JuanNarvaez

speaker wire

Hey guys, the construction of my new house is going and I want to prewire the whole house for sound. Somebody is charging me $20 per speaker, which I think I can save some money if I do it on my own. So I want to know where would be a good place to get speaker wire at a good price. The speakers I would be using would be the Ascend Acoustics, so also what kind of wire would I need. Any advice would be really appreciated.

mylan

Hi, I did my home theater with bulk spool Monster XP, just make sure it is CL3 rated for in wall installation and just to be on the safe side, you might want to run your wire through a "race way" or tube so that you could pull additional wire or cat5 in the future. I bought some but had a hard time getting the wire through the tube because the inside was grooved too and I waited till just before the drywall was to go up so I ended up running it without.
Your installer may or may not use as good of wire as the Monster so you might want to spec. for it. Also think about running cat5 while he is at it for volume controls, keypads, etc. once the walls go up it is too late. Hope this helps.

MikeGee

Home depot, they have speaker wire specifically made for that purpose, its double jacketed so its very well insulated. Its not expensive, Somthing like 30-50 cents a foot. Thats what i'm running and its perfect.
If i were you i would get the terminals put in the walls for very clean hookups to your speakers. You can make it so you can plug your speakers into a wall using banana plugs.

JuanNarvaez

Does the gauge matter, because I was checking in Home Depot web page and there are different gauges. The higher the gauge the better or the other way around?

MikeGee

depends on the length. I am running 12 gauge all around. Thats as high as you'd need to go for your home theatre. Anything over a 15 foot run should be 14-12 gauge.
The lower the number the thicker the wire.

Bob McElfresh

That is actually dirt-cheap to run wires (but it is easier with the studs exposed).

Some Advice:

- Run in-wall rated 12 ga everywhere.

- Run all wires to plastic electrical outlet box's. You can later add wall-plate covers with binding posts, but for the moment, pull enough wire to create un-broken runs. Drill holes in blank wall plates to thread the wires through. You can always cut the wires off later.

- Near the beginning and end, zig-zag the wires between the studs. Use insulated staples pounded in half-way. Years later you might need some slack. Give a tug to pop the first staple and you get about 10" of slack. Tug again to get more.

- Avoid running the wires near power wires. If you must cross a power wire, try and do it at 90 degress.

Hope this helps.

Philip Hamm

At that price I would let them do it.

Philip Hamm
Moderator Emeritus