Means Of Hiding Speaker Wires

[Furbie]

Dear All, I am looking for a good way to hide speaker wires as I run them across my ceiling and up and down walls. In the US I had some real nice wood molding the wires ran behind, but no such luck here.

My walls are cement so I can't run behind them and my floor is tile so I can’t run under them. I was thinking some tubing or something. Any ideas and suggestions where to buy?

[dmax]

i use conduit around the corners of room

[astral]

What kind of ceiling do you have?

Is there a space there where you run the cable?

[richm7]

That's why the speaker ads always "forget" the cable, 'cos it looks ugly! I know you can buy white square section conduit in Home Pro. It is a U section with a clip on cover (turning it into the square section). Can't remember if it is screw or stick to the wall. Won't look too bad on the wall but not so hot on your tile. I'd suggest keeping Speaker to wall runs as short as possible and just let them be exposed. If you've got a wooden baseboard you could pull it and run the wires behind it; even if it's tile and you feel ambitious you could do the same. Doesn't matter where you are the bloody wires are almost always an eyesore to a certain extent, even in the US. Mine don't look too pretty in either location!

[astral]

I know you can buy white square section conduit in Home Pro. It is a U section with a clip on cover (turning it into the square section). Can't remember if it is screw or stick to the wall.

That is what I use.

It comes in stick and screw versions.

I use the stick, but it does pull away if stressed.

I know my electrician prefers the screw version.

[Furbie]

I know you can buy white square section conduit in Home Pro. It is a U section with a clip on cover (turning it into the square section). Can't remember if it is screw or stick to the wall.

That is what I use.

It comes in stick and screw versions.

I use the stick, but it does pull away if stressed.

I know my electrician prefers the screw version.

I did not know Home Pro sold it - I will look for it; seems like my only solution. Thanks all.

[Furbie]

What kind of ceiling do you have?

Is there a space there where you run the cable?

I basically live in a big cement box, which has been divided into rooms. There is nowhere at all to hide the wires - ceiling, floor and walls - all would require construction.

[regedit]

Run cables behind skirting board. It's easy to remove, have channels grooved into the back of the board to carry the cables, and refit. Only challenge is if the cable run has to cross a door. Next time you redecorate, put some pvc conduit pipe into the wall to cover the run from the skirting board up to your speakers.

[ignis]

Myself 6 years ago used wide masking tape over the top of the wire and then painted them the same colour as the wall...

I have speakers in the main living room and in the master bedroom, the wires are still stuck fine and hidden the bedroom I repainted last year, downstaires repaint every year,

As a matter of interest I used the same wide masking tape on the back and side walls in the garden for the outside lights, [over 30m of lighting cable] painted the same colour as the wall, 6 years on still fine and cannot see where they are.

[clokwise]

I just completed refurbishing my living room and took advantage of the mess to build a double wall right socket behind the receiver, and ran the wires up through a channel I dug in the wall, across over the ceiling panels and then one wire back though another channel down each side of the room where they each connect to a single wall socket. I then cemented over the channels and painted - good as new. These are the satellite speakers in my surround system, the 3.1 front speakers are near enough to the receiver that I wasn't concerned about those wires.

The sockets were improvised using a standard cable TV connector. I made a short length wire on each speaker with a cable tv jack soldered on one end, and made a couple similar connectors at the receiver end. Now the speakers and receiver are able to be easily disconnected and moved for cleaning, and there's no wires visible anywhere as they're all in the wall. In hindsight, the cable tv jacks and plugs are not easy to connect with high end speaker wire so it took a bit of fiddling - it would have been much easier to use something like a standard 2-prong electricity wall socket, although the downside is that it could easily be mistaken for an electricity wall socket(!), although probably no harm would be done if that happened.

[Benjie]

Or you could simply use a speaker wall plate.

[MickeyM]

If you prefer wood molding, go to Bang Po - Thanon Pratch Rat Sai 1 / Soi 24; many shops and they have every type of wood molding imaginable.

[Saraquin]

Hi

Hiding cable when everything is concrete and plaster sucks!

A few options are wireless speaker links no idea on price but im thinking expensive, also you can get very flat speaker cable that is a lot easier to hide with tape or just paint like how the power wires are commonly done. In regard to the trunking/conduit/top-hat (crazy amount of names for it) there are low profile options of that available that dont look too bad but the adhesive glue versions never hold so screw em in.

Cheers

Edited May 15, 2010 by Saraquin

[jcon]

I'm interested in this topic as well. I'm doing a refurbishment and I've chosen to go with the concrete/loft style of apartment so I have nowhere to hide any speaker cables/wires, so am in the same position as the OP.

The only thing I can think of is using stainless steel (square-shaped) running along the same lines which I will use to cover up the lighting wires (I haven't figured out which to use here, also). In that way, I guess I can keep with the stainless/concrete theme. But that's a lot of stainless... and I wonder if it would be too much. I don't have the high ceilings like in loft-style/"unfinished" restaurants, but the idea is similar.

I've thought of a smaller version of "air-ducts" (you know in restaurants, etc), but I think that might come out looking kind of garish. Electrician suggested plastic pvc (I guess he doesn't get my 'concept' ) and though he said he could 'paint it stainless' I just don't think I could accept looking at it everyday.

Also, regarding speaker cables/wires/etc., where can I find stuff like this (stores not currently in the 'burn zone'):

("gold-plated" subwoofer connector pictures, I'll need more than one, and also cable of the quality pictured, "Monstervideo"-line from "Monster Cable" (err... I guess I need to mention I want the real stuff - Everything pictured I carried in myself from the USA))

Didn't want to hijack the thread, but also didn't want to start a new thread because this one seemed to fit nicely.