Best way to run speakers to walls

[Red Squirrel]

I am slowly planning what I want to do when I get a TV in my living room. I am debating on if I want to go surround sound in my living room even though it's not really phsycally feasible (the TV will be in the corner as it's the only logical spot). What I'd like to do is have jacks on the walls where I plan to put the speakers and then jacks where the TV is so I can plug inputs to feed the speakers. Now I'd like all of these jacks to go to my patch panel which is far enough, that gives me more flexibility in the future. Is cable lenght a huge issue here? I don't plan on going anything super (the future rec room will be for that) but I don't want a noticible sound lag either.

There will be a 4-jack plate at the TV then 4 individual jacks around the room. Guess I could go 5 for the sub but I'd probably just have that right under the TV.

What type of plugs would I use for this, just RCA jacks? What about the wire, can I use coax?

Or is there a better way of doing this?

 

[sdifox]

lol, there is no sound lag that you can detect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_electricity

There are speaker cables for inwall. The gauge you buy depends on the length you are planning. Usually I go with 12GA and I am sure I am covered.

 

[kornphlake]

You can use plain ol' 14 or 16 gage romex wire in the walls if you want, unless you read a lot of audiophile magazines you won't hear any difference, speaker wire may be a little less expensive depending on what you can find on clearance. Stranded speaker cable is probably the most convenient and affordable for interconnects, I wouldn't use RCA connections for speakers just because at some point you may want to use RCA jacks to connect components in a media closet or something.

 

[mshan]

Someone on another forum recommended the Audioquest 14-2 as very good sounding: http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90220

"My top in wall wire for sound quality , actually I have 2 but Audioquest 14-2 is overall fantastic wire. In wall use and external use. Clear , detail , bass , mid's , highs all sound the way they are suppose to. I don't think this speaker wire adds or takes anything. I think it does it's job. Most of the time I feel there is no reason to buy anything else.

Liberty also makes incredible in wall wire. They have a THX series thats as good as the Audioquest. You can argue it's just as good . They also have a 12g version that I would feel good using on any speakers made.

Kimber Kwick series is another one of those cables that just perform. You can't go wrong with Kimber Kable for any wire need. Every single cable they make is top notch and can compete with anything made.

If I had to choose a wire to use forever I might just stick with Audioquest or Kimber but if someone told me I had to choose Liberty I could live with that choice and never feel the need for anything else. When you achieve correct signal transfer , you don't need magic boxes or fancy braiding to make it better. There is no need to overspend on wire. I know this as I have over spent on wire all of my audio life. I learned the hard way and found companies that do it right for a great price. All 3 companies don't silly over charge you for what you get. Sure if you buy there highest offerings , you can question why you are doing so. Like Audioquest there entry level speaker wire isn't far off there top of the line. When you listen , you will learn that once you achieve the goal , your done."

There was some website (I think NHT speakers, but can't seem to find right now) that was selling on a per foot unterminated cost.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Thanks for the info, I'll probably go with romex then. What would you recommend for the actual plugs, if RCA is not the best choice?

So guess I'm golden as far as going to the patch panel. It will just cost more in wire but I don't mind, knowing it gives me more options in the future for various interconnects and such. Like maybe later on I'll want a sound system in my server room or something.

 

[kornphlake]

I'd use something like this for speaker connections:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10425&cs_id=1042503&p_id=3325&seq=1&format=2
Plates with more or less jacks are available for your application, use a 2 pair plate for front speakers and a single pair plate for each surround. You could use a 5 pair plate for a patch panel or use a keystone jacks: http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10426&cs_id=1042603&p_id=2991&seq=1&format=2

Use any wire you choose (audiophiles swear you need unobtanium wire) in the walls, romex may or may not be cheaper than speaker wire for in wall wiring. Any wire 14 gage or larger should be fine for most audio applications, I won't discourage using a high end speaker wire if you feel like it will benefit you somehow, but any wire will do the job as far as any meter or scope can tell. I'd use stranded speaker wire for interconnects just because it's more flexible and it's what one would expect to see connected to speakers. Terminate interconnects with color coded banana plugs like these:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10401&cs_id=1040115&p_id=2943&seq=1&format=2 Assuming your speakers have banana jacks, if they don't use whatever terminations work with your speakers on the speaker end.

RCA plugs would work just as well I suppose as long as you label everything, I'd just be concerned about someone accidentally hooking up a source component like a CD player or iPod to a jack on the wall expecting it to be an input when it's actually a speaker jack, I'm not sure what kind of damage that might cause. Banana jacks are a standard for speaker wires where RCA jacks are standard for line level input connections.

 

[mshan]

I found the per ft. unterminated source for Audioquest FLX-14/2: http://store.nhthifi.com/Audioquest-FLX-14-2-Bulk-Speaker-Cable-per-foot?sc=12&category=2623

Some people say that unterminated, bare wire is going to sound better (less loss or degradation?) than poorly crimped on or soldered connections, so another thought would be to just continue the bare wire out wall directly to speakers.

 

[kornphlake]

Bare wire coming out of a hole in the wall looks unprofessional in my opinion, you might as well run the wire along the base board. If you're concerned about audiophile quality put your A/V gear on a cart and roll it out of the media closet into the room for listening sessions using shorter length, high quality interconnects without connectors. For general listening keep the cart in the closet and use the in wall wiring.

 

[mshan]

delete.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'd use something like this for speaker connections:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10425&cs_id=1042503&p_id=3325&seq=1&format=2
Plates with more or less jacks are available for your application, use a 2 pair plate for front speakers and a single pair plate for each surround. You could use a 5 pair plate for a patch panel or use a keystone jacks: http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10426&cs_id=1042603&p_id=2991&seq=1&format=2

Use any wire you choose (audiophiles swear you need unobtanium wire) in the walls, romex may or may not be cheaper than speaker wire for in wall wiring. Any wire 14 gage or larger should be fine for most audio applications, I won't discourage using a high end speaker wire if you feel like it will benefit you somehow, but any wire will do the job as far as any meter or scope can tell. I'd use stranded speaker wire for interconnects just because it's more flexible and it's what one would expect to see connected to speakers. Terminate interconnects with color coded banana plugs like these:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10401&cs_id=1040115&p_id=2943&seq=1&format=2 Assuming your speakers have banana jacks, if they don't use whatever terminations work with your speakers on the speaker end.

RCA plugs would work just as well I suppose as long as you label everything, I'd just be concerned about someone accidentally hooking up a source component like a CD player or iPod to a jack on the wall expecting it to be an input when it's actually a speaker jack, I'm not sure what kind of damage that might cause. Banana jacks are a standard for speaker wires where RCA jacks are standard for line level input connections.

Ahh so that's what those banana connections are, I saw those but was not sure what they were. If it's a standard for speakers then think I'll go that route. Most speakers either have a "ear phone jack" or RCA jacks but I'm sure it's not hard to convert or rewire.

 

[CubanlB]

Most speakers have speaker wire screw down terminals (aka Binding posts), not RCA jacks or "ear phone jack".

As far as bare wire goes as looking un-professional I think it looks terrible to have binding post wall plates behind each speaker. Depending on the speaker and the mount there is almost always a way to conceal the bare wire and showing no obvious connections which, IMO, looks much more professional.

Binding post plates behind the components looks fine to me, but is unneeded anyhow.

 

[leon2006]

Go to audio/video store (best buy, fry’s) and look at the wall speaker connectors that will fit your need. Even Lowes and home depot have good gold-plated speaker connectors.

Then decide base which will fit your needs. Also consider the physical attributes such as the looks, size, and color as it will be a permanent fixture of your room.

I installed the speaker wire on my house (3 rooms) for 7.1 speakers plus coax cable for sub-woofer. The setup gives me an option to relocate my sub woofer in front or back of the room. I did it during construction of the house (before dry-wall installation). It is all in-wall cabling. I purchased my speaker cables from Monster Cable. I got 15% discount, free shipping and tax free as I purchased it on-line. Monster cable sent me 500-ft spools so it is economical and more efficient for installation. Most audio/video stores sell 100 ft spools which results to high wasted for large installation.

 

[kornphlake]

I may have given some bad advice above when I suggested using romex wire. Apparently NEC specifies that romex may only be used for ac power in residential installations, additionally all multiple conductor wires have to be jacketed and specified for the application, ie cat5 cable has a jacket and is marked cat5, coax cable is jacketed and is marked as coax cable. Plain speaker wire wouldn't meet code because the insulation on the individual conductors does not equal a jacketed cable, the conductors should be individually insulated and wrapped in a jacket and the jacket should say something about being speaker wire to meet NEC standards. There are several varieties of speaker wire designed for in wall installation, you should use those cables not Romex unless you are confident you'll never have the home inspected and no electrician will ever look at the wiring and accidentally cut into a AC power line expecting it to be speaker wire.