The Speaker Saga Continues

So, all weekend I've been installing this ridiculously over-engineered 7-speaker sound system on my creaky old computer. This involved considerable office cleanup, which is still under way, and a largely unsuccessful related shopping trip. Two of the cables are missing. Well, actually, replaced by speaker cables that don't have a required connector on one end. And with 7 speakers, I really wanted some mechanism for labeling the cables so I could keep them straight. Well, I couldn't find a speaker cable with a plug at one end and bare wires at the other, and I couldn't find cable labels. I did manage to buy a pack of velcro cable ties, however.

I can probably do without the side speakers for the time being (especially since my computer is in one end of an 8' x 12' room). I've cleaned out the space under the desk for the subwoofer and hung all the teeny little speakers on the walls around the computer. Now I'm labeling cables with little sticky labels held on by clear packing tape. I've disconnected the old sound system, but haven't removed it yet, still being a bit dubious about whether this will work.

It works!

I'm sitting here at my computer listening to the Allman brothers coming out of 5 little speakers in a circle around me. It sounds pretty good, although not quite as awesome as I had been led to believe. Of course, if I didn't have plugged up ears I might be able to appreciate the surround sound a little more. I also discovered while poking around in my sound card setup that I had never actually installed the updated drivers I downloaded a year ago. I did that, hoping one more time that this will be the key to stopping the iTunes hangs. My office is also substantially cleaned up, although I really shouldn't stop there. I've now got large empty areas on and under various work surfaces interspersed with the same old cluttered mess. This doesn't seem right, but I'm not sure what I want to do about it.