Copper tape for speakers....

[Garth Man]

Hello

I have moved house recently, and having bit of a dilema

Basically i will be putting my speakers on the wall in all four points, and my girlfirnd does not want speaker cable to be seen on the wall and chased around the scurting boards.

My mate at work sugested using Copper Tape

The speaker cable can be soldered onto the copper tape in 2 strips one from the tape then connect the speaker cable as normal to teh speaker, then you run the copper tape to the amp and solder 2 more bits of speaker cable onto the tape and connect the other end as normal to the amp

Is this right?? wouldn't the quality suffer?

 

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Garth Man:My mate at work sugested using Copper Tape

My uncle used to have this stuff for his speakers 30 years ago. Didn't know they still made it for speakers... I assume you would be going to paper / paint over the tape...

I'm not convinced that copper tape would have sufficient cross section to carry the load to the speakers, may be subject to too much interference and may really ruin the sound from the speakers

Why not use QED ultra-flat ? It's probably OK for micro / style speakers and rear surrounds, but I'd recommend full fat for front speakers of any reasonable size.

What speakers are we talking of (size / wattage)?

 

[colin563]

what about this stuff

http://www.ixos.co.uk/en/ixos-products-detail.asp?PROID=264&Category=5&SubCat=13

 

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Thanks colin, couldn't remember who did the self-adhesive / paintable flat cables

I looked at using flat cables myself a few years ago and couldn't find my notes...

 

[Garth Man]

actually they are both good ideas thanks a bunch

just sucks no one has mastered the wirless speaker package

 

[professorhat]

Trouble is, until they invent wireless power, it's not going to happen. Unless the speakers are battery powered. Which would probably be even more of a pain in the backside than hiding wires...

 

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Garth Man: just sucks no one has mastered the wirless speaker package

Trouble is, until you get wireless power, you don't really have "wireless" speakers, you just have speakers with not speaker cables, but now with really large power cables. Though, to be fair, does reduce the amount of cabling and there are some OK wireless packages that are good for surround speakers.

 

[professorhat]

jinx...

 

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@professorhat: jinx

 

[chudleighpaul]

This is the solution I used when I moved, there is a fair bit of work involved but the effect is very neat.

I removed the skirting boards and ran the cables behind them, then I chased the cables into the wall terminating in shallow metal boxes. I made connectors by using blank plates which I drilled to accomodate speaker connectors from Maplin.

I appreciate it is a lot of work. but you can use decent quality speaker cable and once the walls are redecorated the cables are completely invisible. The end result is well worth the effort.

Hope her indoors will put up with the DIY project!