November 2006 - HowTo - Reference Theater Part 2: Prewire And Connectivity - page 2
Hiding Cables
 There is nothing cool about having $10,000 in high-performance audio and video cables knotted up behind an equipment rack. Simple wire ties can make a big difference in managing your rack. Think twice before you tie things down if you might be moving gear in and out of your system. However, if you know your cables are pretty much staying put, tie those suckers down. You will see in my two Middle Atlantic seven-foot AXIS pull-out racks that the Simply Home Entertainment guys were able to get a lot of the play out of the cables by either custom-making some of the connections (such as the RS232 cables) or ordering or fabricating on the project the exact lengths needed. We did the same thing with the AC power cables, which can plug into the AC power rails on the back of the rack rails. Sometimes a six- or 12-inch power cable is all that is needed and we were able to replace power cables with ones we got from Transparent. Other components that don’t have removable power cables needed to have the cable wire tied down. Nevertheless, the idea of having all of the control wires and power cables out of the way paves the road to a professionally installed rack. A bag of wire ties might cost five dollars. Use them liberally to keep your cables where they belong. A simple wire cutter makes it easy to free a cable you have tied down in some sick act of audio-video bondage. Fear not the wire tie.
In order to avoid a time-wasting mistake, be sure to have a full rack drawing before you start ordering half-meter cables when you really need one-meter cables for the job, because gear got moved around in your rack. There are software programs that you can download to your PC to design your rack. If you are using AV furniture, you can estimate the distances, but if you are worried about connections, cut some string and double-check before you order. As they say in the construction world, “Measure twice – cut once.” This is good advice in the world of cables. It not only cuts down on clutter, it also saves money.
In order to hide the cables in the reference system, we were able to run speaker cable in conduit under the floor during construction. Speaker cables and balanced interconnects were pulled through preinstalled PVC pipe that allowed for easy installation of the cables from the rack location to spots on the floor where speakers were to go. This is an affordable way to neatly get rid of cable clutter when you are building from scratch or remodeling a room. Other solutions tend to include punching holes in walls, which isn’t the end of the world in terms of cost, but can get messy. Conduit also allows an easier path to upgrade cables if you are so inclined. Expensive speaker cables covered in drywall dust aren’t exactly the easiest to get top dollar for on the used market if you are ever thinking of selling them.
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