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Homemade Alternatives

As I have been using various homemade cable lifters for more than three years prior to trying out the Cable Elevators, I required no convincing in the benefits of lifting cables off the floor. However, what I wasn't sure was whether these would be any better than my current, homemade and very similar, cable lifters. After all, they were about the same height, made out of similar material and were of similar shape.

Some three years ago and after reading an article about the benefits of lifting cables off the floor, I decided to give it a try. The very first cable lifters I ever tried were made out of cardboard. I took a piece of thin cardboard and cut it into eight strips, each 1" wide and 6" long. I folded them in half and cut out a small "V" notch at the place of the fold. Finally I set them on my carpet standing upright, placing the cable in the "V" notches along the way. These lifters are a good thing to try provided you have cables that are not too heavy. Then again, you could always scale the cardboard design to match your requirements. As such they did a reasonable job and confirmed in good part what I read in the article. I heard improvements in articulation and dynamics, with livelier and more believable performance overall. It was thumbs up back then and as a consequence the cardboard cable lifters stayed in my system.

A year later I found something I thought was quite close, in design, to the Cable Elevators. Always looking for affordable alternatives, I bought a set of porcelain cable isolators from Home Depot. I opted for the smaller of the two sizes available, which was more appropriate for my cables. I've been using these ever since because, even though the sonic improvement is marginal as compared to the cardboard ones, the Home Depot isolators do provide extra robustness and versatility.

Pictured above, from left to right: cardboard version - Home Depot cable isolator - Cable Elevator +

I've read about and seen other homemade versions. Some used Styrofoam cups, which are probably not the best choice given that Styrofoam is easily statically charged. Other versions implemented small glasses, clay cups or pots. I've seen some wooden alternatives put to good use too. So, there are plenty of ways you can try this tweak yourself. If you know of some other clever way, please let us know.

Setup

As stated before, the Cable Elevators are quite hefty and can accommodate thick and heavy loudspeaker cables. I, on the other hand, have short lengths of rather delicate Nordost Blue Heaven Rev IIs. At first I thought the Elevators and Nordost won't really work together - the top of the Elevators is contoured and assumes round profile cables not flat ones. However, the manufacturer, Precision Audio Products, does supply rubber bands to address flat cables like Goertz or Nordost. The rubber bands are to be stretched across the necks of the Elevators to create greater tension. I ended up not using the rubber bands. I was able to position my Nordost vertically on top of the Elevators (see picture). Given that my loudspeaker cables are short, 2m/channel, I only used three Elevators for each channel leaving me the remaining two to use under the power cables.

Cable Elevators+