[hery]

I'm having a house built and I'm planning on pre-wiring for speakers in the lanai, garage, master bedroom and surround speakers for the family room HT. I've searched around the internet and ran across CAROL speaker wire of 12 GA rated for in-wall at a very reasonable price. Do you guys think this is a good choice? I would really appreciate any help or suggestions,
Thanks
Hery

[Chu Gai]

if it's in wall, ie, says CL2/3...absolutely. good time to also consider other in-wall wiring such as cable, twisted pair and all that. also...new home...get yourself a whole house surge protector. Florida, maybe where you are too, can be tough with lighting. Consider something along the lines with 2000 joule or better capacity. Also, if your outside ground is on the sandy dry side, there's things you can do to improve your earth ground, and hence every electronic appliance in your home. Easy thing to do, huh? Spend other people's money!

[MikeTz]

Hery:

Most of wish we had better foresight when thinking about the wiring of our new homes. Chu's advice is wise. Think seriously about a "whole house" surge arrestor that is installed in your main service box. It is surprisingly low cost if installed at the same time the house is wired. Also, I wish I had put cable (RG-6 quad shield), CAT 5 network cable, phone, and speaker cable in every room in the house. You may not use all of it but you will be happy it's there if the need arises. I'm still picking insulation out of my skin from fishing wires through the walls.

Make sure you separate the cable mentioned above from power cable. Also, if you have multiple computers on a home network (if you have kids you eventually will have a home network) it's a good idea to wire every room in the house with CAT 5e cable and route it to a network box that can be configured for you application. Same goes for phone and cable. Your electrician can do this easily when installing the house wiring. Belden and others make home wiring bundles that make this task very efficient.

Also consider power. Its good to have more 20 amp "home run" outlets in your home theater room (or potential home theater room(s)). I never thought I would need more than one dedicated 20 amp outlet for my home theater, but I was sure glad I installed three. I'm fully utilizing two of them today with a 7.1 speaker configuration.

Good Luck

MT

[Chu Gai]

I'm hoping that Bob Mc chimes in because he has some sources of bundled cables where all this stuff is tied in together...Bob!!!!!!!!!!!

[hery]

Chu Gai
Thanks a lot for the advice. That's a lot of stuff to think about. I'm planning on using CL3R rated speaker wire for the speakers. I will definitely look into the idea of surge protection that you and MikeTz mentioned and so forth.

Thanks for the help
Hery

[hery]

MikeTz
Thank you very much for sharing your experiences with me, a lot of good ideas to keep in mind, especially the extra power and extra wiring for the future. As far as computer networking goes, don't have no kids, so it's not a big priority at the moment or the near future.

Great advice, Thanks!!
Hery