When I had my speakers in the living room with equipment across the room about 18 feet from the speakers, I thought about going through the basement floor and up but realized this would take a lot of extra cable and a lot of extra work. I got some Goertz MI-2 cables and ran them under a rug in front of the speakers and then under the speakers (they were raised up on spikes). The rug ended a few inches from speakers, so all that was visible was a few inches of nice copper flat cable. My wife was very happy and it was a very practical solution.
advice on hiding cables
My speakers (B&W N804) are up against an 'outside' wall while my system is against aninterior wall. There happens to be a fireplace between the two. I had a tech come look and to run wire hidden in wall would be around $500 - which include sheetrock repair (not crazy about cutting two holes in outside wall due to firebreak in 12' wall). Does anyone have a solution for cable management that would be pleasing to the eye? My speaker cable is 4-14 ga bi-wire (65 strands/wire).