able risers are not exactly news, nor are they universally used, accepted or even recommended. In fact, even those who advocate them have trouble agreeing on what they do or how they do it. None of this is, of course, any reason to ignore them. If we ignored even half of the things we can’t explain, then audio systems would be a whole lot simpler and in many cases considerably less successful. There are a lot of things that we take on trust, treat as accepted wisdom or justify with the most airy-fairy of scientific or technological explanations. Unfortunately for those of us for whom audio performance has gone beyond entertainment into the realms of fascination and subsequent obsession, the facts are wired into our DNA. As primarily forward-focussed, visual creatures, we rely on our hearing as our main early-warning system -- our defense against predators (animal or human) creeping up behind us. Which in turn means that our brains are hard-wired to pay special attention to what our ears tell them, that any species as successful as humans has one hell of an early-warning system, and that our hearing acuity is pretty darned remarkable.

All of which is a convoluted preamble designed to explain that, although I have a few ideas as to why what I’m about to describe happens, I certainly have no cast-iron explanation for it, although I can demonstrate it with utter repeatability and reliability: same results each time, every time. Which, as far as being an audio reviewer (or anybody else working at the outer limits of audio performance) goes, is pretty much situation normal. Most of what we refer to as science is a direct result of (or spin-off from) research -- and most research is driven by historical imperatives or business considerations.

So the great audio technology advances derived directly from the communications revolution of the Second World War, fuelled by the buoyant market for home audio and stereo systems in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. But the last great audio investment (the advent of digital recording and the CD) took place in the late '70s, and since then, in technology terms, high-end audio has been feasting on crumbs dropped from other tables. Meaning that, more often than not, although we can hear something clearly enough, demonstrate it reliably and convince listeners sufficiently to part with their cash, actually explaining its how and why is almost impossible, as nobody has spent the money to find those answers. The end result is a situation in which, not only can we hear far more than we can explain within the limited realms of accepted scientific knowledge, we’re hearing more and more that science can’t explain. The imbalance between our empirical observations and our ability to explain them is not just increasing; I’m beginning to think that it’s increasing at an exponential rate. (The corollary to all of this is the observation that science, far from being the sum total of human knowledge, is itself defined by narrow corridors of interest -- mainly those with a demonstrable financial return. But I think that’s a whole different argument that we should probably save for another day.

Which brings me back to cable risers -- and not just any cable risers, but possibly the most extravagantly engineered and ambitious risers I’ve ever used. Furutech’s NCF Boosters are not just a product but a modular system for audio-cable support, whether those cables are signal, speaker or AC leads. In this case, the epithet "Booster" means lifter, as in booster seat, rather than any inference that they boost cable or system performance -- although that’s actually exactly what they can do. The NCF Booster (I have even less idea what the initials stand for than I do how the products work -- although the initials' presence indicates the use of a proprietary antistatic material in the product) was first offered as a support or brace for heavy cables, especially power cords that are prone to either sag or stress the sockets to which they are connected. Given the weight of some audiophile cables, it’s a serious problem, and Furutech’s solution consists of an H-shaped, non-slip base plate that supports two vertical posts. A substantial cradle with a central dip designed to support the diameter of a cylindrical-type IEC connector can be slid up and down those posts and locked in place, a further inverse cradle sliding down from above to clamp the connector at exactly the desired height. You can use the NCF Booster with or without the top clamp, and Furutech also offers post extensions to allow for taller input sockets.

So far so good, and if you suffer from loose IEC sockets and the self-disconnecting power cords that result, you’ll understand exactly why such a device is necessary. And that’s before you get to the effect that the Furutech support has on the sound of the cable it’s supporting. Oh, yes -- these things definitely impact the musical performance of your system. But I’ll come back to that.

Where things get really interesting is with the second coming of the NCF Booster, the Booster Signal, which simply replaces the concave cradle with a flat platform that can be used to support interconnects, speaker cables or connectors, with or without the top clamp. This version comes with only the one platform, although you do get a pair of polymer O-rings that can be used to clamp the cable against the platform. You can buy top clamps and additional platforms separately, which, along with the extension rods, creates the possibility of multi-layer cable supports, which might seem fanciful until you stick your head down the back of your system, where the practical advantages of a device designed to maintain cable spacing and dressing in what is otherwise free space should soon become apparent.

But all practicality aside, what really makes the NCF Boosters interesting is the effect they have on the sound, and that is not small. If what amounts to an Erector Set for obsessive cable dressers sounds less than exciting -- especially when you consider a price tag the wrong side of $300 for a basic NCF Booster without any extras, and in the $215 region for the Booster Signal (although, as with a lot of accessories, prices can vary pretty dramatically, so it is worth shopping around) -- wait until you actually play with these things. Their sonic and musical impacts are as fascinating (in their tunable nature) as they are smack-you-in-the-face obvious. You may or may not use cable risers. You may or may not believe that they work. But, believe me, if you don’t hear what the NCF Boosters do, then it’s definitely time to stop spending money on audio equipment.

When it comes to lifting your cables off the floor, the options are almost endless, as is the ingenuity I’ve seen applied to the problem. I use a collection of bamboo blocks (Panda Feet) and Cardas maple blocks, and I’ve also got lifters fashioned from plastics, acrylic and phenolic board to hand. I know people who use everything from tube boxes (although whether KT88 cartons sound different to 6550 boxes I can’t say) to wire cradles, ceramic AC insulators to folding plate stands (really!) -- and they all do something. But nothing that I’ve used comes close to the nature or extent of the impact (and impact is definitely the word) of the NCF Boosters and Signals in my system. Hi-fi reviews might be the last refuge of unrestrained hyperbole, but I was genuinely shocked by just how big a difference these bizarrely extravagant cable lifters made. Which is why I spent so long at the start of this piece discussing the all-too-audible influence of such counterintuitive devices -- and why my explanation for their effect is going to be speculative at best. But first, I’d best describe what they do -- and how what they do can be altered or tuned to suit your system.

The first setup in which I used the Furutech Boosters consisted of the AMG Giro turntable with 9W2 tonearm running the DS Audio DS-W1 cartridge with its matching phono equalizer, the Mark Levinson No.585 integrated amp and a pair of Raidho’s impressive new XT5s. This was cabled throughout with Nordost Valhalla 2, the system situated at the side of the room and the speakers running on 6 1/2-meter cables. I mention the latter because it becomes pertinent to the use (and abuse) of the Furutech products. The cable run to the far speaker is pretty much straight across: the near speaker needs to heap around five meters of spare cable, making keeping all the coils off the floor a far-from-simple proposition. Starting with no cable risers of any description and the cable simply laid on the wooden floor, I established the benchmark performance and then started playing with the Furutech lifters.

Following the historical development path, the first application was on the power lead feeding the DS Audio energizer/equalizer. This has a decent fit, but over time the energizer itself has become increasingly microphonic, so I was interested to see what impact the cable cradle would have on transmitted noise. With the NCF Booster firmly clamped around the Holo:Plug IEC connector on the Valhalla 2 power cord, the sonic influence was immediate and obvious, with a calmer, more controlled sound and reduced breakthrough from footfall or mechanical input to the supporting rack. Now, as I say, the effect was obvious, but that doesn’t make it better. One man’s calmer and more controlled is another’s dull and overdamped, and in this case I was very much in the latter camp. I can certainly see that in some systems or for some listeners, the extra damping of the sound could be preferred, but, for me, it killed what this system is all about. Strike one.

I next tried a single NCF Booster Signal under each speaker cable. Now, clearly, that isn’t going to lift the entire length of cable off the floor; in fact, with a set of extension rods on each booster, it lifted around a meter and a half of the long, straight run and the edge of three coils on the other -- a partial solution at best, you might think. Well, not if the results are anything to go by. To describe the insertion of the Furutech lifters as transformative is actually an understatement. With "Steppin’ Out" from the Intervention Records re-release of Joe Jackson’s Night and Day [Intervention Records IR-003], the bass went deeper, with greater weight, shape and definition, crisper pace and more-precise placement. The top end lost a layer of glaze and space, opening out with improved separation and dimensionality, while instrumental and particularly vocal tonality became more distinct and natural. The chimes that track the piano’s right hand were better separated and defined with greater purity of individual tones, while the phrasing, sense and emotional connection of Jackson’s singing were all in a different league. This was a huge, huge difference, immediately audible but becoming more obvious with each passing note and phrase. It wasn’t just the sound of the track but its rhythm, pace, sense and intelligibility that improved, almost as if the essential virtues of the system had been gathered up, organized and concentrated. The NCF Booster Signals didn’t alter the nature of the system; they just made it work better -- considerably better.

Okay, at this point, to say that I was more than a little shocked is also an understatement. The sheer scale and musical importance of the difference were hard to credit, and the results were utterly consistent across genre and format. Long-term listening has shown that, irrespective of what is played, the contribution of the NCF Booster Signals is as blatant as it is musically important. Warner’s recent Du Pré boxed set [Warner Bros. 0190295765347] offers digitally remastered pressings of the cellist’s complete orchestral recordings -- with sound that varies just as it did on the original discs. The Dvorak Concerto can be disappointing, with Barenboim’s hurried opening tempo combined with murky, muddled sound, creating a congested and confused reading that pushes the characteristically overvoiced cello way too far forward. But add the Boosters to the system and suddenly there’s a sense of acoustic space, the soundstage opens out and instrumental identity and location take on a new clarity. String tone improves dramatically as does the separation of horn and clarinet, while the solo instrument takes on new poise and grace, stepping back into the acoustic and losing the angular clumsiness that marred it before. Sure, the tempi are still quick, but the playing is no longer jumbled and disorderly, taking on a new sense of purpose and direction, while Du Pré’s legendary flow and evocative, emotional playing emerge from the previously cluttered performance. These changes still don’t make this one of Du Pré’s best recordings, and the orchestral playing in particular can’t match the audiophile standards from RCA or Mercury, but the addition of the Booster Signals to the system more than saved it from being unlistenable, delivering an interesting and valid alternative reading of the orchestral score -- and, of course, Du Pré’s solo part.

So, if two NCF Boosters are good, more must be better, right? It ain’t necessarily so. Adding a second pair of Booster Signals under the speaker cables actually made things worse, having a similar sluggish, damping effect to the Booster on the AC cord feeding the DS Audio energizer. Interestingly, using the standard (AC type) Boosters under the speaker cables was similarly unimpressive, which really was food for thought. What followed was a round of considerable experimentation, running through all of the available options -- polymer bands, top plates on the Booster Signals, standard Boosters with and without top plates, and in each and every combination. In almost all cases, the addition of extra elements led to an overdamped, deadened sound, and I kept returning to a minimal application of the basic devices. What I ended up with in this system was the single pair of Booster Signals under the speaker cables and one standard Booster supporting the AC connector on the Levinson No.585 -- but without its top plate.

Which leads me to a number of conclusions, both about the Furutech NCF Boosters and this system in particular. The first and most obvious point is that the NCF Boosters, of whichever type, are seriously powerful and it is easy to overdo them. Too many is definitely worse than none at all, the resulting sound being calm, controlled and planted, but ultimately overdamped and boring. Which leads directly to the second point: using the NCF Boosters to the greatest advantage is a case of deciding just where on that continuum you and your system need to be -- and answering that depends on listening and a little understanding. Which means it’s time to talk about what the Furutech risers are doing and why.

I’ve already pointed out that "NCF" indicates the inclusion of a proprietary crystalline antistatic material. This is incorporated into the molded contact surfaces on the supporting elements. The underside of those supports consists of a damping mat and the supporting structure, also designed to help dissipate resonance. The end result is a substantial triangular-section beam well over an inch wide and weighing in at nearly three ounces. The H-shaped base, with its rubber underside and uprights, adds the best part of half a pound, so the finished unit is stable and extremely well-damped. Place that in contact with a cable and I believe that two things happen: it helps reduces static charge on the cable’s surface and also applies mechanical damping to the cable. Obviously, the more intimate the contact, the greater the damping, which is where the polymer O-rings and top plates come in.

But the test system used Nordost Valhalla 2, a cable that has already paid considerable attention to its mechanical behavior. The impact of the NCF Booster on the surface static charge is in line with the effect of Nordost’s own Eco3 antistatic fluid, so I have few qualms about accepting Furutech’s claims in this respect -- especially given the considerable surface area of Nordost’s flat speaker cables. Likewise, the damping effect is easily heard, demonstrated and understood -- as long as you factor in the nature of the cables being used. Under the circumstances, it’s not surprising that Nordost’s Holo:Plug IEC connector sounded dull and flat on when a full NCF Booster was applied to it. But it’s also not surprising that a minimally damped solution on the Levinson No.585 (which suffers from a notoriously loose socket) should result in gains in bass weight, authority and extension as well as a lower noise floor -- exactly what you’d anticipate from improved contact to the AC supply. But one word of warning: the low-frequency changes wrought by the NCF Booster under the AC connector were sufficient to require an adjustment in speaker position. There’s a difference between overweight and overdamped, and you need to check which is which.

So what happens if you use a different cable, with a different approach to mechanical behavior and a different physical signature? After all, the flat-section Valhalla 2 speaker cables give the NCF Boosters the greatest possible contact area and therefore the greatest opportunity to work. Switching out Nordost Valhalla 2 for Crystal Cable Absolute Dream changes the impact of the NCF Boosters as well as the Boosters' application. The first thing to note is that applying the NCF Booster to the Furutech-terminated Absolute Dream power cords was notably more successful than with the Nordost cables. Here, the added bandwidth and stability were welcome indeed, although I still needed to be careful not to overdo the application. One Booster with top and bottom plate on the Levinson No.585 and another with bottom plate only on the DS Audio energizer was the magic fix.

But it was once I started playing with the speaker cables that things got really interesting. My first thought was to place the Booster Signals in the same central location along the cables’ lengths, and sure enough that worked, but not nearly as dramatically as with the Valhalla 2s. So I started moving the Booster Signals along the length of the cable, playing with both the position and also the degree of damping, using the flat top plate or the polymer tie-downs. Not to bore you with what was a long and fairly tedious process, rendered easier than it might have been by the sheer audibility of the induced effects, a single pair of Booster Signals was best placed right against the ovoid cable breakouts at the speaker end of the cable, using the polymer loops to strap the lead in place.

Follow the logic and that makes considerable sense. The Crystal Cable Absolute Dreams use a narrow-diameter cylindrical construction that minimizes surface area and susceptibility to static charge. But they are also tightly packed and contain virtually no internal damping, which, unlike the mechanically tuned Valhalla 2 cables, suggests they’ll be far more susceptible to mechanical vibration. Placing the Booster Signals as close to the speakers as possible (the biggest source of mechanical vibration in the system), therefore, makes perfect sense, as does the benefit of the increased physical contact and additional damping supplied by the polymer loops.

Where things got a bit funky, though, is when I tried adding a second set of Booster Signals (with polymer loops) back at the cable midpoints. I really wasn’t ready for the scale of the improvement this elicited, with a substantial increase in bottom-end weight, shape and dimensionality, overall transparency, immediacy and musical intimacy. The intelligibility and expressive range (as well as the sheer believability) of vocals improved dramatically, with a real in-the-room quality they just hadn’t had previously in this setup.

So far so good, but what I couldn’t explain was why adding the second set of Boosters halfway along the cables had the musical impact of two and two making eight, when, with a single pair in use, the position next to the speakers was clearly preferable. It seems that the second pair required the first pair in order to function. What’s more, if the effect is mainly mechanical, why wouldn’t adding the top plates to the first pair, thus increasing the damping, have at least some of the same positive benefits? Whatever the reasons, in this case, distributed damping seems to be the way to go, with a benefit out of all proportion to the cost of the four Furutech Boosters, especially given the price of the cables involved.

Clearly, the getting the full measure of the Furutech NCF Boosters (in all their various guises) is an ongoing project. But having used them across a range of systems now, in all three listening rooms, I can say that their musical impact is consistently as startling as it is beneficial. My rule of thumb with devices such as these is simple: If I can demonstrate the effect to the missus, then I’m happy to write about it. The effect of the NCF Boosters is so dramatic and so out of proportion to their physical presence that I’ve gone way, way beyond that, demonstrating them to every visitor I’ve had through the house -- and not a single one has failed to not just hear but be astonished by the results, including the painters and decorators who wanted to know what it was I did. With no hi-fi experience or sonic preconceptions to cloud their judgment, those guys got the musical impact immediately, recognizing both its scale and value without any need for explanation or justification. To them, it was simply better -- and in many ways it really is that simple.

Furutech’s NCF Boosters are neither fit and forget nor one size fits all. They require a degree of experimentation and will be system-specific in their application, but that experimentation is easy in the sense that their musical impact (positive or negative) is so easily heard. Nor have I tried them in a system without finding a seriously positive benefit. I’ve yet to try the multi-level "skyscraper" approach to dressing interconnects, although I’ll be doing so soon, but I suspect that that is where the range of permutations is going to get seriously out of hand -- not to mention the risk of the space down the back of your rack starting to look like the set of Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom. In the meantime, simply applying them to power cords and speaker cables, they have become utterly indispensable. NCF Boosters and Booster Signals: I wouldn’t want to be without them.