tidying up cables

I have removed the speaker cables from the mess by running them straight out of the amp and along the mortar joints in the brickwork, about 4’ off the floor and keeping them in place with a blob of Blue Tak. I took the opportunity to trim them by about 4’ in length while I had them disconnected.

Already the hum from the valve amp has diminished and this was an immediate obvious improvement during listening to music afterwards. The inherent hum is apparently due to the amp being built without negative feedback and using very sensitive speakers according to the designer/builder. Having the speaker cables running through the others obviously contributed to what hum there was.

I also have a Miniwatt valve amp (no hum) that I listen to occasionally and am looking forward to listening to that little beauty at some time after I’ve got used to the improved sound from the present amp after all the tweaking.

If you’re interested, check out the links for the amps builder here in Australia. He hand-winds all his own transformers and the amps are very well regarded down under.
http://www.westonacoustics.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Weston-Acoustics-Valve-Amplifiers-184719604953268/
The ICs and USB cable don’t crossover or run within 12" of any other cables so I’ll leave them alone for the moment.

Todays project is to get stuck into the PCs and at least run them in a more tidy fashion if I can.

Thanks for all the explanations and suggestions so far.

Ian

My biggest improvement was keeping power cords away from phono preamp interconnects.  They had to run parallel to each other, so I used zip cords to bundle like cables together (my phono preamp has two power cords). Then glass votive candle holders ($.50 each) to elevate the cable bundles off the floor at different levels to separate them.

Yes it is a very bad idea. Why? In a word, induction.

Every signal in every wire produces a field around that wire. Also when these fields cross a wire they induce a current in the wire. This is how transformers work. This is also how power is generated in everything from hydroelectric dams to phono cartridges. This is also one way RFI gets into systems. 

So around every power cord and interconnect is a field that varies up and down with whatever signal is in that wire. With AC its a steady 60 Hz but with music its all over the place. Either way these signals interact with any nearby wire. The result is noise. But hardly ever noise loud enough to be obvious. Instead what happens is the music signal is smeared a little and the background is gray instead of black. 

This is all highly relative. Its surprising how much of this there is even in systems that seem dead quiet and clean. Like I said you don't hear it till its gone.

So, power cords should not be bundled together?  I was planning on bundling the power cords together and the signal carrying cords together and then separating the two bundles.  Is that a bad idea?  Why?

I won’t be getting rid of the rack any time soon millercarbon so will have to try some of the other tweaks first. No PC bundling though.

It would appear, judging from your pix that having cables intersect is not the issue, rather, that they don’t touch. Correct?

Thanks for that link steakster.
I’ve got some of that insulation stashed somewhere and will use it where the PCs and ICs intersect. I guess one of those foam pool noodles would work too. Those flouro colours would certainly liven things up.

As mentioned, I have now run the speaker cable along the mortar joints in the brickwork which has certainly put distance between them and everything else. Some critical listening will occur today.

After that, the insulation separation suggestion will be brought into play
Thanks all!

Its impossible to tell you how to fix your mess without having the mess in front of me to see what's what. A couple things we can say for sure though- you do not want to bundle power cords together, and there are things that will make an audible improvement. 

Have a look here to see what things might look like if you were able to rearrange your system for sound quality instead of rack quality.
https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367

Nothing you see in any of those images has anything to do with advice people gave me. Every single detail was worked out over the years by trial and error. You will hear a lot of opinion about Cable Elevators. They would not be there, not a one of them, if they did not work. 

First thing I would do is go on eBay and order a bunch of these ceramic insulators. Use them on the floor and use them like I do with little wood stands to support cables. Where cables must be close to each other try and arrange them so they cross at right angles.

Ultimately its best to eliminate racks like yours. What you have, a tall rack with the amp at the top so speaker cables have to be long and send their high level signal right past all the low level signals, which are all crossed over each other, is just about the worst setup imaginable. Sorry, but you see the lengths I went to avoid that. (And the result: "audiophile nirvana". So totally worth it.

But in the meantime what you do is arrange cables so if one has to go only a short distance to the next component then instead of having it all bunched up you have it go off sideways and curve back. So it crosses other cables but at a 90 degree angle. With as much space between them as you can manage.

If you somehow manage to do all this don't be surprised if you don't hear a great big improvement right away. Messing with cables, bending them around like this, messes with the sound. It will take a little while to settle back in. Not long, hour or so should do. Just enough so when you think at first what a waste of time, then later start to wonder if its really better or your mind playing tricks, its not your mind. If you do all this it really will be better.

Maybe not nirvana. But better.

Thanks for the quick response Erik.Im not sure on the power strip but could probably move the power board closer to the shelf unit. It as surge protection and filtering and is the one Thor recommend and supply for use with the conditioner.
I'll give the shortening of the cables some serious thought after that. It would certainly help in eliminating a lot of the mess.

I have some velcro straps so will use them.
Good ideas!

Have you thought of a simple, industrial type power strip, along with right-sized cables?

I’m thinking of the types meant for under-workbench or under-desk application, 3’ to 4’ long. They can be very useful in cleaning that up.

https://amzn.to/2xNYkEe

Also, instead of zip ties, use velcro straps. You’ll go less crazy. Something like this is big enough to wrap around cables and your furniture:

https://amzn.to/2X9pKz8

And don't forget, you can order very short power cables, like 6" or so.