Hey,
This post is specifically to the team at gr-research.
I watched y’all’s video on cable risers
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mh1EWGu7Te8 and noticed that ya’ll are using tinker toys. I thought man I should give that a try because I had noticed that spacing power cords apart behind gear makes a difference.
Based on its cost and material choice, I decided to try using the wooden building toys.
After playing around with these, I happened upon a interesting fact I used all my wide pieces on one channel of my system because it was being used on the floor, on the second channel, a more narrow center beam, which supported the cables on the right, because it had to rest on some furniture behind my television.
Well, low and behold, I noticed a distinct difference in sound between channels. So, I tested my theory, and placed longer “sticks “ in the middle of my cable risers, spacing the round wooden ends further from the speaker cables. Low and behold, it made an improvement, and balanced the sound out between the two channels and not just a small difference it was very noticeable.
The adjustment to the cable risers biggest difference was realized in the midrange, where you got more bloom in the lower voice octaves, and more precise positioning in the soundstage, with added clarity between the different instruments. Basically everything cable risers did, it did again that much more when I removed the boundaries of the large ends on the risers. It’s not just the floor that is the enemy it’s the boundaries interruption to the sound field.
You wouldn’t think that a boundary of 1” on two sides of the cable over maybe 5-6 sections of the cable should matter to the point of an audible difference, but it does, and did in my modest system. I can’t imagine how big a difference it would make in a truly reference system.
I just wanted to see if y’all, likewise use, or have tried longer center pegs for your risers. The length of the pegs which I used are about 4 1/2”-5”, this creates about a 1 1/2 or 2” boundaries on the sides of the 24 strand gr research speaker cables. This cable riser practice gives any cables you use risers with, an almost exclusively “air only” boundary, except for the peg which it rests on.
Additionally, I also found that on hardwood floors, or atop furniture, wherever you have a solid surface, using a small amount of blue tac at the base, to secure the cable risers to its floor, created a more focused and clearer top-end presentation. The blu tac prevents micro vibrations from reaching your cables. I found this blue tac tweak, to provide a noticeable difference on my gear which has feet. You can place a peanut sized amount under the feet of your electronics, isolating your gear from the sound waves which often reach the rack or furniture which your gear rests on.
Well y’all give so much to the hi-fi community, I wanted to just start a conversation on the topic, and encourage those with cable risers to at least test using wide center pegs.
Have a great day!
