Crossed wires - call for photos

Posted by: Jez Quigley on 03 February 2002

In another thread Steven Toy says:

quote:
ensure that no wire touches either another wire, or the rack, and speaker cables should not touch the walls.

Many others have mentioned the importance of cable dressing, but it is completely beyond me as to how the snaics, interconnects, nac5, and power leads can be connected between all the boxes and to the mains without, at best, looking like a 1950's telephone exchange.

I'd love to see some (clear and reasonably sized) photos of the back of your racks to see how it's done.

Posted on: 03 February 2002 by Mike Sae
1
Posted on: 03 February 2002 by Mike Sae
2
Posted on: 03 February 2002 by Mike Sae
3

Power cords stuffed under the rack in an orderly fashion.

1 Snaic is crossing and touching the wall, so sue me.

Posted on: 03 February 2002 by Top Cat
...where your sockets lie, and also where the interconnect connections/IEC's lie in relation to the position each component has on its rack.

I had the luxury of fitting a floor-mounted dedicated 2-way unswitched socket (off a 30A spur) into which the preamp and an 8-way powerblock are connected; the powerblock is located off to the right of the rack, and I tried to route all interconnects to the left, so that they are as far from each other as possible. Even within this 'organised approach', things like the turntable (with its motor to the left and arm lead outputs to the right) necessitate a small degree of crossing-over, although I still try to make sure that they are as far apart from each other as possible.

The gap behind the rack is important also; a bigger gap gives more scope, but looks less tidy.

I route my speaker cables through a circular hole 2" to the left of the floor-mounted sockets - the monoblocks sit directly above this point and so the minimum amount of speaker cable is exposed (and therefore influenced) by RFI and other nasties.

TC '..'
"Girl, you thought he was a man, but he was a Muffin..."

Posted on: 03 February 2002 by Steve G
quote:
Originally posted by Top Cat:

Even within this 'organised approach', things like the turntable (with its motor to the left and arm lead outputs to the right) necessitate a small degree of crossing-over, although I still try to make sure that they are as far apart from each other as possible.

Of course even this organised approach might not stop you connecting your interconnects the wrong way.... big grin

By the way I've set the flat-tops up properly now and they do seem to be effective. The biggest surprise is that my valve amp sounds a good bit better with rock music than it was without them in.

Regards
Steve

Posted on: 03 February 2002 by Top Cat
But then listening to the left channel through the right speaker and the right channel through the left is... interesting!

Actually, you're right, I hadn't really noticed, but then as I'd only just done it the day before I think that I get off the hook with it. In any case, when my newly re-terminated interconnects arrive, I'll make sure that R->R and L->L. Do I gain any FEPs for not noticing my stereo channels were reversed?

TC '..'
"Girl, you thought he was a man, but he was a Muffin..."

Posted on: 04 February 2002 by Steve G
quote:
Originally posted by Top Cat:
Do I gain any FEPs for not noticing my stereo channels were reversed?

And how many do I lose for noticing?

Regards
Steve

Posted on: 04 February 2002 by Top Cat
I still haven't changed them round - I'll wait until the RCA->DIN SPM arrives, then I'll do it. Meantime, Steve, buy a Herald today - there's an article about my latest venture if you're interested (although I'm not mentioned by name). We also made the SoS yesterday...

From small acorns....

TC '..'
"Girl, you thought he was a man, but he was a Muffin..."