how do you guys install surround sound speakers for living room

[Semidevil]

so lets say you bought a 5.1 system for you living from. Obviously, the best sound is to probably put 2 speakers in the front and 2 speakers in the back.

With the speakers in the back, do you just let the wires run across the living room? try to make it go under the carpet? go through walls?

what's the best and easiest way?

 

[Kirby]

i've never done it, but i heard that you run it along your base board.

 

[xanis]

It's probably easiest to just go buy a big roll of speaker cable as it's pretty cheap, and run it under the edge of the carpet. Worked for my 5.1 setup.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Originally posted by: Xanis
It's probably easiest to just go buy a big roll of speaker cable as it's pretty cheap, and run it under the edge of the carpet. Worked for my 5.1 setup.

do you have to pull up the carpet to do so? Isn't it a hassel to reattach the carpet?

 

[imported_mateo]

Originally posted by: Semidevil

With the speakers in the back, do you just let the wires run across the living room? try to make it go under the carpet? go through walls?

You can do any of the above. Going through walls takes some work, but its worth it if this is a "permanent" change. Along the edges works, but can be visibly intrusive depending on room layout. They also make some really cool super thin wire you can paint over, but its expensive, but again worth it if you are making a long term change here...

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_entertainment/roomlayout.html

We move often enough that I haven't tried to find a really good looking solution yet. I just run the wires along the edge of the room where the walls meet the floor with rugs over them where they have to cross openings.

 

[Howard]

The "rear" speakers aren't actually placed in the rear.

 

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

I just got done wiring a 7.1 system in my living room, and every last wire is totally concealed except for the few inches immediately behind each speaker. I used a combination of techniques.

The receiver sits against Wall 1; then I have speakers wrapping around in a clockwise manner. The left side of the room is open (no wall) so all the wires for the back and left speakers had to run around the right side. Whenever possible, I buried wire underneath the base moulding. If you have base moulding that isn't flat smashed down against the carpeting, you can fish the wire between the carpet and the moulding and it settles into like an invisible channel. I'd use a blunt object, like a capped pen, to gently push the wire into place.

My right and two back channel speakers sit on shelves about 4 feet high, so for that I ran the wire through the wall and got some nice "outlet covers" that are specifically for speaker wire to finish off the look. To run wires through the wall, I drilled a hole at the top and a hole at the bottom (both holes between the same studs); then dropped a piece of string through the top hole. I fished it out the bottom, tied my speaker wires to it, then pulled the wire back up through the top hole.

My left rear sits on the kitchen island (only place for it, really) so the wire for it runs along the wall for a while; then it needs to run 15 feet across carpeting to get to the island. Lucky for me, 12 of those feet is covered by my couch so I routed the wire over-carpet such that it was underneath the couch the whole time. When I got to the 3-foot stretch of uncovered carpet, I cut a slit about in inch long. The slit is covered by the couch. I took a long metal rod, taped the speaker wire to it, and "pushed" the wire through the carpet slit and over to the side of the island cabinet. Once there, I gently pulled back the carpet, found my wires, pulled them through, removed the steel rod, and put the couch back. And there ya have it...wires run underneath carpet! The wire then runs through the inside of my cabinet and on up to the speaker.

It's all about creativity, really. Make use of the furniture, layout, etc.. to hide the wires as best you can.

 

[Apex]

May not be the easiest, but it works:

http://www.gotapex.com/images/apex/theater/construction2/inputbox1.jpg

http://www.gotapex.com/images/apex/theater/construction2/inputbox2.jpg