What to do with all that extra wire?

[Daemon]

OK, this may seem like a stupid question, but I've heard pettier things from truer audiophiles.

What should I be doing with all that extra wire behind my rack? I'm talking about the power cables, interconnects, speaker cables, all of it. It seems to me that coiling it up, for example, could cause it to act like an inductor with an air core, adding a bit of impedance. But doubling it up could be worse by introducing crosstalk (ever notice that telephone wire is all twisted to heck? That's why). Even if the effects are minimal, there must be one method that's better than the others. These are the things I think about when I'm behind a system.

I figure the power cables would be fine as long as they're bundled separately. I'm mostly concerned with the speaker wire. I've always been of the idea that similar channels should have similar lengths (L=C=R and SL=SR), and I don't want to limit myself from future placement possibilities (it's a work in progress), so I'm stuck with at least a couple feet of extra speaker cable cluttering it up back there. The spiders love it.

So what's better, coiled, doubled, or all in disarray?

Carl

Integra DTR-7.1

Van den Hul Clearwater

KT-LCR

KT-DS

KT-SW

MTC 21" TV (Woolco brand! )

[T2K]

What a stupid question Daemon! Just kidding!!

I pondered the same question one night while I was sitting on my favorite cermaic chair. About the time I finished the...uh, thought process, I discovered I needed to refresh the Charmin. BOOM!! The idea hit like a Tomahawk cruise missle!! USE THE EMPTY CHARMIN ROLL TO MAKE PRETTY ROLLS OF EXCESS INTERCONNECT CABLE BEHIND MY RACK. So I go out to the garage, get my wire ties, roll one loop somewhat snugly around the now empty Charmin roll, insert 3 ties at 120 degree intervals around the tube, roll up the excess connect and pull the ties snug.

The rolls make no audible difference to my ears, although I always buy the shortest length I can get by with. I place power cables (hand rolled) to one side of my rack and the rest towards the other side, spacing all as much as possible. My setup is totally quiet and the rear of the rack looks good too. Every man likes good looking rears/racks!

As far as the speaker wire goes, I wouldn't worry about the small differences in length. I can hear absolutely no difference. Did I tell you I suffered from work related hearing loss?

Good luck and don't sweat the stupid questions. Some idiot, like me, will happily answer them!

Keith

[justin_tx_16]

I would not worry TOO much about length but I personally would not and do not ever make coils out of them. When I did I got RFI out the butt! get cables as short as possible, if possible, my excess goes straight down. the next worse thing to coiling is cords at 90* angles.

[dougdrake]

Justin - Sounds you need to spend some time on a chair like Keith's to get rid of the RFI.

I've read that the best thing for extra cables is just piled in a loose array with no order, avoiding any sharp kinks and such. It minimizes the opportunity for noise.

DD

[justin_tx_16]

I actually got some clips after getting new, better shileded and shorter cables. absolutely no EMI or RFI that I can hear in my 2 channel system.

[T2K]

The key is to buy GOOD cables. Those GOOD cables usually include good shielding which will help you to avoid problems.

Keith

[Malcolm]

IMHO the key is to use cables of appropriate length. I would not coil the speaker wires. You will add inductance. This probably won't produce an audible result if the speaker cables are short. But if they are long, say 30 feet or more, it might be audible. Most popular alternative I have read is to bundle them in an S share if you need to. Mine are in disarray. But you cannot see them behind all the gear in the cabinet.

[DLUngurait]

Justin,

Where did you hear about 90 degree angles being a problem? I've worked professionally as a Soundman/Recordist and I was always taught not to run power cords parallel to audio cables so that you don't pick up 60 cycle hum in your audio. So I would always try to cross my audio cables at 90 degrees over any power cables to avoid this problem.

Dave

[cluless]

Don't worry about the extra wire, I'll send you my cats, and they'll trim it up nice....Chomp!

[michael hurd]

Remove the excess, and send it to me ! Just be sure to send good stuff, like kimberkable. Try and keep your low-level rca cables away from the ac cords as far as possible. If they cross, cross them at 90 degrees to minimize the amount of 60 cycle hum picked up by the low level rca's - which is then fed into an amplifier. Speaker wires a.k.a high level, are much less likely to pick up hum - the signal is already larger, and won't be amplified. Do not tightly coil ac cords, instead, make large, soft loops or run back and forth to take up the slack. BTW, with highly efficient speakers like klipsch, you don't need as much gain, or amplifier power to play at normal levels. Thus the amount of noise is much lower. The more gain, the more the noise is amplified !

[Daemon]

I'm have to go with 90 degree crossing being better than parallel. From what I remember of physics, current flowing through a wire will generate a magnetic field which envelops the wire in a radial pattern. By the same token, any other wire that runs parallel within that magnetic field will have a current induced into it, which is what we don't want. (Any engineers remember whether it's the "left-hand rule" or the "right-hand rule"?)

If a line-level wire is running closely and parallel to an AC line, it would likely pick up a bit of current from the magnetic field surrounding the AC line. If they were crossing at 90 degrees, the area of influence is limited to the immediate area of the crossing, as opposed to the full length. The only stickler is that power and patch cables contain hot and return lines, and assuming the receiver isn't dumping current through ground the magnetic field should be the same intensity in both hot and return directions, cancelling each other out. (My brain hurts...)

I say we go all-optical. Then all Klipsch needs is a self-powered line (ala M&K MPS-2510P).

[justin_tx_16]

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On 12/4/2002 6:49:29 PM DLUngurait wrote:

Justin,

Where did you hear about 90 degree angles being a problem? I've worked professionally as a Soundman/Recordist and I was always taught not to run power cords parallel to audio cables so that you don't pick up 60 cycle hum in your audio. So I would always try to cross my audio cables at 90 degrees over any power cables to avoid this problem.

Dave

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Our physics textbook. Said that EMI is best transfered when in perpendicular crossings.... but heck, would not be the first time a book was wrong!

my 7th grade science book said the statue of libery was made of brass..... crikee!

[fini]

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On 12/3/2002 1:17:24 AM dougdrake wrote:

I've read that the best thing for extra cables is just piled in a loose array with no order, avoiding any sharp kinks and such. It minimizes the opportunity for noise.

DD

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Doug,

I use this approach for all of my posessions. You should see my garage. Unfortunately, I don't notice a reduction in noise. On the contrary, it causes my wife to make a lot of noise.

fini