When we buy great electronics, we often appreciate their slick appearance. However, disorganised cables can make our set-ups a bit of an eyesore, no matter how nice the equipment looks. Cleaning up cabling will not only improve the presentation of the system, but can also be an easy way to improve sound quality. Here are some simple things you can do to clean up those messy cables.

Get rid of unused or redundant cables. Not only will this make cable management easier, but if there is noise going through the cable, it might be affecting your sound quality.

In an ideal world, we would also separate power cords and audio/video cables. The is because power cables, if ran straight from the wall and combined with audio or video cables in the same conduit or sock, can often induce noise or hum. Separating these can lower the noise floor of the system by removing interference, bringing about more detail and focus to the sound. There are, of course, better-quality audio, video, and power cables with superior shielding to aid in this and we also suggest investing in power conditioning as this will further help with reducing noise/hum in your system.

Tivoli Hi-Fi recommends power products from PS Audio and IsoTek. We also recommend audio and video cables from Transparent and AudioQuest.

Cable socks: IT stores or Jaycar

Cable socks are great if you must run several cables in view. You can get the open kind which you wrap around the cables, or you can get the closed kind which you feed the cables through. They come in different colours, white and black being the most popular.

Cable ties and Velcro: Bunnings 

You can use these to tie a group of cables together or, if you have excess cable, you can lasso them and then hide the bundle.

Non-marking adhesive hooks: Officeworks 

You can use these if you want to get cables off the ground or running along skirting. There are many different versions that can hold different sizes of cables.