Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions "Hiding" the cable on the wall?

Hello,

I will be moving into the condominium, where I have no options of hiding the cables in the walls (concrete). I am just curious to know what has been working for others, or what other solutions I should try in order to hide the cables in the room?

I have seen the tape wire - did someone actually installed it? I also am familiar with conduits, is there any other option?

Thanks,

Cephas.
Toronto, ON.

AFAIK, you have several options:

1) Cable raceway (like cordmate from wiremold)
2) Flat wire (from decorp).
3) Pull up the carpet and run it underneath
4) I've seen some esoteric solutions that involve special crownmolding or baseboards made specifically for running cables. IMHO, they don't look that great.

Check out Home Depot, I believe they have white cable raceway that you can run along baseboards and up walls.

I used AR (Acoustic Research) Microflat speaker cable, which I painted to match the wall. But i think they stopped making it. I can't seem to find it anywhere.



Here is a comparable product that is available in 16 ft lengths for $18, or 100 ft. lengths for $89.50. 16 feet would be enough for two surrounds in a room with conventional ceiling height, because you only need it for the run from speaker down the wall to the baseboard where it can be connected to conventional speaker wire using connectors.



You needn't worry about it being only 18 gauge. I have it connected to 12 gauge conventional wire, and with only a 6 ft. run up the wall, it has a negligible effect on the impedance of the entire run from receiver to speaker.

Thank you very much for quick responses everybody.

This is what I have been looking for. Jack, would you have a slightly larger version of the first picture? Also how would you describe reliability of the installation? I have a sample of such cable and I installed it on cleaned wall (about 6" worth). This thing started peeling off after a couple of weeks. (it very likely that I just missed a step or something.).

Thanks,

Cephas.

Don't use the tape wire. It'll take the paint off your walls, look horrible, and it looks like it's thinner than 18 gauge. Get flat cable and the little spongy tape that they (used?) to sell with it. I got both of mine from Accessories4Less.com. Some of the best customer service I've dealt with, too.

Pulling back just a bit of the carpet has worked well for me.

Here ya go.



Installation was pretty easy, and it's been up for more than two years without a problem. I've not removed it so I can't say what effect removal will have on the wall beneath.

Thank you all who responded, Jack thank you for the larger picture.

Cephas.

For my rear surrounds, I use a white 14ga wire from Radio Shack. It hides nicely in the ceiling/wall edge...although it helps that the ceiling and walls are white!!

And now for the anti-voice of reason.

You already have wire run through your walls... just re-source a pair of romex from a few plugs, take them out of their AC circuits, replace the outlets in the boxes with wall-mount binding posts. Breaks pretty much every electrical code (and standard reasoning) but it's another solution.

... I wonder if this is how Howard Hughes felt in his final days?

Bren R.

So, you're basically trying to get him to electrocute himself or blow his speaker cones across the room. Makes sense to me...

"Every time I turn the volume up you can see the lights flicker..."

No, no... I said take them OUT of their circuits! As Lo Wang says in 3d Realms game Shadow Warrior... "Hmmm, no powah!"

Bren R.

And if you're not an electrician (or very experienced with it), how are you sure you've done it right? I wouldn't have a clue...

Back to it being the ANTI voice of reason and that it breaks standard reasoning.

I was primarily kidding.

Bren R.

That's what I figured. I was mostly being ornery.

Perhaps I should have stuck to suggesting draping speaker wire around the room and concealing it with a nice Wandering Jew or grapevine...

Bren R.

In reply to Ajax's comments...

I just bought some flat wire from Ramelectronics.net. They sell various guages of flat wire, from 12 to 18 guage. They also sell spray adhesive and the other materials (that you can probably find cheaper at Home Depot) like mesh tape and putty for the wall to make the concealment more convincing.

I'm gonna make this my weekend project (assuming the stuff gets delivered before then) and will report back on how things went.

Say, Ajax, if you're out there - are the connectors necessary or can I simply strip, crimp, spin and tape the ends together with electrical tape? I know that the signal will pass, I just don't know what the construction of the flat wire is like.

I currently have some "flatter" wire that I tacked to the wall. I painted it the color of the wall, which makes it almost invisible, unless you are looking for it, or if you get close to it. My wife wanted me to hide the wires behind the wall. My brief foray into that venture revealed that my dry-wall is about 1/2 inch from the brick wall that is the outside wall of the house, and it is packed real tight with insulation. No threading wires through there... (and yes, now I have two holes in the wall - covered by the couch and the QS8...)

Anyway, wish me luck.

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Ajax, if you're out there - are the connectors necessary or can I simply strip, crimp, spin and tape the ends together with electrical tape?

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Absolutely, Adrian. The flat wire is.........well..............very flat. Because of this it's a little tricky to match up with conventional round wire. If you're a solderer, you could just lay the round wire on the flat wire and solder. Or, you could use a small screw driver to curve the wire a little, like in the photo below, and solder. Or, once curved you can use some pliers to crimp it into a roll, and try to twist them together. Not sure how easy this would be. But, the point is, I feel the connectors are preferable, but in no way mandatory.

Great Jack,

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna see how it goes without the connectors, and if it doesn't go well, then I'll nite the bullet.

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then I'll nite the bullet.

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I dub thee nite.

Bren R.

Sorry - brain faster than my fingers - expect when it comes to hitting that "post" button - then my fingers seem to always win...