Cable elevators

Over lunch with engineer Darren Meyers we got to talking about systems and when it's time to turn to cable elevators for improvements. Cable elevators get the speaker cables off the floor and improve sound quality: they are ultra-tweaks. Your system needs to be at a certain point of perfection before they matter. Some audiophiles dress their systems to the nines without ever going through the step-by-step audition process to find if any of their efforts actually help—kind of like automatically adding spice without tasting. Others get everything as right as rain and then start the process of ultra-tweaking, listening along the way. I find myself in both camps at different times. If I'm hustling through a setup for a show or helping someone with theirs, then we dress everything in the system as best we can and cross our fingers for best results. But when the system is part of our long term project it's best if we tweak a little at a time, listening along the way. My best systems have come about because I take what I like to call the ladder approach—each change happens in step-by-step order. The careful grooming of a system generates more than just great sound. You gain knowledge as well.