MY First DIY (1 Viewer)

[kumar]

Ha.....

After lot of discussions, suggestions from fellow HTFers, I have plunged into my first DIY project. HT Wiring.

I ordered the 500 ft. 12 AWG Soundking from Parts Express. I will not be using all of them, but I ordered keeping future upgrades in mind. Also ordered bunch of Banan plugs.
Both are here.

Last weekend, bought about 60 ft of 2" PVC and 40 ft of 3 and bunch of couplings, 90 degrees from Lowes.
My wife and I crawled into the crawl space and started the project by first drilling a hole in the 2 1/2 inch thick wood base board, directly under the proposed entertainment center rack closet. Took us a good hour to drill with a poor 12v Black and Decker cordless drill. By the time we finished we ran out of daylight and was forced to stop for the day. That evening, we went and bought a better drill.

Next day, started off little early and went ahead and drilled 10 holes. 3 for outlet of cables from the entertainment center rack. Two 2" pipes going towards monitor and front speakers and one 2" going towards the back for the surround. Idea is to split the front and back 2" audio PVC with a cross and step down to 3/4" for each channel. Finally at the end of the day were able to finish one set of Audio pipe done. Looking forward to complete the project by the thanksgiving weekend.

I have been taking pictures. I will get them developed and post it on the website when my project is completed.
If time permits, the wife and I will complete a speaker stand with MDF this weekend for the surround back.

I will keep you all posted.

 

[Kyle Richardson]

Ahh, the joys of HT wiring.....something that takes so long to do and yet you never see a thing when its all completed which, of course, is the main objective

 

[Aaron Gilbert]

Kumar, that sounds like quite a project! At least you have two people! Wiring under the house goes a lot slower when you don't have a partner on the other side of the floor. I don't understand why you had to stop when it was dark though. Don't you need a flashlight in the crawlspace anyway, and you have lights in your home theater room?? Kyle's right, it's a shame all the work you are doing won't ever be seen. But I'm sure those friends and family members who have wires running around their floors will notice your job when they come to visit.


Aaron Gilbert

 

[kumar]

Kyle and Aaron thats the objective..... For once we would not mind our hardwork being "unnoticed". )

Thanks a ton for the help and enthusiasm extended by my lovely wife and our sweet little one inside her. Two and half people are always helpful ;-)

Well darkness was one such reason for me to take a break from bending and cramping myself in the crawl space. Trust me, in some places I had to lie on my back because there is no space for even crawling.

Eagerly waiting for tomorrow - to finish the project.

 

[Kyle Richardson]

You're wiring on Thanksgiving? Wow, there's dedication!

 

[kumar]

Worst case scenario, I can lie in the crawl and sleep off undisturbed...... haa haa!!

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Kumar, now don't take a nap while your lovely wife and 1/2 helper are working - that would get you in deep trouble.
You can certainly call this a family project.

 

[Paul His]

No, do take a nap - you won't be getting any sleep when there's three of you ...

Paul

 

[Geoff L]

The fruits of the unseen labor will be of great satisfaction when finally finshed. And to have a helper & 1/2 of such devotion, your a lucky man.

My single biggest beef with many so called completed systems I see, is wiring hell!
A clean install no matter the price of ones gear/cables/& wire, just looks so so much better. Tho I know that it should/dose not sound any better, I swear they always do. The mind is a powerfull suggestive thing.

I'm always very impressed with clean HT/Stereo set ups, no matter the gear involved from the lowest end to mega dollar ones "regarldless".

Some don't care about wires, cables, etc laying around & running all over the place and may swap gear constantly. It's their rig wiring and all, so who is to say clean that shit up but themselves or maybe the better half... To each their own.

Other may rent and not have a choice and that is understandable.

But, clean system wiring is mean and king of ~{finished right}~ in my book. Sounds like you guys are well on your way to a good looking and not seen wiring set up. Certainly not the most pleasent thing to do, but the new clean look and feeling when done, will be more than gratifying once finished!

Wire on-->
Geoff ¥

 

[kumar]

Thanks all. Hope you all had a great thanksgiving. Yes, I am a lucky man!

Well while we were working in our Crawl thursday, friday the upgrade Bug bite us. ouch!

So we drove down to our audio store and bought our sweet sweet B&W LCR 600 and 602 Bookshleves for our center and rear channel. :b :b :b

My Video cables are on the way, I should get them by mid of this week. Then I can move my entertainment center to the "media room" and take more pictures and post them on this website.

The wiring came our really well, and thanks to many who suggested to go with the SoundKing 12 AWG from PartsExpress. They sound really great and better than the Ultralink "High" Quality speaker wire that I had earlier.

we are already seeing the benefit of our hardwork.

Btw, we are planning to make the speaker stands on our own. Here are the specifications for it,

MDF boards of size 11" X 9" - 8 of them. I will cut 4 two inches holes in 4 of them. Stick one with the hole on top of the one with out the hole. I will cut a 2" PVC of 21" stick them in the hole and put some sooper glue. Then pour play stand and put another set of MDF with hole and no hole. I am planning 4 PVC's per stand placed two in the front and two in the back. I hope with four PVC on 1 and 1/2 inch thick MDF on top and bottom plus the play stand will give enough sturdiness to the bookshelf speaker - they are about 20 pounds each.

 

[kumar]

anyone have any thoughts on a good center channel shelf? Preferably hiddne clamps so that only the shelf is visible.....

 

[kumar]

I saw few links in the forum for Speaker Stands construction. I picked some idea from there and going about from there.

the dimensions are 11" x 9" MDF Boards, 2" PVC PIPE I am placing 4 pipes in four corners of the mdf boards (well not really really cornor), all painted and filled with play stand.

Will a 4 2" PVC Pipe filled with play stand and 2 3/4th inch of MDF on top and bottom be enough to withstand the weight of 20 lb B&W 602 speakers?

The overall height of the stand will be about 24" and the tweeter after placed on top of the stand would come at about 34-36 inches.

 

[Geoff L]

Just a tought to keep the mean clean wiring going...

Don't forget to keep the speaker stand wiring clean also.

Many ways to do this, just use your imagination when constructing the stands. Wire threw one of the pvc-tubes, clips used on the back side of a tube, you can take a 1/2 pvc pipe and rip it in half then glue to the backside on one of the stands bigger tubes, etc. Many different ways to do it and keep them looking clean also...

You'll figure something out thats nice & clean looking, I'm sure....

From the speaker stand design description you mentioned plus the sand fill, the weight should be plenty to keep them stable. Well, short of direct slams into them from a large dog or something simalar..
A wide/er stand "base" never hurts for stablization.

PE has some nice leveling spikes in both Gold/Brass and Black Chrome if you choose to spike the stands & also come with matching self centering padded discs for hardwood floors.

Congrats on your new B&W speaks..

Regards
Geoff ¥