Now the power cords, RCAs, XLRs, and speaker cables behind my equipment rack have been messed up.
From a scientific point of view, how should we organize the wire to improve the sound quality or signal-to-noise ratio?
To keep interference down you’d like cables to cross each other at right angles. If they run in parallel, they shouldn’t be bundled together. If there are a lot of them a mess is probably better than anything neat. I’d try to keep power and digital cables away from analog or at right angles if they have to cross each other. Power cords in parallel probably isn’t a problem. Digital in parallel could cause a little crosstalk, but this is very subtle if it’s a problem at all.
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That’s interesting Ted. The standard thing in Custom Install situations - albeit not the same as if you can put them wherever you want - was always to bundle the AC cables down one side of the rack, and signal down the other. If you had to cross AC with another type, right angles, as you noted. I think the bundling was more about visual neatness than anything else. Most CI customers turned out not to be audiophiles, to my chagrin ; )
My cabinet is a first class mess. I’ve tried to string an orderly cable setup several times, but it never stays “clean.” Seems to work fine when my collection of cables looks more like a spaghetti salad.
That’s cool. Thanks Ted.
I think it is also recommended to avoid winding the cables around themselves if you haver too long runs.
It’s fairly well known phenomenon that, unless fully restrained, cables will tie themselves in knots while you’re sleeping : )
Add to that a penchant for “trying stuff out” (audiophilia nervosa/scientific curiosity), and that problem gets multipled tenfold.
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