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WAF Tricks to Display Exotic Audio

Here is a slight twist on the usual "how do we hide the wires" WAF question.

I have a few vintagey components hanging around where I love the look of them, particularly on top of real furniture -- not audio racks.

For example, I have long and narrow, antique Chinese altar table which is very sturdy and looks great with my components on top of it.

Unfortunately, however, it only looks great until I try to plug them in and turn them on, when they become a typical mess with cables and plugs.

Now I would not say I am good at this kind of thing, but I have tried outlet strips mounted to the back, plastic conduits for the cables etc, and I just can't ever seem to get things sufficiently neat and tidy.

Could any WAF experts contribute their best tricks for tidying and hiding cables, power cords and power strips etc especially when you don't have the advantage of a dedicated audio furniture?

Is there a system for this? Special cable ties? False wall or furniture back tricks? Mirrors?

If the cables could somehow disappear, I would really love to see my Yanaha T-2 tuner, for example, glowing softly at night.

Thanks for any ideas and suggestions.
cwlondon
tobias
1,534 posts
 
The only answer I know is to make neat runs, and it's only a partial answer. I have a pal whose power and speakers cables lie in precise, elegant curves and loops from outlet to isolators to amps, and from amps to speakers like the El train, on risers. It's way cool to me but I admit hints at a model train set, or a Disneyland monorail.
cwlondon OP
1,210 posts
 
So I am not the only one, and this is harder than it might seem?!

In the past, I have thought about having custom lengths made, using thin, discreet cables, using cable ties in matching color, and also using all the same cables and connectors for greater uniformity of appearance.

But of course this takes some of the high end mix and match fun out of the equation, and all new custom cables seems a high price for WAF.

Surely someone is a cable hiding guru? Please help.
honest1
586 posts
 
Neat cable dressing takes a lot of time, way more than you would imagine until you try it. It's definitely worth it when you see a pile of spaghetti turn into 3 neat little pipes with wires that break out right at the right spot. I did it when I was into car audio competitions way back. The keys are to get you cables as close to the right length as possible. If you can terminate your own speaker cables and power cords, this will haelp. Interconnects are very difficult to terminate. Start at one end of the system, and work down, using twist ties (bread, garbage bag ties) to hold things in place at first. You will find that you this is an iterative process, in which you will be constantly undoing and redoing what you have already done. You will invariably end up with some excess length to hide, it's nice if you can find someplace to stash it. If your stuff is on a table, maybe you can just make a loop that sticks out of the bundle under a component.
rhyno's avatar
rhyno
649 posts
 
get some black cloth cut to length between shelves and mount w/ blue tack (or equivalent) and route cables behind the black cloth. the black cloth will serve as a backdrop to allow the component to "pop" while also obscuring the wires from view.

rhyno
owl's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
owl
139 posts
 
Tall artifical plants behind the speakers to soften the angles then 3-4 small fernlike floorstanders around 12 inches in height all over the floor to hide the speaker cables. Also, drilling holes in your floor to run cables is neat if you can manage it and have a basement or garage under your listening room, but I guess you could run inside studs, floor joists as well depending. I've also used painted wood 1x5 soffits that run along the back and side wall for pc/s interconnect and speaker cable as well as running PVD pipe in ceilings and walls so you can change cables when you want. It's easy to do if you have skills, or if you're like me, hire a carpenter.
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