Excess power cable length

jimbo1421

Hello,

I am rearranging my HT stand and would like to improve the cable management while I am at it. What is the best thing to with the excess length of power cable for all these components. There are six of them which is a lot electrons running around loose. Coiling them seems to be a mistake. A coil of wire with current running through it makes an electromagnet, right? My previous solution was to bundle the slack in each cable in a zig zag pattern like this: /\/\/\/\/\ and pull it together with zip ties. Then three of these cable bundles were each bundled with a velcro tie. Is this OK or is there a better way? I do the best I can to keep them away from signal wires, but it is not easy.

Jim

mantis

If your gear has removable power cords , you can get shorter ones from companies like Audioquest. Lets say it has absolutely no performance benefits at all(which I have found sonic benefits) , but it will greatly clean up your wiring AND not cause any interference issues with coiled cords.

If a piece of gear has a long attached power cord , what you wanna do is run it the longest distance to the power center as possible. Leave it loose and go past the power center then back. You can manage power cords all together parallel with no issues.

Keeping them away from signal cables is always a good idea. It's not practical in all situations but what I do is pick a side of the rack that most of the power cords are on and use that path for them. Then I route all signal cables on the other side.
I wouldn't sweat it to much as I have had to run both signal and power together many times and didn't notice any audio noise or degrade in performance. Over the years I have tested this thoery many times and as long as you have a well built high quality power cable , this becomes less of an issue. Some or most of the factory powercords do emit interference , I try to keep those cords as far away as possible. You need at least 6 inches away parallel to avoid issues.
Cable management is a art form I have perfected over the years.

decal

mantis wrote: »

Cable management is a art form I have perfected over the years.

You know the rules............

Speedskater

jimbo1421 wrote: »

Hello,
.............................
There are six of them which is a lot electrons running around loose. Coiling them seems to be a mistake. A coil of wire with current running through it makes an electromagnet, right?
...........................
Jim

A coil of wire does make an electromagnet. But in this case we have a cable with two wires. The current in one ire is going one direction while the current in the other wire is going in the opposite direction. So the two fields cancel each other out and no electromagnet.

jimbo1421

Thanks for your suggestions , Dan. They should be easy enough to implement.

Jim

jimbo1421

Speedskater wrote: »

A coil of wire does make an electromagnet. But in this case we have a cable with two wires. The current in one ire is going one direction while the current in the other wire is going in the opposite direction. So the two fields cancel each other out and no electromagnet.

OK, I get that. But do these opposite magnetic fields generate noise in signal wires or is the noise canceled out? Or partially cancelled out?

Jim

zingo

Whatever placement of the cord, that is not a coil, should work fine.

jimbo1421

zingo wrote: »

Whatever placement of the cord, that is not a coil, should work fine.

Hi Jake,

So is the zig zag bundle that I described above OK? It's like the way cords are often bundled new in the box.

Jim

zingo

I prefer zig-zag or out-and-back when I need to take up cable length.

headrott

Yep, zig-zag seems to work well to my ears and extra power cable length. The best is a shorter cable length of course, however. If that's not an option zingo's recommendation is the best.