Signal loss with wall plates (1 Viewer)

[Mike*Hunt]

The previous owner of our house had the basement wired for surround sound for a home theater. He used 14g wire which terminates into speaker connector wall plates on the ceiling, he was planning on doing HT in the future and did not want wires hanging through the ceiling so he installed the wall plates. These are then wired to a location near the television where they terminate into another wall plate. My question is, how much signal loss would there be with the use of these wall plate connectors? I'm not really into "Hi-Fi", so to speak, so for surround sound would the average person notice any appreciable signal loss do to there usage? Let me know if this is confusing, I'm a newbie to HT.

 

[John S]

If they match the 14 gauge wire, you will be fine. I have had some issues with the smallest of wall plate systems and connectors, but in general it works fine.

 

[Cees Alons]

Welcome to the forum, Mike.

Make sure the connectors aren't dirty and provide good contacts and you will not lose any more signal than someone using wires like that the usual way. Which is a totally negligible portion of the signal.


Cees

 

[Mike*Hunt]

Great news guys, thanks. I thought I had read before that you want to minimize the number of connections you had to make between the speakers and the receiver, so I didn't know what I might end up hearing with the use of two wall plates between each speaker and the receiver. Thanks again. The main and center speakers will just be wired straight to the receiver.

 

[Cees Alons]

Mike,

Why people want to minimize the number of connectors is this: in time (more or less) loose contacts can oxidize or become dirty. Then, on vibrations, the contacts may be periodically broken, giving crackling noises. What you need to do is: make sure the contacts are very clean and tight. If you ever have a problem, find out which one it is (touching and moving it a bit will betray the bad one) and clean it up again and tighten it.

If the contacts are screw-on types in the first place and/or gold-plated, you probably won't have any problems at all, ever (compare with power connections!).

Good luck!


Cees