The Elusive Art of hiding speaker wires... (1 Viewer)

[John Tyrone]

Well after finally hooking up my 50h81 and all my components on the open rack by techcraft, I need to figure out how to hide/organize the spagetti wires. Having hardwood floors is making this task daunting to say the least. Also, getting the repetitive questions coming from the wife asking,"are you gonna do something about this?", is getting annoying.

Those who are married know what I'm talking about. I was thinking of wire ties or something? Any ideas?
John

 

[Peter Overduin]

Try this outfit that specializes in cable organization, and stuff!
http://www.smarthome.com/9045.HTML
Another option, which I did, was to hire a low voltage wire specialist, who ran all my wiring in the wall. My fairly extensive system is on the bottom floor, concrete pad, of a 3 story town home and my wife didn't like wires either. Now, it looks great, and my wife is a HT ally!
[Edited last by Peter Overduin on October 28, 2001 at 11:10 PM]

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

At a minimum you can stop by an auto parts store and pick up some 3/4" wiring loom. This is simply ribbed tubing with a slit down its length. You can bundle cables by component into a section of tube (cut it to length) and it greatly reduces clutter. I'm assuming that your rack doesn't allow for cable runs within the posts?
So far as running wires on the floor make use of the baseboards where possible. For example, if you go to my website and find the picture of the sub you won't see any cable as it runs underneath the baseboard to an outlet behind the couch (the line out connection comes through the basement so I'm actually cheating there

). Where this is not an option crack out the wiring loom again. You would be amazed at how much better it looks than just a bunch of individual cables.
I appreciate your predicament as I too love the look of a clean installation. You really have to work to see a cable in my rig.
ADDENDUM: Ooops. Should have checked the link offered above first.

That is precisely what I referred to as 'wiring loom.' You would likely be better off checking out the auto parts store as it is a) locally accessible, and b) likely much cheaper. The downside is that the largest diameter I have seen is 3/4", whereas SmartHome offers it in 1". You will need to evaluate your cable needs to decide which is best. Expect to comfortably fit 4-5 aftermarket interconnect/video or standard A/C cables in the 3/4" size.
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--Jay
"No one can hear when you're screaming in digital."
My Home Theatre Pictures...
"You're no messiah. You're, you're a movie of the week. You're a ... t-shirt, at best."
[Edited last by Jay Mitchosky on October 29, 2001 at 09:32 AM]

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Wiring can be a pain to hide there is no doubt about it.
You just have to think things over and have a good game
plan when you set out to sort out those cable runs.
I couldn't figure out how to run my Surround cables so
what I did was bought Radio Shack RG-6 Cable Busings and
drilled a 15/16ths hole in the celing into the attic right
behind and above where the surrounds would sit on the wall
and then ran RadioShack CL2 In Wall navaho white 16Ga down
through the holes and used the RG6 Bushings to "finish" the
hole. Worked well and you can see it at my HT Web Site! Just
follow the link in my signature.
You can run in wall cables, run along the baseboard,go under
the carpet, run micro flat along the wall and paint it, go
from under the house or many other ways!
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Brett DiMichele
My Home Theater Site!
[email protected]

 

[Brian Johnson]

Great Idea Jay. I thought the same thing,probably a bit cheaper & basically the same thing.

 

[Liz G]

John,
Here's another link for split-loom tubing. This one offers more sizes, two colors, and better pricing than SmartHome.
http://www.milestek.com/convolutedtube.htm
Liz