NACA5 dressing

Hi Lars

Personally I use cable tie wraps to control my cable. If you search the forum there are pictures of good examples.

DWO

Lars,

Restraining cables in any way is generally frowned on, as it can harm sound quality. However, practicality sometimes requires that we do just that, especially with lengthy speaker cables in our living spaces. If you search the forum, you’ll find photos of speaker cable folded up in the approved inductance-avoiding “firecracker” pattern. But no speaker cable will stay this way without assistance. What I do is I first tie the cables together at the contact points with electrical ties, until I’ve got the coils exactly as I want them. Then, I cut each tie and wrap both sides of the cable at that location in some bubble wrap, sufficient to put a ~10mm. gap between them. I then apply another electrical tie, more loosely than the first one, to hold it all together. In this way, I get the layout I want with minimal restraint on the cable.

Colm

The extra length from the LH speaker (nearest my rig) is gently 3-fold fire-crackered and held in place at one end by the back of the LP shelving unit. No strings attached!

Try putting them on some large egg box layers. Easy to shape within the cups and elevated off from the floor.

Hi Lars 

I was going to post the very same question. Not wanting to hijack your thread but I have, this week set up my system in a new room. I have 7.5m but only really need half this length. I have had to tightly cable tie the naca5 in firecracker arrangement with one length resting on top of the other under the bottom shelf of my rack. The high frequencies are now very strident. I suspect this may have something to do with room acoustics and need to experiment with speaker placement,  however I do wonder if the cable dressing could be an issue. Is there a compromise between cable length and practical cable management I wonder 

Regards 

Stuart 

Many thanks all! Sounds like I will have a go at it with the electrical ties. How hard can the cable be bent, ie any donts when doing the firecracker?

Heat it up with a hairdryer and bend it as tightly as you can. I've never bothered with electrical ties and have always used a length of string. 

If you bend the cable tightly, that's likely to cause additional stress, even using the hairdryer trick. I'd suggest keeping the bends as broad and rounded as possible, within the constraints of the available space.

Well, I've done it for thirty years and never had a problem. A good blast from the hairdryer, a jolly good squeeze, hold it with your knee and tie it up. Stuff it behind the rack and you'll never see it. 

Hungryhalibut posted:

Well, I've done it for thirty years and never had a problem. A good blast from the hairdryer, a jolly good squeeze, hold it with your knee and tie it up. Stuff it behind the rack and you'll never see it. 

Taken out of context this would have a whole new interpretation! I was told to massage a short length  between my fingers, Yuri Geller style, at the socket to create a 90 degree angle to avoid snagging on the Fraim. Worked a treat!

BTW HH can I ask how you conceal your speaker cable around the fire place? 

Regards

Stuart 

Hungryhalibut posted:

Well, I've done it for thirty years and never had a problem. A good blast from the hairdryer, a jolly good squeeze, hold it with your knee and tie it up. Stuff it behind the rack and you'll never see it. 

I don't doubt that that works very well, and I'm sure it's neat, compact, and stable. But given the widely held view that stresses on cables should be minimised, my inclination would still be to keep the loops as broad as possible, subject to the constraints of your listening space.

I have my Naca5 arranged in the firecracker arrangement on each side of my Fraim,but it is laying directly on the carpet,should I be concerned about this and try to raise it off the floor...according to what Tobyjug said about using egg cartons to get it off the floor?

I don't think carpet is so much of a problem as it dampens resonances. Naked sprung floorboards might be more  of an issue.

Thanks all! I always get impressed by the quality of input one gets here