Wiring Through New Drywall (1 Viewer)

[Kurt_M]

I just put up my framing and am running my speaker wiring through the 2x4's but have a couple of questions before continuing:

1) I plan on hanging my rear speakers from brackets attached to the walls. What is the best way to get the speaker wire to the speaker? Just cut a hole in the drywall and attach the wire directly to the speaker or attach banana posts(?)to an electrical box and then run wire from the speaker to the posts? Which will look better/ most unobtrusive? The pictures I look at from the posts on this site don't really show how the speakers are wired.

2) Any thoughts on whether I should pull all the wires for the front L,R, and Center speakers from the same spot behind the tv or pull the wires out of the wall from roughly the same place as where the speaker is going to be?

3) Since I am drywalling my ceiling I thought I'd run some extra wire for a possible 6th channel in the rear of the listening area. Any other suggestions before I close everything up for good? Any horror stories of forgetting something after finishing the drywall job that I should consider?

km

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Kurt,

Adding plates with banana plugs seems silly to me, because: 1) If you’ve done the job right it will be directly behind the speaker, were no one will see it anyway. 2) Each banana plug you install will add four unnecessary termination points per speaker.

I recommend running the wire straight out of the wall to the speaker. If the idea of a little hole in the wall behind the speaker is unappealing, you could install an electrical box and use a blank cover with a hole in the center (like the kind made for use with rotary light dimmers). The speaker wire would come out through the hole.

As for your second question, sorry, it makes no sense. The L/C/R wires should obviously be run from the equipment rack and come out of the wall at the speaker locations – just as with the rear speakers.

Regarding your third question, It makes sense to run a rear wire for a rear center if you intend to use one at some point. You might run two wires; some people recommend using two rear centers.

As far as any “horror stories,” I don’t see why there should be, since sheetrock is cheap enough to rip out and re-install should the need arise.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[MikeWh]

Adding plates with banana plugs seems silly to me, because: 1) If you’ve done the job right it will be directly behind the speaker, were no one will see it anyway.

When I read Kurt's post, I assumed he was using a bracket like http://www.newark.com/product-detail...ge/50-6110.jpg or something similar. If that's the case, then the wires can be seen. This is what I did: my particular brackets have enough space in the mounting holes to pull the wires through. So I just poked a hole through the drywall behind the plate, then ran the wires directly to the speaker binder posts. The wires are seen, but the hole is covered by the mounting plate.