Building new home speaker wire question? (1 Viewer)

[Pete_Jr]

Well they start digging my hole for the basement a week from Monday so I still have some time for research and answers.

I am right now just looking to run some wire in my living room for my surround speakers so I don't have to run the wire across the floor or through the basement. I'm not even sure what you call them but I want the plate in the wall so I can just plug the wire from the speaker right to the outlet on the wall.

I was planning to just do the surround speakers but should I do the fronts also? You must have to have the outlet in the front also to plug the wire in from your receiver right? I don't want to get to crazy with this because in a year or more I am going to put a dedicated HT in the Basement(getting the superior walls).

What size wire for the surround and Front? I also have a HSU Sub but again not getting to crazy will probably just put in front to avoid any problems running the wire.

Really don't want to mount rear speakers on the wall either so will probably get some stands. Do you guys have those outlets down low or up high by your speakers?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

By the way in a few years when I do the HT are there HT experts that will come to your house and design and pretty much build it for you? Any good ones in the Syracuse area?

Thanks

Pete

 

[Torgny Nilsson]

I just wired my family room. I run cables from my mono-amps to gold plated connectors in the middle of the front wall. I then ran wire from those connectors to identical connectors in the four corners of the room, and in the middle of the room on the sides (for possible future 7.1).

I used a total of 10 4-prong gold connectors from Smarthome.com which cost a total of about $120. I don't believe in bi-wiring, so I use 2 connectors on each plate for the speakers, one of them for the subwoofer (I am experimenting with placement and using 4-prong connectors allowed me to do that and to leave room for future modifications and possible biwiring). The 4-prong connectors were only a little more than 2-prong. And the wire cost difference was minimal.

You may not want to go to all this trouble. This will be my home theater for the forseeable future, so I spent the money to do it right (I hope).

 

[Neil Joseph]

I also did the wiring for my house while under construction. Whatever you do, make sure you make the arrangements up front with the home builder. Let them know that you will be doing the speaker wiring in your house. Make sure you use in-wall rated wire or else the builder may rip it out or it will void your insurance should a future fire occur.

I used the wallplates you speak of in room 2 (system b stereo speakers). You can use them for the surrounds but I did not bother doing this for the main (front) speakers since the equipment was located up front anyway. The speaker wire I used was 1 guage in-wall speaker wire purchased from Home Depot.

At the time of home completion, I has a 5.1 setup but I pre-wired for a rear surround as well as a second sub (DIY under construction) located in the rear of the room.

 

[JustinG]

In my new home, I had the living room wired for 7.1 though I only have a 5.1 system now. I did this because I will eventually go to 7.1. Think about future upgrades.

As for wiring, the builder ran 16 guage speaker wire from a central box behind where my tv is and they used coax cable for the sub. Make sure there is an electrical outlet near where the sub will be for power. I marked the studs before they sheetrocked as to where i wanted that box and the speaker box outlets themselves.

I bought parts to make 1 4-speaker hookup plate. It's basically a blank leviton plate (with hole) and I got an 8-way blank connection block. I bought 4 pair of 5-way binding posts and put the wall plate together. This plate has 4 pair of connections for RS, LS, BLS, BRS. Also, you will need to get (if you run coax for the sub which i suggest) an F connector to RCA adapter for a wall plate. Actually, you need 2, one for each end.

On the surround speaker side, I bought the single pair binding post plates from Best Buy. Connected the speaker wire from the wall to the backside of the connectors then ran a small length of wire from the outside connectors to the speakers. Speakers were mounted under the plates.

I did the same for the sub, but it has it's own separate wall box.

Also, you might want to invest in a $5 voltmeter to test the wires. One, to make sure none of them got cut during construction, and two, to make sure you get your connections going to the right speakers.

So, behind my tv, I have the 4-way speaker block. I used banana jacks to connect to the plate then run it to my receiver. These are optional. I connected an rca cable from receiver to the wall behind tv, then out from the other side of the room with an rca to the sub.

The setup is great. I bought all the parts from partsexpress.com. I built the 4-way wall plate for about $15-20, retail price at BB is like $30. The sub plates cost about $2 a piece. I only bought the single pair plates at BB because I had a gift cert there to cover cost. If I built them, they would cost about $5 each, half off retail.

Oh, on the sub cable, you will need to terminate each end with an f-connector. And I did not run wiring for the front speakers.

Here are some of the partsexpress part numbers for you to look at.

091-1200 F to RCA wall plate adapter
261-402 Single Pair binding post wall plate blank
261-410 4 pair binding post wall plate blank
091-1206 wall plate 5-way binding post (1 pair)

You can buy the blank leviton wall plates that have the rectangular hole at Home Depot if you want.