Taperwire invisible speaker cable

Unsightly speaker cable got ya down? Fret no more, young home theater Jedi, for Taperwire can ease the pain. The paper-thin cable adheres to your walls much like sticky tape and can be painted right on over, rendering it completely invisible. No bulges under wallpaper or carpet, neither. How does it sound? That we can't tell you, but at $22.50 for a 16-foot roll, it's a cheap enough experiment.

[Chris @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

Stuff like this has been available for quite some time.

[Jeff @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

But this is about half as expensive as other offerings so it's not completely useless information.

[Robert @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

Sounds like a cool idea as long as the sound quality is acceptable, ideal for the rear speakers especially if you have to pass a doorway in the process or have wooden/laminate/tiled floors that you can't hide cables under. It's obviously not going to be comparable to using facy �100 gold plated OFC copper cable and all that stuff but if the quality is similar to standard speaker cable then that's good.

[Paul @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

does that say 18 gauge?

[Locarius @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

But I think the people who have �100 gold plated OFC copper cable want to brag about it anyway, so they would not want it to be hidden :p

[Matt @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

They do ethernet twisted pair as well... now that would be useful

[Carbsumer @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

I have these painted on my wall (couldn't run wire through the wall because of the structure of the wall). Sound is fine.

They're only invisible in the way that The Predator is invisible. You can definitely see it, but you might overlook it if you didn't know it was there. The biggest part of the problem is that it doesn't have the same texture as drywall, because the outside is completely smooth. This is obvious even after it's primed and painted (I put, I think, 4-5 coats of paint). Additionally, it's slightly raised, because it does have some thickness. It's also impossible to get it to lie completely flat against the wall, so the edge peels up in a couple of places. Taking corners requires you to fold it, which makes it pop off the wall even more.

It helps if you run it along the baseboards or the corner of the walls.

With that said, I still recommend using this type of wire, but you should be aware that it doesn't live up to the marketing hype.

[no3rdw @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

Thank you engadget! I never knew this existed, and now I'm getting some for my apartment. Should work great with my rear speakers.

[theSAWzall @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

An MAB rep told me that lower gloss paints don't show flaws in the wall as much as higher gloss paints. Maybe that would make it less obvious.

Or you could hide it behind wainscotting (a nice touch for a home theater).

[Graeme @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

Heh, you said 'wainscotting'

[Matt @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

Flat Speaker Wire? heh...you have got to be kidding me. Check out www.decorp.com if you all want some true speaker (4 to 5 times thinner than Taperwire). It is a bit more expensive but the product is worth the cost. They also have Flat Video Wires and are developing Flat Electrical.

[encosion @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

Speaker cables and placebo go hand in hand... Double blind test or keep yer yaps shut...

[64bProphet @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

I would pay some serious money for a networking cable like this sound cable. Wireless is only so nice with all these new devices that can be hooked into the internet it'd be nice to have something like this for the computer/ DVR/ XBox. Does anyone know if something like this exsists for phone wire as well? I have some uber-thin phone cord, but no adhesive along with it. Any thoughts?

[Jared @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

I saw this on one of those "what's new in tech" tv shows and they covered it with wallboard joint compound, making it completely hidden.

[David Gilman @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

As long as it sounds good?

Put the crack pipe down and learn something about how electricity works.

Seriously, as gadget experts, you guys should know the difference between, say, marketing hype, and, oh, I don't know, science.

[Andrew @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

If you cover it with joint compound and feather out the edges, then prime and paint, it will be completely invisible

[ninjabong @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

If you're gonna go through all the trouble of slapping on drywall compound and then tapering it off so it looks smooth, and then painting to finish off the hidden effect.... why wouldn't you just use a real quality cable in the first place???

[jazzay @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

oh dont tell me good speaker wire doesnt sound better than stock speaker, i dont have a clue how speaker wire/electricity, but i do know that the 20gauge speaker wire that a ran 20feet to my 150 watt loudspeakers werent doing the sound any justice, they sounded so much better with some THX-certified 16gauge (i dunno how much better the Monster cable THX gabber makes it better than say lamp cord or something, but it was 75% off, so i didnt care :)

[Jeremy Dunck @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

#7 Home Depot sells drywall texture spray, which would help your bumpy edges and flat texture:

Catalog item # 100035182