Nicely dressed cables or a big freaking mess?

MikeCh

MikeCh

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I'm in between nicely dressed cables behind the rack and a big mess and it's grown toward the messy as gear gets swapped in and out. Been meaning to pull the rack out and undo everything and re-route cables (keeping signal/data and speaker and power cables separate) and doing the whole cross-at-right-angles thing when necessary but just haven't had the time lately.

What's your setup like? Regimented or spaghetti? So far with my semi-haphazard cable wad I've been without excess noise but I know it could be better laid out to reap the benefits of lower noise by having power and signal cabling separation.

I dislike a cabling mess personally, but I have to admit I've been a bit lax in that department lately.
 
Mike, you're breaking the cable commandment, me too. I try to have it separated & right angles but have quite the jungle going on at the mo.
 
I recently upgraded my racks and had to disassemble-reassemble my system. I paid better attention to cable routing and managed to keep things separated pretty well - not necessarily "dressed" cabling, but intelligent routing for signals paths vs. power cables.

My system isn't the last word in resolution, but I do think I kept the noise floor contributions, with regards to cabling, to a minimum. It's a worthwhile endeavor!
 
Some systems require good cable dressing and some I can't hear the difference.

Being mostly a slob - even when I do things by the book it looks messy. That's just me.

Naim is the worst I've seen on sound quality changing with cable dressing. I'm always amazed on how little changes make a difference. My latest "hmmm" moments are with the bi wire connection into the speaker and different jumpers.

"EVERYTHING MAKES A DIFFERENCE!!!!"

Btw - Not always in a good way, but still a difference
 
i learned along time ago from owning silver cables and living in a place with awful electric, to always keep them separated. if i didnt id pickup lots of weird stuff through my speakers. mostly marine radios.
now i keep my rack off the wall so i can walk back there and switch things around anytime. but i also dont keep them separated anymore either. except i always make sure the pc's arent touching anything, and like it was said above i try to make them neat but they are still a mess.
 
I really like Transparent cables other than they are virtually impossible to properly hide. I moved away from my rack and place my gear in and on top of a cabinet to that I could route the cables out the back and better hide them.
 
Try as I might, always ends up messier than I like. I've learned to (mostly) ignore it.
 
Thanks guys. Glad to know I'm not alone. I try but don't always succeed in the ideal placement myself.

After examining my rack, it should be pretty easy to create a few mountings like this in key locations (either double sticky-taped or screwed, depending on the mount type) with an open loop cable tie to allow routing, placement and extraction when necessary:

View attachment 7159
 
Mike....after you separate your cable/powers cords, getting them off the carpet/floor, and not letting any cable touch, notice to see if you have better transparency,sonics and separation.
 
MikeCh said:
Thanks guys. Glad to know I'm not alone. I try but don't always succeed in the ideal placement myself.

After examining my rack, it should be pretty easy to create a few mountings like this in key locations (either double sticky-taped or screwed, depending on the mount type) with an open loop cable tie to allow routing, placement and extraction when necessary:

View attachment 7159
Click to expand...
i was using some cable clamp down clips for normal size ic's , i pulled out the nail they comewith and used the same 2 sided tape, but most of my cables are too big for them.
nice idea!!
 
Rantzmar said:
Mike....after you separate your cable/powers cords, getting them off the carpet/floor, and not letting any cable touch, notice to see if you have better transparency,sonics and separation.
Click to expand...

Interesting, I just did this,, We (wife and I) set down and listened to some Yo YO Ma, and via my TT and a CD. Sounded really good. Then we tried the rearrangement of cables to include power. Sat back down, same music same sources, we heard no difference. But it sure does look nice. We do not have carpet but tile floors with really large rugs. The cables run along the tile floor. The double sided tape works wonders depending on which tape you use. I use "Joe's Sticky Stuff" this tape will hold the Orlando phone book to the wall. .
 
Interesting. I find some people after separating all cables and lifting off floor with cable risers, and not even letting the interconnect pairs touch, find the music more refined. Tho is a small increment in better sound
 
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