Neil Smalley

How do you hide yours?

I'm looking at buying one of these

Neil Smalley

DOH, realised should've posted in non scooby. General Moderators please move.

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Neil,

The way my friend hid all his speaker wires, was to get a router, route channels in his concrete floor (flat) and then lay laminate flooring on top of it!

He then made channels in the wall, leading to proper sockets!

New skirting boards can help hide wires! Also lifting up carpet edges!

To keep cabling tidy behind the amps, etc, get hold of some velcro straps that stick back on themselves. (Available from PC World, or from a Compaq Rackmounting kit!! )

The only problem is that you need to be handy with power tools, plastering and DIY! - Not a route I can take!!!

Hope this gives you some more ideas!
Andy

cpofwales

You can also by flat cables for under carpets and the like. Best go buy yourself a copy of home cinema choice for ideas and dealer numbers to sort you out.

Robertio

iTrader: (1)

I lifted the carpet, cut a channel through the underlay, and put the cables in there. Works fine if only 1 or 2 cables, but the collection going to the TV are too thick, and I have a ridge in the carpet, doh!

Planning on putting 2 layers of underlay down when I change the carpet (hopefully will do the job), could cut a channel in the floorboards, but not too keen on that idea, and I don't have a wall between the electrical stuff and the TV

Shark

Lots of cable ties help to keep the wires neat at the backs of the units. Don't go paying 10p each for them tho, you can get bags of 100 for less than £3.

David

carl

Alternatively you can get a bit of hardboard or the suchlike, wallpaper it the same as the rest of your house, and attach it to the back of the stand. Then poke holes in it behind each component for the cables. If you do it right no-one will notice.

logiclee

Neil,

I have a rack very similar to that one, if your just asking about the wiring behind the rack, you will not be able to run them down the inside of the legs.
I used some industrial electrical panel trunking and fed the cables at each level into this to keep them all neat. Looks OK when viewing from the front.

Pic poor quality but you may be able to see what I mean.


Cheers
Lee

igratton

Heres what you do....



replace your entire floor with solid russian pine....run nice wires behind the new skirting board and route up the plasterboard...spend the next 5 weeks hovering up dust....hey presto

KEF KHT2005 satalites and sub
YAMAHA RX-8000 DTS amp
cold lager
bliss...

good luck dude

Ian

Hex

I used to work for QED Audio and the soundstyle stuff is vey good - we used it loads at hi-fi shows etc

Suggest you look at QED (www.qed.co.uk) Profile cables (I have silver 12 wired into my system) flat cables but with great sound - laid under the carpet.

Neil

igratton

Hex...

we are running QED Stuff on the system above and on the stereo in the other room....

its good stuff...


darn sight cheaper than vanden hall (£35 a meter....yikes)

Ian

logiclee

Yep,

QED on mine too. Silver Anniversary on the front speakers, Silver 12 flat on the rears and qunex interconnects for Video feeds and digital coaxial feeds. Use a bit of a mixture for the rest.

Used Sterling cables gold from

Hex

quick tip - dont spend loads on snazzy looking interconnects - we did some blind listening testing at QED and found they made little difference - instead spend it on decent speaker cable

logiclee

Now he tells me. LOL

Cheers Hex, thanks for the tip.

QED's range of interconnects not too expensive.

Lee

kryten

Buy a brand new house and put them all in before they've finished the interior.

Done this twice now

Andy Winskill

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by igratton:
<B>Heres what you do....



replace your entire floor with solid russian pine....run nice wires behind the new skirting board and route up the plasterboard...spend the next 5 weeks hovering up dust....hey presto

KEF KHT2005 satalites and sub
YAMAHA RX-8000 DTS amp
cold lager
bliss...

good luck dude

Ian[/quote]

Damn... almost the exact setup I've got (apart from I've got an RX-10000 amp )

Now how can I delete your image before the wife sees it I've just got her to accept that it's inevitable that the cable needs to run up to the satellites

Do you get any weird bass reinforcement with having the kit in the corner?

igratton

Nah,

system was run in the other lounge...

flour doesn't cause to much problems....its solid and well insulated so the down-firing KEF sub sounds fine.

I run Vanden Hull connectors to the amp (110 quid for a 60cm digital out/in is taking the ****) and SQART 0.000004% (or whatever) oxygen free scarts from the DVD, Video, Cable and TV...I never realised cables could cost so much....I wanted to do it right this time and don't intend to change for quite some time.

I love it to bits.

Ian

babber

igratton,

A Pace DHT, must be NTL land ?

What series DHT ?

Cheers Phill C

igratton

Hi Andy,

I havent got any bass problems really...the Kef downfiring sub allows adjustment of phase/frequency and crossover.

The only problem I did have is I'd wired one of the speakers out of phase with the others (i.e. pos to neg and neg to pos).... what a total dumbass I am

How are you finding your KEFs ? I am really really pleased with them....I almost got the top of the range sony pascals to begin with the those and the KEFs are in totally different leagues.

just for reference the Vanden Hull digital in/out is linked to a Sony 725 DVD player...the still reckon its one of the best and sony stopped making it.

Ian

paulmon

I am quite lucky as I live in a fairly old house and have a crawl space under my floor.

The rooms downstairs dont have any carpets and so setting up a AV system becomes a ball ache. Routing the cables down skirting boards/in the walls is a reasonable way to do it but prevents you moving the system round the room at a later date.

So I just run all the speaker cables under the floor and then come out in the corners through holes that I have drilled. This allows me to move the system round the room when the Wife gets bored and decides she wants to move the sofa etc..

It all looks very neat and keeps the other half happy.

Regards
Paul

ozzy

Ian Gratton / Andy Winskill,

What do you guys think of your Philips widescreen TV's?

I spent last weekend looking at new one's in the likes of Comet/Curry's/etc. IMHO the Philips picture quality look awesome, even better than the Sony equivalents.

What's the exact model of the one you have?

Stefan

igratton

ozzy,

mine isn't philips...

its a sony KV32FQ75(S) 100hz. Its bog std. nicam because I didn't need a Dolby/DTS Processor as thats all done by the fantastic Yamaha amp.

find out more here...

Andy Winskill

igratton -

The Kef's are awesome. I almost went for a Mission setup but the wife wanted "small" speakers....

I'm struggling a bit with the placement of the rears as the sofa's up against the back wall and the Yamaha's a bitch to get the delay's right.

I'm currently using my PS2 for DVD source while I make my mind up whether to go for a SACD DVD player or get the Marantaz. I hear that Yamaha are bringing out a £400-500 DVD too so I'm waiting.

I've not tried fiddling with the x-over or the phase settings yet on the Kefs until the stand(s) turn up then it'll be settle down with a four pack for a major session.

MTV has never sounded so good

Band of Brothers was awesome...

Hannibal was sick I'll never listen to a frying pan the same ever again....

Have you tried your Kef centre under the TV? My sound stage seems a little high

Andy Winskill

Ozzy,

I've got an old 28" Sony 4x3. It's got 16:9 widescreen support so cable and DVD's are fine.

I've got my eye on a Plasma screen in a couple of years. When I'm having a major film session I can always dig out my XGA widescreen projector

ozzy

Ian,

I stand corrected. It's just that the silver units remind me of the Philips and my failing eyesight's not helping

Is it a WEGA thingy then? I think my net connections playing up as the URL you gave me is timing out (as well as some others I might add).

Stefan

logiclee

Andy,

Don't rule out rear projection sets if you have the room, the smaller Toshiba and Sony sets are good value and a stunning picture.

I have had th 41" Sony (in above post) for around 3 years and its been first class. Have been looking to change recently 42" plasma too small, 50" plasma too expensive. I'm currently trying to choose between swapping the Sony 41" for a 56" widescreen Toshiba (requires taking out the lounge window) or keeping the Sony and buying the Toshiba MT1 front projector and screen, both will cost around the same.

Also please add me to the dts fan club.



Lee

[This message has been edited by logiclee (edited 09 October 2001).]

igratton

Andy,

glad you like your KEFs...

I wasn't knocking the Sony Pascals in the above post...they are fantastic speakers. For an extra £50 notes the KEFs are just massively different.

I was orignally getting a Sony 1040 6.1 Amp. I found the Yamaha again loads better. I couldn't justify A2 Yamaha (£1000+ for the top notch Yams - yikes). I did also listen to a Rotel high-end amp but I couldn't justify spending more than 1500 for the speakers, amp and stuff

(its shocking enough when you come out with a 300quid bill for speaker wire and Scart leads)

Superfi helped me to set up the delays and stuff for the rears. They also recommended -10db for the centre and rears too.

My sons friend is a musician and help to tune the frequency of the base.

This lounge is strange...its approx 19ft by 15ft...so the system works diagonally across the room...but all seems ok.

Ozzy, the Sony site seems fine...maybe its your I-net connection.

Oh, and yes, its a Pace NTL box...I can't get the Yamaha remote to recognize it...and the dogs chewed the proper remote (little bugger) and it works a little intermitently. Where can a get a new one ?

I can't believe this hasn't been moved non-scooby related.

I think the reason why is that Simon De Banke is a big fan of sound equipment and probably watching with interest (hello si m8 )


regards

Ian.

[This message has been edited by igratton (edited 09 October 2001).]

Andy Winskill

And here's me just about to ask you about the learning remote too.....

Shame it's the only remote I've got to keep now. Has your remote got the macro facility too? Its pretty neat switching on all the kit at the right volume from a single press (well apart from the crappy NTL box...).

The only shame is that I've only got Gladiator which is DTS-EX encoded.... and that I need to find a powered rear centre...

Oh BTW you can pick up a RX-1000 amp for less than £400 (6ch input ready, DTS-EX, 6.1 matrix )

God knows what the replacement is going to do...

ozzy

Ian,

Sony site is fine now. A reboot sorted it out, but that's broadband for you.

Stefan

igratton

Not played with the macro stuff yet.

The manual for the amp had all the correct codes for the TV, DVD, Video.

The book even has codes for various satelite/cable decoders...including pace stuff which NTL uses....and it don't work.

Haven't played with the Macro stuff yet...sounds like fun...

My buddy has one of the Marantz touch screen remotes...he has done all sorts of home automation stuff with it. He can turn his garden lights on from the armchair LOL. (he also has the lights in the garden trigger a video to start recording from a hidden location - just incase it ain't the window cleaners if you know what I mean)


I payed 400 for my amp....reduced from 700 and I am well pleased...it does exactly what I want.
Ian