Pre-wiring for construction of home theatre (1 Viewer)

[Michael Marvin]

This is my first message, so forgive me if I am not up on the lingo. I am building a house where one of the rooms is a home theatre/living room. The only thing I want to do now is pre-wire for a middle-of-the road system. What type of wire would you recommend? Somwhere between "monster cable" and the top-of-the-line.

Thanks

 

[PaulKH]

Middle-of-the-road can mean many different things.
High end Monster is good stuff. It may be overpriced but I look at it as insurance. It won't hurt, but may help.
Besides wire brand though is wire TYPE... It's key to get the right kind of wires going to the right places... component video, audio, speaker wire... if the display has multiple inputs, run multiple sets of video wire.
Frankly, the easiest way if possible is to build a fake wall and some space behind it you can go in to do the cables any way you want.
Perhaps you meant wire for the surrounds, etc., though. If it were me, I'd put 12ga wire everywhere... even cheap Home Depot wire is good enough.
Wire it up for 7.1 - it can't hurt.

 

[Scott-C]

If it were me, I'd put 12ga wire everywhere... even cheap Home Depot wire is good enough

This is kind of a silly question, but is this just the standard "electrical" wire that Home Depot sells, or is it a type of "speaker wire" that may be different in some way?
In other words, if I go to Home Depot and buy 12-2 electrical wire, and a crimper, will that do the trick, or do I need to look for a different 12-2 wire that is specifically made as speaker wire?
I'm thinking that there's only one type of wire but just want to confirm.
Thanks!

 

[Leo]

I wired my room with JPS Labs Super Blue Theater and Super Blue 75ohm video wire (ran 7.2 audio - used DH Labs for the two Subwoofers connections and double runs for a HDTV RPTV and future DLP projector in the ceiling). Wire was about $1.75 a foot. Great stuff and UL rated too.

Leo

 

[SteveA]

Home Depot has designated speaker wire that is CL3 rated for in-wall use. I used their 14-gauge wire to pre-wire my new house for surrounds and it worked great.

 

[Scott-C]

Thanks Steve, I appreciate the answer. I'll be helping my parents wire their entertainment room tomorrow and I needed to know what to look for at Home Depot. I'll look for wire designated as "speaker wire" and will probably get the 12-gauge to be on the safe side.

 

[ThomasL]

Michael, are you referring to running speaker wire inside your walls to/from designated areas? I just wired my first floor (house is already built) with Acoustic Research 14 gauge 4 conductor CL3 in-wall wire. It is 50 cents a foot at audioadvisor.com. I'd recommend running the 4 conductor wire even if you don't use both sets. It makes for future flexibility. I then wired everything to 5 way binding post face plates ($15 per plate for 4 conductor connections). It's working great so far and my wife is glad that there is no more speaker wire popping up out of nowhere through a hole in the floor
cheers,
--tom