Do you care what your studio or listening environment looks like? Are you fed up with speaker cables trailing everywhere? If your answers to these questions are yes, then a new product called 2d Cable could be the crucial new novelty for you. 2d Cable is a perfectly flat, sturdy and flexible speaker cable, with a self-adhesive backing. It's made from high purity, heavy gauge copper cable; each conductor comprises a single continuous copper ribbon, eliminating the rogue semi-conductor effects that beset multistrand cable. The casing effectively prevents surface oxidisation and the backing will stick to any non-oily surface that's free of loose dirt. It can be painted or Artexed over to no detriment, and speaker systems up to 900W per channel into 8 ohms can be handled.
So what does flat cable offer you?
For a start, when finishing off your studio, the cable can be fixed underneath any surface — wallpaper, Artex, paint, panelling, acoustic tiles — for almost complete invisibility. If you need extension speakers in your main or other rooms, the 2d Cable must be one of the least unsightly methods of achieving a result. It stands to reason that this goes for domestic uses as well: simply plan where you want the speakers to go, stick the cable to the bare walls, and cover like crazy. If by chance you don't know exactly where your speakers are going, simply place it all around your room, apply the covering and cut a small patch through to the cable when you've made up your mind. If the cable is behind something a little less thin than wallpaper or paint, then a little more forethought will be necessary to maintain this accessibility.
2d cable is one of those lateral products that creates solutions for problems you never realised you had. I can't fault it, apart from the care that needs to be taken when joining sections at angles, but that's the answer: be careful. It's not greatly expensive, it's easy to use and offers good sonic performance — if you've been waiting for an excuse to redecorate your control room, your studio, or even your hi-fi lounge, this could be it.
Further Information 2d speaker cable 90p per foot; £448 per 500-foot roll. Prices include VAT.
Publisher: Recording Musician - SOS Publications Ltd. The contents of this magazine are re-published here with the kind permission of SOS Publications Ltd.
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