Advice, please - we’ve just redecorated the lounge which entailed disconnecting 8 boxes plus TT & am now reinstalling the system as suffering from withdrawal symptoms.
But advice, please - my long suffering partner hates the 10metres of black Naim NAC cable even more in her shiny new room, so am considering trying to camouflage it with some of the new wall matt paint. Has anybody else experienced this?
Any snags? Comments, please…..might improve our relationship……
If you have skirting and it’s white or cream then white NACA5 can be formed to hug the wall very closely to the point where it almost disappears visually. Failing that, if no skirting then consider some hollow conduit skirting to completely hide cable?
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Small size truncking attached just above the skirting boards work for me
Truncking has adeshive tape along its length at the back and the ‘front’ clips on and off easily
I drilled holes in the floor and run the NacA5 under the floor,no vibrations from the floor into the cables 
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What about white Kudos ks-1. A lot like it on here. Not sure if it plays well with 135s, but at 10M i’m sure its characteristics could be suitable. Thinner and more flexible. Cheap if you know where to look too.
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Very neat!
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There are two general approaches to speaker cables:
- 100% invisible/disguised
- Artfully out in the open
It sounds counterintuitive, but a contrasting cable (white on dark floor or black on light floor) that has no tangles on kinks gracefully curving or snaking over to a speaker can be more tasteful than a failed attempt at hiding.
I’ve done both in the current house with one system using in-wall trunking and absolutely zero visible cabling, and others with an obvious black speaker cable well away from the wall meandering deliberately to each speaker.
I’m not a fan of on wall trunking, preferring in wall. But if you have thick underlay and wall to wall carpet, I’ve had flawless success running A4 in channel cut out of the underlay next to the tacking with a slot in the carpet for it to pop up through. Once the carpet is back down it’s invisible.
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Change to white A5 ? Expensive though at 10m a side.
Thanks for helpful suggestions - wall ducting would work for start of run, but 1970s fake fireplace has no skirting & lots of right angles & NAC doesn’t like these & fixed 5metre lengths means black cable snakes across the carpet at full stretch & cable budget replacement gone on room repairs & decoration, so was tempted to paint freelying section around fireplace with wall paint so black was less obvious? Looking at attached photo, cable leaves wall skirting on left and turns right towards speakers.
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In my view attempting to disguise or hide cable, unless it’s done exceptionally well, will often simply make it look worse and even more messy. I certainly wouldn’t paint your NACA5. In your situation I think you just have to accept that you are going to see the cable no matter what. Neatness is the key here to making it look domestically acceptable. If I were you I would place the cable as neatly as you can along the skirting and then around the fireplace. You can form the cable around corners using a hair dryer to soften it. Also consider using some sort of self-adhesive cable clips to hold it neatly in place. In my view this will look better in the end than trying to hide or disguise it which just won’t be effective.
Also I would place the TV directly on the wooden shelf (or possibly a wall bracket) and postion the Blu ray player, TV box or whatever on the shelf to the left of it (or under it if on the wall). In my view the Ikea table or whatever it is looks most odd like that and positioning it all directly on the shelves will look very good. But it’s your home not mine so just ignore me if you don’t agree!
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Totally agree.
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We are lucky to have a separate music room third smaller bedroom in our bungalow where the containment or domestic acceptance is not an issue
Yes NAC5 is intrusive and the trunking sounds like a good idea but. It’s one hell of a cable.
Next in the agenda is weekly monitoring of the high line to ensue the loop does not drop to touch anything!
Hi 70s Pete - you’re right about the table - no offence taken - it was put there “temporarily” as a quick aid to trying to check the correct height for the then new TV before committing it to a permanent fixing.
That was over five years ago, and we’ve never got round to a permanent solution & it hides the jumble of cables behind. Interestingly, SWMBO is now used to it & only complains about the black speaker cables - suppose it could be argued that the table tones in nicely with the NAC5?
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Why not under floorboards?, really easy and quick to do with some cheap electrical rods and indeed easily pulled back out if the need arises
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If you have floorboards, run them under them.
It looks like you might have windows on the wall to the left and behind the right speaker. Could you drill through the wall and run the cable externally?
A number of Naim owners run their cable externally, although it really needs to run through conduit to prevent sun damage from it being exposed.
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Thanks to all for suggestions - as usual your experience invaluable. Have now held a high level meeting to discuss these options with SWMBO and think a combination of skirting conduit followed by finding a friendly carpet fitter to cut channels in the carpet underlay up to the speakers will be authorised. Thanks again!
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Buy white Kudos KS-1 and get invisible cables and an upgrade in SQ too.
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That just cracked me up
Atb
Kk
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Just installed KS-1 instead of NACA5. I have to say that whilst it is certainly easier to route round, it is harder to get a neat cosmetic result. The NACA5 just sat rigid alongside the rigid skirting board and effectively disappeared. The KS-1, being thinner and more flexible, doesn’t sit as straight and is hence more visually apparent…….