New Home - to pre-wire or not to pre-wire? (1 Viewer)

[BalaamsAss]

Attached is a layout of my new home with gameroom. I have a very basic 5.1 system currently, but will probably upgrade in the future after we furnish the house and whatnot. I have the option of pre-wiring the house, which seems to be prudent to do ahead of time. I was thinking of maybe just doing the rear surround speakers, running the wiring 6" from the ceiling and leaving my front speakers on stands, which are currently used for my rear speakers in our home now. The couch isn't ideal for the area, but that's what we'll use until we can upgrade later. The right side of the gameroom will be for board games.

So, my thought is to just pre-wire the rear surround speakers, but I'm a noob when it comes to home theater setups, so if there's something I should obviously do, please make a recommendation.

Thanks!

 

[JohnRice]

I (or someone) can go into more detail later when I have more time, but I'd wire the room for 7.1, or even 7.1.4, for more flexibility. Where you have your current surround speakers are really where the second pair of surrounds should be in a 7.1 system. For 5.1 they should be to the sides of the viewing position, not behind it. For 7.1.4 then you would add two pairs of in-ceiling speakers. One pair in front and one pair behind the viewing position.

 

[Bobofbone]

It's easier and cheaper to wire while building before the drywall is up. I'd wire for everything-if you use less, you're not out much. Put the ending into juntion boxes with excess and cover it with a wall plate if you don't use it. 14 gauge should be sufficient-you can get it by the roll from someone like Blue Jeans Cable or Monoprice, don't waste your cash on something like monster cable. Put in wiring for front speakers, a front center, side, back and front and back overheads for an ATMOS system. I'd also have runs for a sub woofer on both sides of the room, and I'd be tempted to run an HDMI cable from where you will have equipment to where you might put a projector. Blue Jeans Cable made mine to length. Your wiring for sound should avoid running parallel to any power cables. You might also want to consider running coax cable to the room for internet or cable TV. While you can use wifi, cable is handy if it's already there.

You might also want to consider how to power everything. The subwoofers will require power, and you will want to run 120V lines to each side of the room. You might also want to consider power for the system. I used a separate 20 amp line for my components and sub woofers. I also put a 120V outlet high on the front wall to power a retractable screen if I wanted one. Again, if you have that done when the house is wired, it's no going to cost anymore, other than a slightly bigger junction box. You can avoid interference from your washing machine and refrigerator that way. I'd also consider lighting in the room. I wired LUTRON dimmers in my room lighting and in additional circuits that I used to power rope lighting around the top molding around the room periphery and around the screen I made. All the lighting can be run with a remote unit from the seating area. There's all sorts of stuff you can run off cell phones or house units. I bought my LUTRON units from Lowes, since I didn't think I'd be dimming my lights from my front yard or from work.

Think about what you want early. Changes orders run up costs.

 

[JohnRice]

Just to add to that. Be certain the speaker wire is CL2. It's probably not required by code, but the insulation on regular speaker wire will deteriorate inside walls, sometimes rather quickly. Honestly, the cost for 12GA OFC isn't that much more than 14GA from places like MonoPrice, so you might as well. You can get a 250 or 500 ft roll.

 

[Bobofbone]

As above. I used CL2 wire as well. I believe the information at the time was that CL2 grade wires were resistant to heat and did not conduct a fire along the wiring inside the walls. Building codes in some areas may require them, and if it's new construction, will (probably) have to pass an electrical inspection prior to putting up dry wall.

 

[DFurr]

For many years and many screening room I've use nothing but 12ga speaker wire like this:https://www.monoprice.com/product?p...6ukvUhgPX8_cviBzzXC9qhCmvc9yZGF0aAlHiEALw_wcB

 

[Wardog555]

https://www.dolby.com/siteassets/technologies/dolby-atmos/atmos-installation-guidelines-121318_r3.1.pdf

Start here with your speaker placement guides. Don't put the surrounds too high. Ensure proper placements as accurate as possible.

Yes to pre wire everything. Conduit for ease of running more wire.