke.com/porcelain-pti.html

separated at birth?

 

[blip]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hevimees /img/forum/go_quote.gif Or one could use the regular sized Lego blocks and build little houses with a hole in the middle for the cable... I wonder where my chidlhood Legos are...

Now that's a good idea! How about building a lego version of the great wall of china to support cables? Could be pretty spiffy... sort of.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mephisto /img/forum/go_quote.gif hmm... http://www.ngk-locke.com/porcelain-pti.html separated at birth?

Yep, it sure looks that way. My impression is that they are basically standard high voltage wire supports modified slightly for home/cable use. Which when you think about it makes no sense what-so-ever. If what you want to do is avoid capacitance at low voltages, you wouldn't need such a good insulator... raising it further off the floor might be a better idea.

Of course, 2-1 whatever you do won't be noticeable... but it's oh so tempting to DIY anything this needlessly expensive.

 

[Blind Tree Frog]

See with power lines they make sense because there is enough voltage that they can be grounded via the poles if you aren't careful (hence the chains of ceramics attaching the poles to the lines)

So what confuses me is the "need" for this for speakers. The voltages aren't that high. We do have a voltage difference between the wire and the floor. We have a possible inductance from the current I guess. But all of these measurements would be less than i would expect to be noticable i would of thought.