How to Hide Speaker Wire Using Sewell Ghost Wire
This tutorial demonstrates how to hide speaker wire using Sewell Ghost Wire, Super Flat Adhesive Speaker Wire and the Sewell Ghost Wire Terminal Block.
There are many situations where speaker wire needs to be run across a room. One of the most common reasons for running speaker wire is when installing surround speakers in a home theater setup.
The problem that most people face when making a run of speaker wire is finding the best path for the cable. One of the most common methods is running the speaker wire along the baseboards but this is not a very aesthetically pleasing option. Another method would be running the cable through the walls but this can be very difficult and in many situations it isn’t even possible.
In this article we will show you step by step how to hide speaker wires right on the wall using Sewell Ghost Wire. In this tutorial we will be using the Sewell Ghost Wire Terminal Block, Sewell Deadbolt Banana Plugs and Sewell Speaker Wire. The only other things you will need are some scissors, a rag, some paint that matches your walls or base boards (optional), and about hour.
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First things first, we started with a roll of the Sewell Ghost Wire. The product is available in 50 and 100ft. lengths and comes in two conductors and four conductors. Before ordering measure your room and decide how many feet of the cable you will need. For this demonstration we used a 100 ft. spool of the two conductor 16 gauge wire.
Peel back the adhesive and white back layers of the cable exposing the raw conductors. Pull the layers back so you have a 1 inch segment of bare cable. Separating these layers can be a little difficult but they will come apart.
Using scissors cut the excess adhesive and white back cover leaving you with 1 inch of bare cable exposed.
At this point you 0will have two 1 inch bare conductors which should look something this image.
Now fold each conductor in half. For the best connection fold the conductors towards the adhesive layer. Fold both conductors in half again leaving you with ¼ inches of bare wire exposed.
The next step is terminating the wire using the Ghost Wire terminal block. The block is designed to fit conductors perfectly providing a secure connection for the speaker wire.
To terminate simply insert the two ¼ inch conductors into the terminal block and tighten the four screws firmly into place. The terminal block is now securely fixed to the end of the Ghost Wire.
This step can be done now or at the end of the process. If you are planning on painting over the cable this should be done when painting is complete.
Measure the length of cable you will need to get from the terminal block to your speakers or receiver. Then cut a piece of basic speaker wire to the desired length. Strip the jacket of the speaker wire back ¼ inch.
Now insert the ¼ inch bare conductors into the two holes on the ghost wire terminal block and tighten them securely into place.
Wipe down the area where you intend to run the wire with a damp cloth. This will provide a clean contact surface for the cable and ensures that is will stick securely to the surface. Either dry off the area or wait until it’s dry before installing the cable.
Ghost wire can be run on the wall, baseboards, or even the floor. For this demonstration we will be putting it on the baseboards.
An important thing to remember when installing is that you will need to keep the cable level so that it will stay on the desired path. Start by sticking about six inches of the cable to the wall and make sure to keep it level.
The Ghost wire can be seamlessly run around either outward or inward facing corners.
Leaving the adhesive cover on the wire push about a five ft. segment of the cable against the wall. Hold the cable level with one hand at the far end and use the other hand to peel off the adhesive layer. Rub the newly adhered cable to the wall as you go locking it into place. Having to two people will help with this step but it can be done by one person if necessary.
Stop sticking the cable to the wall about one ft. from the end of your cable run. Leave the adhesive cover on this segment of cable and cut off the excess. Leaving this segment will give you some room to terminate this end of the cable. To terminate follow the same steps outlined above.
After the terminal block has be connected peel the remaining adhesive cover off and stick the cable to the wall. At this point you have an option of connecting some basic speaker wire to the terminal block to be run to your receiver or speakers.
Once again if you are planning on painting over the Ghost Wire you can complete this step when the painting is complete.
The Ghost Wire Terminal Block has a mounting hole that can be used to fasten the block securely to the wall, simply screw the block into place. Screwing the block into place is important so that the Ghost Wire does not get pulled from the wall if the segment of speaker wire connected to your receiver or speaker gets yanked or pulled.
As you can see the wire is now fairly indistinguishably run on the baseboards. For many people the cables are now hidden enough and they are done with installation.
We ran the cable on white baseboards so the white jacket of the Ghost wire matched nicely with the wall. In many situations the walls or baseboards are not white; this will make the cable more noticeable. In order to make the Ghost wire disappear completely we will need to paint over it.
We started the painting process by taping and covering the floor along the cable run.
The Sewell Ghost Wire can be painted over to make the cable even less noticeable on the wall. In this installation the baseboards were already white so painting wasn’t really necessary but we did it just to show the process. If you are installing the cable on any surface other than white paining should be done to hide the cable.
Make sure you have paint that matches your walls or baseboards then paint over the entire length of the cable run. For best results apply multiple coats of paint. If you want the make the cable completely disappear you can apply layer of spackling over the Ghost Wire then paint.
When the painting is complete the Ghost Wire will be almost invisible on the wall. Make sure you give the paint enough time to dry then clean up the tape and floor cover leaving you with a beautiful clean cable run.
Now that the Ghost Wire has been successfully installed we will connect the cable to our sources. Measure the distance from Ghost Wire Terminal Block to the desired source then cut a piece of basic speaker wire to the desired length. In this installation we connected a surround sound speaker to an audio receiver. Simply connect the speaker wire from the terminal block to the back of the speaker and receiver.
We then placed our receiver and speaker in front of the Ghost Wire Terminal Blocks making the cable run even less noticeable. The Ghost Wire looks great and is barely visible.
Installation is now complete!
In all we spent a little over an hour on this installation. The installation was much easier than pulling wires through the walls and much better looking then running the cables along the floorboards. The Sewell Ghost Speaker wire has 16 gauge bare copper conductors which will provide optimal audio quality for cable runs up to 50 ft.
The Sewell Ghost Wire is an innovative and effective method of running speaker wire. The product is simple to use and works exactly like it is suppose to.