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Speaker wires (1 Viewer)

Graham_D

Auditioning
Joined
Feb 8, 2004
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7
I am in the pre construction stage and am looking at wiring the walls.

I am putting in 3 connection boxes in front, 2 side and 2 back boxes, plus one extra for powered sub. Am I missing any thing?

How high off the ground should each be? Or is that personal pref.?

Lastly, what guage and make of wire do you recommend?

Thanks

Newbie Graham_D
 

John Garcia

Senior HTF Member
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Jun 24, 1999
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11,571
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Pretty much everywhere I believe will require UL/CL3 rated wire for in wall use. AWG depends on the distance and nominal impedance of the speakers, but 12AWG should be good for over 50' and 14 should be fine for less than that with an 8 Ohm speaker.

A powered sub would ideally not use speaker wire, you would want to run RG-6 for line level signal.

Speakers should have the tweeter roughly at ear level when seated, again ideally.

I think you are going to want to read this too:

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_e...oomlayout.html
 

Dan KW

Agent
Joined
Feb 15, 2002
Messages
31
I used a the height of a hammer to align all my electrical boxes...simple and effective. Measure some outlets around you to see what kind of hieght they have and go from there. As for wire, most would run 12 guage CL3 rated inwalls and that will be just about all you'll ever need. The price difference between the 12 and the 14 guage really isn't all that much. I'm cheap though...I ran some conduit and just used regular sound king 12 guage in my room:)
 

Shawn Solar

Supporting Actor
Joined
May 12, 2001
Messages
763
Measure off the electrical boxes;) Thats what I usually do. Most electricians vary the sizes from house to house;. I've been in places where they were 11 3/8" and in others where the were 14" to the centre of the screw hole from the bottom of the box.

You can get away with 16 gauge for up to 70ft absoulute max. then I would just simply go with 12 gauge. before the drywall goes up make sure you have enough electrical plugs too. One near each corner and a dual gang behind the stereo/tv would be my suggestion. You should use open back boxes too. crunching the wires into a 2" box especially coax is not a good thing.
 

RobCar

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Nov 27, 2002
Messages
201
Not entirely related, but as long as you're pre-wiring, I'd also run Cat-5 everywhere. Easier now than later ...
 

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