Cable isolators

[realysm42]

Kinda looking at these:

http://cableisolators.com/esd/buy/

or something similar.

Has anyone used something like this? I know its scoffed at a lot and there's probably cheaper alternatives, but I'm just exploring the idea.

[Stratmangler]

If you have to throw money away you could at least throw it in my direction :eyebrows:

[AlanS]

Some people buy the Musicworks cable isolators (Acrylic shapes).

Support UK business if you feel the need for such items.

[apollo]

Dont know if you will call it similar, but I use inverted thermocol cups for this purpose (my cups cracked during the last setup so using stiff folded cardboard at the moment).
Helps me keep the wires far from each other, ie speaker cables away from power cables and similar.. and make them stay that way.

These definitely look much better, but since I haven't heard a system with them and without them, I wont go into saying whether they are needed or not.

[realysm42]

Whats that alan, i cant hear you on block mate?!

Cheers Apollo.

[wee tee cee]

Kinda looking at these:

http://cableisolators.com/esd/buy/

or something similar.

Has anyone used something like this? I know its scoffed at a lot and there's probably cheaper alternatives, but I'm just exploring the idea.
to try out the concept you could use toilet paper tubes cut in half or thirds ,just cut a v shape in them....wont look too great but will let you play for next to nothing... people may scoff but its just another aspect of the hobby.

[hifi_dave]

to try out the concept you could use toilet paper tubes cut in half or thirds ,just cut a v shape in them....wont look too great but will let you play for next to nothing... people may scoff but its just another aspect of the hobby.

Can't be any good if it's free..:rolleyes:

If the room is carpet over underlay, that's an excellent isolator for no extra cost.

I have just seen an advert for blocks made of an exotic wood for loadsamoney. Go down to the local carpenter or woodyard and buy some offcuts to do the same job.

Blocks of foam or bubblle wrap are bound to be good but don't look expensive.

[walpurgis]

You could always keep them off the floor with lengths of string attached to the ceiling with drawing pins.

[AlanS]

Whats that alan, i cant hear you on block mate?!

Cheers Apollo.

I have never been on a block list before neither here or any other forum I use. Congratulations for being my first. Do you think it might say as much about you as it does me. After all all I said was your mains conditioner was ugly and regenerators are my prefered mains improver. Stay cool.

[wee tee cee]

aye, a length of pipe insulation cut into 2 inch sections/cut a wee vee into the top with a stanley would do the trick for a couple of quid.....if you really want to splash out!!!!

[hifi_dave]

Now, that's just showing off..:rolleyes:

Too effective, too neat and far too cheap.

[Alex_UK]

Dave - the new Rega "pipe insulation" would be perfect!!! :rfl:

[hifi_dave]

Now you're talking. That transformed every speaker I tried it with and running the cables through a length was the icing on the cake. Should be compulsory IMO.:whippin:

[YNWaN]

I can make you transparent acrylic ones for £5 each (look like a self locking X).

[Wakefield Turntables]

Why not buy yourself two pieces of 2x4 from B&Q and cut relevant lengths? Thats what I did. I use mine as cable lifts to clear them from mains leads and any other power lead I'm trying to prevent EMI and RFI getting into other cables.

[hifi_dave]

Why not buy yourself two pieces of 2x4 from B&Q and cut relevant lengths? Thats what I did. I use mine as cable lifts to clear them from mains leads and any other power lead I'm trying to prevent EMI and RFI getting into other cables.

The main reason that tweak falls down is that it doesn't cost a fortune. Anything less than £100 a piece just doesn't cut the mustard..:rolleyes:

[Ali Tait]

I just get naked, kneel down on the floor and place the cable in the cheeks of my arse.

[Thing Fish]

I just get naked, kneel down on the floor and place the cable in the cheeks of my arse.

Does that make it a ring main...:lol:

[Wakefield Turntables]

I just get naked, kneel down on the floor and place the cable in the cheeks of my arse.


Does that make it a ring main...:lol:

:lol:

[wee tee cee]

i just get naked, kneel down on the floor and place the cable in the cheeks of my arse.goes full circle ....to the toilet roll solution....

[Ali Tait]

:lol: of course, I have to get the missus to do the same for the other channel. Anyone available to come and sit in the sweet spot to hear if there's any improvement?

[hifi_dave]

Now, I'm getting concerned. What do you mean by sitting "in the sweet spot" :scratch:

[MCRU]

I just get naked, kneel down on the floor and place the cable in the cheeks of my arse.

is that what turns a scotsman on :lol:

martin your enthusiasm knows no bounds and I applaud you for that, just use egg boxes they work a treat mate

[Ali Tait]

Now, I'm getting concerned. What do you mean by sitting "in the sweet spot" :scratch:

Well I didn't mean between the cheeks! :lol:

[Marco]

is that what turns a scotsman on :lol:


Aye, but only if some hairy-arsed big bastard breenges in and batters his bum cheeks with a caber! :D :eyebrows:

Marco.

[Rare Bird]

Get a length of PSE Oak & Round nose Router bit. Machine the full length of it & then chop the length off equal sections, carefull not to chip it as you cut... you have a bunch of cable isolators on the cheap..

[Ali Tait]

Be honest, has anyone actually heard a difference using anything like this?

[brucew268]

Can't answer properly about cable lifts for the floor, but I did notice a problem with harshness when my USB cable to the DAC was too close to the Sky box. A noisy one that is. Had to move the Sky box a couple feet away. Also I did notice more cluttering noise when my IC was lying parallel against a mains cable in my hi-fi rig. The sound cleaned up when I moved the IC to not be parallel or as close.

[Ali Tait]

Yep, ok, that would seem like an RF noise issue. I just find it difficult to see how raising a cable off the floor would help things. I'd have thought the floor was the best thing to Sink vibration, if that's the issue these things are trying to address.

[MCRU]

Aye, but only if some hairy-arsed big bastard breenges in and batters his bum cheeks with a caber! :D :eyebrows:

Marco.

:booty:

[MCRU]

any thread concerning cables "always" ends in tears!

this time however it may be ali's tears when that caber enters his bumole!

[Ali Tait]

Sorry, it's one way only, oot the way!

[Gazjam]

output not an input...

[Ali Tait]

Aye.

[wee tee cee]

any thread concerning cables "always" ends in tears!

this time however it may be ali's tears when that caber enters his bumole!that would bring a tear to a glass eye.....

[Gazjam]

especially if its an XLR...

[Marco]

any thread concerning cables "always" ends in tears!


Not here it doesn't! That shit's for other forums.... ;)

Marco.

[clap]

At a nordost demo, Lars moved a mains block off the floor together with plugged in cables. It was clear to me that the sound improved. I haven't done any tests on my own system.

[Marco]

At a nordost demo, Lars moved a mains block off the floor together with plugged in cables. It was clear to me that the sound improved...

I'm not surprised, Tristan. That's exactly why my mains block is supported on my Mana rack and all of my mains leads hang in free space, with none of them being anywhere near the floor! ;)

Marco.

[Macca]

At a nordost demo, Lars moved a mains block off the floor together with plugged in cables. It was clear to me that the sound improved. I haven't done any tests on my own system.

I've also noticed this effect in the past and always keep my mains block on the rack nowadays even though in theory it shouldn't make one iota of difference :scratch:

[Marco]

...in theory it shouldn't make one iota of difference.


Not so, Martin.

By placing your mains block on the floor, you're coupling all of your kit, connected to it, to a major source of vibration. That doesn't happen (at least to anything like the same degree) when a mains block is isolated from such on a decent equipment support :)

Marco.

[Ali Tait]

I can see that if it's a suspended wood floor, but I'd have thought a concrete floor would sink any vibration. Not that I doubt what folk hear, just interested in the causes.

[Marco]

I get where you're coming from, Ali, but in my experience raising mains blocks off of the floor, in any circumstances, always results in a positive sonic improvement :)

Marco.

[Macca]

It's not good enough for me to accept I hear a difference/improvement - I want to know why. For curiosity's sake but also because a principle understood can then be applied elsewhere. My floor is a concrete slab with thick underlay and carpet on top btw - I really don't think that it passes any appreciable vibration, and even if it does the idea that this vibration can travel along the cables and into the rest of the system, degrading sound quality, does seem far fetched, if not impossible.

[Marco]

I disagree, as extensive experiments in this area over many years have proven (to me) the efficacy of applying such 'tweaks'.

I keep ALL of my cables and mains block well away from floors and walls, as I believe that cables act as a conduit for transferring vibration from one box to another (which incidentally is probably why some 'fancy' IEC plugs and sockets, such as those from Furutech, are so effective at decoupling equipment from the harmful sonic effects of such).

However, the most important fact is that you heard an improvement by moving your mains block off of the floor. It's up to you the reasons you apply for why that happened... Does your kit sound better on an equipment rack than it does on the floor? If so, why shouldn't a mains block, which the whole system is connected to, be any different? :)

Marco.

[chelsea]

Save your money for music,going out etc.

[Macca]

However, the most important fact is that you heard an improvement by moving your mains block off of the floor. It's up to you the reasons you apply for why that happened... Does your kit sound better on an equipment rack than it does on the floor? If so, why shouldn't a mains block that connects it all together be any different? :)

Marco.

I agree that what we place the equipment on can effect the sound, sometimes a bookshelf can be a better site for a particular component than the shelf of a dedicated equipment rack. The difference we have is that you are not particularly concerned as to why that should be the case. I just can't be that subjective I'm afraid ;)

[Marco]

Save your money for music,going out etc.


That's never bad advice!

Marco.

[Marco]

The difference we have is that you are not particularly concerned as to why that should be the case.

Not so. I have my theories as to what is happening, in terms of microphony (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microphonics), but rather than spout pseudo-scientific gobbledygook; in audio, I simply trust my ears and the results of my subjective assessments. It makes for an easier life! ;)

Marco.

[realysm42]

I wonder if cavemen didn't believe they'd had their arm bitten off by a monster; they might have felt it, but, due to lack of scientific understanding, they frankly refused to accept it?

[MCRU]

I wonder if cavemen didn't believe they'd had their arm bitten off by a monster; they might have felt it, but, due to lack of scientific understanding, they frankly refused to accept it?

:lol: