Mcbrion doesn’t think he sounds like a smug dick know it all

We played several cuts, then an Elvis cut. The upper midrange was a bit too bright, so I asked if I could get the power cord off the speaker cables and I also got the cables off the floor by using CD jewel boxes.

The collective astonishment of the gathered luminaries when the cut was replayed was electric. What did he just do?? When asked what I had done, I stated I had just removed the power cord from on top the signal cable, and elevated the speaker cables (they could see it, but didn't know its purpose) off the floor. My colleague, one of The Absolute Sound's star reviewers, turned to me and accused me of being a showoff. I reminded him (and the Executive Editor of TAS) that this was not my idea: Enid Lumley, one of their own writers, and the Chief Eccentric of TAS, had championed it in the magazine in one of her famous articles on how to improve your stereo system for almost nothing. She used tennis balls cut in half with the cables on the rounded half ball. She talked about "skin effect". I have the issue (I have all the TAS issues until 2015, when I thought they'd lost their direction). I'm far from a technical person, but my methodical experimentation earned me the soubriquet "The Mad Scientist" for doing the same experiment so often, nobody got to hear an entire side of a record for at least the first hour.

Despite what the naysayers say (or maybe they have their cords snaking around on top of each other, something Enid also strongly discouraged), it should be obvious to anyone with half-decent ears. It was all TOO obvious to the Elite crowd gathered that evening, so what can I tell you? They had no idea that this discovery was going to happen that evening, but they heard it easily. It doesn't cost money to do it, either. Buy some tennis balls, cut them in half, and arrange them under your speaker cables so they don't sag (Enid said that was important!) or use CD jewel cases (open to 90 degree angles, so the cable barely touches the jewel box (the less contact the better), and let the cable sit for 20 minutes or so before playing (although that day, the effect was instantly observable, but they were using a State-of-The-Art system with state of the art cabling throughout, so maybe it'll be obvious to those who don't have their power cords lying on their snake-coiled speaker cable/interconnects or whatever. That does seem to diminish the effect a bit, in my extensive experience, but who knows? Maybe it's due to older cable not being shielded. I couldn't tell you. I can only speak to my dedication - like Einstein, who said,, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with the problems longer.” As do I. I only care about whether something can be demonstrated and duplicated, over and over and over, and the last time I did this was in 2020, in a local dealer's showroom. He had Nordost Odin cables just sitting on the floor all atop each other. It looked very messy, but then, apparently it's pretty common among "audiophiles." I just moved the Odin to the backs of chairs, anything to get them off the floor. The electronics were all the ne-plus-ultra Audio Research, I forget the CD player, but I remember it was $15, 000 and the speaker system was the Wilson Sasha. Of course, his room sabotaged any hope of excellent sound, but he wasn't into music: he was a salesman and his clients were rich, so...
Despite all that, I could hear the difference easily enough. Apparently, Nordost now believes it makes a difference (although the usual mouthy cynics will proclaim it was only done "for the money." Not that that's my experience, but I'm quite methodical, and I'm not getting any profits from its, so.... In any case, there are loads of articles on skin effect. But for cynics, no amount of evidence is ever enough. I don't waste time convincing them, but for those of you who believe in actually trying something and doing it carefully, you will hear the results. It will help if your equipment is on good (non-vibrating) stands, although when i first did it, I had a cheap stereo platform for my amp. I still heard it, although it is fair to say my system was close to state-of-the-art at that time. However, I've duplicated the results on several of my friends' systems, systems I know well, since I gave them many of the components (it beats having them lie around cluttering my house!), and they hear it. No reason you shouldn't, but please: DO keep your cables separated from each other. No power cords on signal cords (speaker cable/interconnects) or you'll lessen (but not abolish) how easily you hear the end result. And turn off your microwaves if you can. I don't care how many dedicated circuits you have (I've got 10 and I can still hear when the microwave is on: it is most evident in the lower highs frequencies (play a recording with a triangle being struck several times: you should hear the effect with the microwave on and with it off). I never quite understand the greek chorus of "it doesn't work" when it's been demonstrated for 25 years. Here's an article or two to help. The only time the microwave doesn't seem to affect the music is when I'm in the basement level of the house (the microwave is upstairs in the kitchen. Not explaining, just pointing out when I can hear/not hear the difference).