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Product: Home electronics
All Cable Connections on Front   (+7, -1)  [vote for, against]
For all stereo and home theatre components, put all connections on the front behind a drop-down faceplate.

Every time you have to move a stereo or home theater component, you have to carefully pull it out without breaking off the connections. Then you have to hold it in midair while you hook/unhook the wires. I have always hated that. It has been this way since the beginning of time.

Why can't the manufacturers make the face of the component drop down or lift up, revealing all of the wiring jacks and terminals. Then you could leave it exactly where it needs to be while you wire it up.

I actually wrote up this same idea for computer CPUs under that category. I hope I don't get beat up about it.
-- willatlguy, Mar 31 2002

Quasi-Baked http://www.dell.com...nt_2_dimen_8200.htm
Many newer computers have a couple of USB ports for temporarily hooking up things like digital cameras and headphones on the front. Not quite the same thing, but a start... [magnificat, Apr 06 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Hm, I think once would have been enough. Why did you want to keep the computer version separate?
-- jutta, Mar 31 2002


Jutta, it is the same concept for both computers and stereo components, but the reasons for it are fairly different. With a computer, it isn't that hard to get to the back. The computer benefits more from hiding the ugly connections. It would be nice if Halfbakery gave us a way to assign two categories to the same idea.
-- willatlguy, Apr 01 2002


// ... pull it out without breaking off the connections. Then you have to hold it in midair while you hook/unhook the wires. //

I don't understand the problem. This has never happened to me. For my main system, I have open access to the back of the unit for wiring everything there (in which case, front or side mounted connections are really annoying). For my son's system, I can slide out the components and turn them sideways, for easy access to the connections.

You should use longer cables, perhaps.
-- waugsqueke, Apr 01 2002


Put your entertainment center on casters.

Or access your built-in shelves with a rear panel that opens from the other side of the wall.

There are Tv's that have jacks available in the front. They tend to not sell well.
-- quarterbaker, Apr 01 2002


Not everybody has shelving that can be accessed from the back. And if I were to put my entertainment system on casters, that would still not solve the problem. There is a back on the cabinet. I have drilled holes for running a few wires through, but I don't want to remove the back or cut large holes behind the components.

As far as the wires not being long enough: You can make the speaker wires as long as you want. But the audio patch cords that come with most components are only about three feet long. Yes, you could buy longer ones, but that can be expensive and cause problems.

Lets assume you have very long cords so you can put the receiver on the floor on its face and easily plug everything in the back. Now you have to lift it off of the floor and stuff the long wires into the back of the shelf as you carefully push the receiver back onto the shelf.

If you have any fiber optic cables, like I do on my system, they can be easily damaged by being crushed.

One thing I forgot about is the power cord. On most equipment, the power cord is permanently attached to the back of the unit. This would need to be changed also.
-- willatlguy, Apr 06 2002


Draw up a business plan - if you can't round up some investors - or get 1 single bank on the entire planet to agree this is a good business plan, then go after this with every last dime you've got. ; D
-- thumbwax, Apr 06 2002


The main problems with this are:

- taking up valuable front space (especially on audio EQ)

- the ugly factor

On the other hand, it would be very convenient.
-- magnificat, Apr 06 2002


It wouldn't be ugly because it would be concealed behind the face plate. Each component would have a hinged face plate with all of the readouts and controls on it. The face plate would fold down, revealing the jacks and terminals.
-- willatlguy, Apr 07 2002


Thumbwax, I just think it's a good idea. I don't want to make a business out of it. Isn't that what HB is about?
-- willatlguy, Apr 07 2002


Yes the faceplate would cover up unused jacks... But what about when you had things pluged into them? Wouldn't cables connecting the CD, PHONO, and AUX and the wires going to speakers be constantly plugged in, and wouldent they there fore have to hang out of the faceplate? Further: don't you figure that the wires in front woud obstruct LCD/LED displays and infrared remote receivers? I'm sure many manufactures have considered these issues, and that this line of thought lead to the RCA and USB ports on the front of some units. I do, however, agree that all units should have a removeable powercord, perhaps a universal system like a "computer-style" powercord would be the best.
-- LED Prism, Jun 17 2003


Personally I would end up removing the cover plate. I like the idea so much I even had a computer without a case for about a year. Yes no case. I don't mean no lid I mean no metal bits just hard drives and stuff lying around on my desk. It worked fine and now that I have a case it collects less dust but still it works fine. It just goes to show that you don't have to worry about all that static mumbo jumbo. The engineers just use it to make their job sound complicated and to blame newbies for any dodgy Hardware.

Alternatively sometimes I move my machine back to front so I can access all the jacks. It seems to work fine i just can't use the CD drive very well and have to lean around to turn it on. But it is on most of the time any how.
-- PainOCommonSense, Mar 30 2004



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