In wall speaker wire, how far to install away from AC power lines? Cat6?

[PingSpike]

I'm going to be putting drywall up this weekend in my finished basement project and I want to run cat6 and speaker wire. I know cat6 needs to be away from power lines it runs parallel too (not quite sure on the fluorescent light rules though) but I'm not sure how far...I was thinking either 12" or 18".

What about speaker wire? Should that be the same distance away? Can it run directly alongside cat6 or should it also be set apart.

Thanks

 

[alkemyst]

makes no differnence IMHO...speaker wire will be carrying high enough signal to avoid almost all issues save certain light ballasts and dimmers. Those will more than like affect other things anyway if the speaker wire picks it up.

Here code is all high voltage has to be 6" or more away from low voltage though. You should be fine along the cat6.

 

[Modelworks]

If you are concerned about noise from power , especially fluorescent lights which can be bad sometimes, then use speaker wire that is twisted. It usually comes in a gray jacket and the wires have a slight twist rather than the flat type cable you see used in most homes. That twist helps with interference from magnetic sources , which is a problem with dimmers, lights, etc.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=101-207

Another thing you can do is to put filters on the lights or dimmers themselves. These are the same ones that are on your pc monitor. They cost about $2 each and just snap over the line to block anything coming from the light getting into the main power.
http://store.solar-electric.com/nosufefi.html

 

[PingSpike]

Awesome, I didn't think they would be much of a problem but after the drywall is up it is no longer an easy fix!

 

[kornphlake]

Signal wires might pick up some noise, however levels carried by speaker wires are high enough that the comparably small amounts of EMI or RF noise they may pick up would be inconsequential.