Re: Frozen wood? - Dave99 - Tweakers' Asylum

Re: Frozen wood?

Posted by Dave99 (A) on February 9, 2004 at 20:45:03

In Reply to: Re: Frozen wood? posted by Steve Eddy on February 5, 2004 at 09:25:09:

I was pretty unimpressed with some of the physics thrown around here as well. Static energy in carpet doesn't sound right to me, but then again, neither did extreme vibration damping for solid state applications. The magnitudes involved seemed kinda small but in the end, it helps in a big way so now I try to keep an open mind to all things voodoo.

Anyway . . . bear with me while I recount the tale of a cable-lifter heathen turned semi-believer. I bought a Blue Circle BC28 hybrid tube / Solid State amp. It sounds great in the mids and highs and midbass, but didn't have as much body in the deep lows as my Bryston 4B-ST (what else does at that price point?). So I bought a Blue Circle BC26 fully SS (solid state) amp to compare. I'll sell whichever I enjoy the least, though they are both pretty good, as we shall soon see.

The BC26 was more grating in the highs and thinner in the mids than the BC28. The typical tube junkie's complaint. I never noticed these problems with my old Bryston 4B-ST (mated to a tube pre-amp) until I heard how sweet the hybrid BC28 was. The BC26 is still better than the Bryston but it didn't sound nearly as lush or as smooth as the BC28.

I have a sound pressure level meter right beside my chair on a tripod that I periodically consult as a sanity check. At the same SPLs as my BC28 hybrid, the BC26 SS kills my ears. The harshness gives me ear aches and feels very unhealthy. I thought it was an issue with dynamic headroom or possibly the intensity of the higher order harmonics generated by the BC26 SS devices. I listen at around 75 dBA (C-weighted) with the solid state and around 80 dBA (C-weighted) with the BC28 hybrid.

On a whim after reading these cable lifter discussions, I tried lifting my Analysis Plus bi-wired Oval Nines with some 1 x 2 pieces of pine 1-3/4" off my concrete basement floor. I will say without a doubt that the sound is much less harsh. As well, the imaging is much better in terms of three-dimensional depth and placement. The singer's voice now has an aura - a texture and a warmth reminiscent of the my BC28 hybrid amp with cables lying flat on the ground. Unfortunately, I perceive less bass fullness, but I think the extension is as deep. I'm letting my cables relax a bit from all the movement and will listen again later (I know I know . . . more voodoo but it seems to make a difference to me - placebo effect or not). Also, I can now comfortably raise my BC26 SS volume levels back to 80 dBA without suffering.

My low static basement floor experiment suggests that cables benefit from lifting because of more uniform electrical and magnetic fields to signal propagation. I don't believe this talk about static charge (yet) but I can accept that electric permittivity and magnetic permeability constants in cement are higher than air. Also, they probably have a much higher loss tangent, meaning some of the energy is bled off from the cables. Maybe there are iron impurities in the cement that create a high permeability in the floor. I can also accept that current will flow preferentially on certain surfaces nearest the lower permittivity and permeability (lowest impedance path), leading to non-ideal current distribution across the cable section. This may be a stretch, but propagation velocity also changes with permeability and permettivity. Maybe this changes the group delay characteristic of the cable and creates a comb-filtering effect within the cable. Just some idle speculation and certainly not the claim as a fact.

There is a certain benefit from using cable lifters, though I'd like to know the difference in sound between a very narrow piece of pine compared to a very narrow piece of ceramic. Until then, I'll have to agree with the benefits of cable lifting as cheaply as possible. That's a reasonable tweak.

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - Cable lifters ..... who's tried them? - Len_ 00:09:04 02/05/04 (31)

Anyone have experience with cable lifters and marble flooring? - cdc 00:46:11 02/06/04 (0)

Thanks guys. How about wood floors? - Len_ 10:46:53 02/05/04 (4)

I have bare wood floors also - Norm 11:17:19 02/05/04 (3)

Re: I have bare wood floors also - Len_ 12:24:32 02/05/04 (2)

What I hear is greater transparency and clarity in the high end - Norm 20:42:01 02/05/04 (0)

It depends on your cable.. - SoftwireEngineer 17:54:07 02/05/04 (0)

Re: Cable lifters ..... who's tried them? - GitarreTyp 10:37:36 02/05/04 (0)

Re: Cable lifters ..... who's tried them? - 4season 09:36:04 02/05/04 (0)

Hire a witch Dr. to exorcise those evil spirits!nt - NEAR SOTA 08:45:39 02/05/04 (1)

Re: Hire a witch Dr. to exorcise those evil spirits!nt - smargo 10:26:50 02/05/04 (0)

Of course they work... - kingdaddy 08:27:42 02/05/04 (0)

Yes, they work! - bartc 06:20:22 02/05/04 (0)

Yup... works for real - tonemaniac 03:40:00 02/05/04 (18)

comparisons... - Fatcobra 14:35:14 02/08/04 (0)

Maybe you're imagining a problem where there is none. - Payne Hertz 20:57:05 02/05/04 (0)

Frozen wood? - Cannastra 06:16:56 02/05/04 (15)

Re: Frozen wood? - Bill Fitzmaurice 08:31:24 02/05/04 (13)

Balsa sucks.... too resonant - tonemaniac 03:20:10 02/06/04 (0)

Chill Bill! - moray james 10:22:27 02/05/04 (3)

We're talking cable lifts, not Stradivari... - Bill Fitzmaurice 16:49:53 02/05/04 (2)

Re: We're talking cable lifts, not Stradivari... - moray james 11:46:41 02/06/04 (1)

Stradivarius coating... - bartc 05:55:18 02/07/04 (0)

Re: Frozen wood? - Steve Eddy 09:25:09 02/05/04 (7)

Re: Frozen wood? - Dave99 20:45:03 02/09/04 (0)

Virtually any fiber can be a conductor... - Bill Fitzmaurice 16:54:52 02/05/04 (5)

Re: Virtually any fiber can be a conductor... - NEAR SOTA 22:51:20 02/08/04 (1)

Simple. The carpet/wire combination is a capacitor. - Bill Fitzmaurice 16:56:14 02/09/04 (0)

perhaps a reason for cryogenic maple? - Len_ 17:50:41 02/05/04 (0)

Re: Oh, yes we do. - alan m. kafton 17:12:30 02/05/04 (1)

Re: Oh, yes we do. - chris_w 08:45:12 02/08/04 (0)

Re: Frozen wood? - geoffkait 08:30:19 02/05/04 (0)

Follow Ups

Re: Frozen wood? - Dave99 20:45:03 02/09/04 (0)

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