Wire & cable management - advice? (1 Viewer)

[Jason Edgecombe]

I’ve tried repeatedly to get the tangle of wires and cables on the back of my system in order with no luck. I’ve tried bundling cables, separating cables, running groups of cables different ways – each ends up creating its own unique mess. The rack I use is exposed, so it ends up being somewhat unsightly.

Anyone have any tips or best practices for cable management? Should I use the shortest cables that will reach, or longer cables that can then be bundled? Does it help to use interconnects that are all the same length? Are there any organizational products out there that you have found useful? I’d be interested to hear others’ experiences.

Or is this always going to be a mess, and I should learn to live with it? Thanks.

 

[Dean_S]

I have an open back on my equipment rack in my main living area. I used cables I already had when I moved and changed racks, so many are longer then they need to be. I bundled each cable and tied it with a velcro tie and lined all the bundles neatly behind the equipment. I buy the velcro wire ties in packages of 50 at home depot for $5. Half are gray and half are black. I use only black for my HT and save the gray ones for hidden locations. I used the same velcro ties for all my computer eq, my secondary HT system in the bedroom and used the extras (from two packages I purchased) to organize the wires in my extra wire storage boxes. I know I'm a dork and I have 4 plastic bins for excess storage labeled: Pre-amp (all rca and digital are in this box), Ant (all coax, splitters, and ant accessories), Speaker (this one should be obvious), and Phone/Computer/12v (all phone cables, computer cable, and car wiring pieces). These all fit nicely on the shelf of my coat closet (my garage can't hold anymore stuff and still have my car fit).

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Read my "How to hook up your new HT receiver". It has a rack-layout suggestion and cable management suggestion that can really help.

Basically: reciever on the lowest shelf so all the heavy speaker wires flow away from everything else. 1 problem solved.

Power cords all pulled to one side and bundled together.

Interconnects left loose down the middle or lightly bundled with velcro or wire-loom from www.cableorganizer.com (a sponsor)

Note that there have been a rare case or two where tightly bundled interconnects caused problems. I could never understand why, but un-bundling the wires seemed to help.

Another hint: for standard-video sources (VCR, Game systems, CATV box) the bundles of Left/Right/Video cables from Radio Shack can really help clean things up.