Whats the best way to run rear speakers?

[lokiju]

The way my new house is, there isn't a good way to run cabling for my rears.

Being that this is a house a I own vs an apartment I'm renting, I'd like to do it as "clean" as I can.

Running it down the attic wall is out of the question as every few feet down there are cross supports with no way through. I can't even pull up an existing cable (such as coax or Ethernet) as all that was prerun before the drywall was put up and was actually stapled into the framing and won't budge (trust me I've tried).

I don't want to fish the cable under the carpet either as it's always noticeable no matter what.

I'm just not sure what other solution there is.

Is there a wireless transmitter of sorts that'll let me use my existing Polk rears I have?

I have power accessible so it can be powered, doesn't need to be battery or anything (I'd prefer it not be actually)

The only other thing I've seen is this super flat speaker wire at Frys but it's really expensive and I'd still have to fish it under the carpet which tends to cause the pad underneath to bunch up.

 

[sohcrates]

what's underneath you? is there a basement?

another option is to pop off the baseboard molding and run it behind there through the walls horizontally

 

[akshatp]

Wireless rear speakers FTW

 

[lokiju]

Originally posted by: sohcrates
what's underneath you? is there a basement?

another option is to pop off the baseboard molding and run it behind there through the walls horizontally

No basement, it's slab.

I can't run it behind the baseboard as it's an open area.

That's what makes it difficult.

 

[lokiju]

Originally posted by: akshatp
Wireless rear speakers FTW

I'd be fine with this but would love to be able to use my Polk Audio rears I have if at all possible.

Is there such a thing?

 

[aircooled]

Rocketfish wireless rear speaker kit.

 

[sohcrates]

last time i had a slab basement with not many walls, i split long runs of speaker wire in half and soldered on quick connectors. then, i just spooled wires out when i wanted to watch a movie, and disconnected them and spooled them back up when i was done. not the best solution, but it gets the wires out of the way when you dont need them.

 

[lokiju]

Originally posted by: aircooled
Rocketfish wireless rear speaker kit.

This looks good actually.

Reviews seems decent and it can be had easily on Ebay for $40-$50.


Thanks.

 

[davestar]

you can get flat speaker cable that wouldn't be noticable under carpet/padding

 

[lokiju]

Originally posted by: davestar
you can get flat speaker cable that wouldn't be noticable under carpet/padding

For the amount I'd need it'd be about $100. I actually priced this out already at Frys.

 

[Toastedlightly]

Originally posted by: lokiju

Originally posted by: davestar
you can get flat speaker cable that wouldn't be noticable under carpet/padding

For the amount I'd need it'd be about $100. I actually priced this out already at Frys.

Can you cut a groove in the carpet pad to accommodate the cables?

 

[Capt Caveman]

Good topic and I like the Rocketfish idea.

 

[trmiv]

That Rocketfish thing is cool! We're moving into our first house soon, and I was going to attempt to run speaker wire in the crawl space, but I may just try that Rocketfish thing.

 

[Linflas]

They make drill bits that are long enough to drill through the crossmembers. My brother is an electrician and he had one we used when I set up my original DTV install.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: lokiju

Originally posted by: davestar
you can get flat speaker cable that wouldn't be noticable under carpet/padding

For the amount I'd need it'd be about $100. I actually priced this out already at Frys.

fry's sucks

partsexpress

couldn't find flat wire at monoprice

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: aircooled
Rocketfish wireless rear speaker kit.

my dad has that.

its great. he got it free with the sourrund sound speaker setup he got.

he says its great for movies but when he listens to music its not as good.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I was never pleased with wireless transmission cause they always either A: Introduced noise in the signal, or B: Compressed the data and reduced the quality.

But it certainly does have its perks. I'd use it if I could afford it

 

[Queasy]

I may have to try the Rocketfish wireless speaker kit. I'm in the same situation. There just isn't a good way for me to run speaker wire in the room. I have a large fireplace on one side that I can't get around and an open space on the other. I could fish through the carpet but that just isn't appealing to me.

Rocketfish just hit my Christmas list.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: Toastedlightly

Originally posted by: lokiju

Originally posted by: davestar
you can get flat speaker cable that wouldn't be noticable under carpet/padding

For the amount I'd need it'd be about $100. I actually priced this out already at Frys.

Can you cut a groove in the carpet pad to accommodate the cables?

You'd feel it when walking over it and it would probably short out eventually if in a high traffic area.

 

[TwiceOver]

Luckily I have a drop ceiling and a wall without cross braces. An option, if you are particularly handy, is to locat the cross member in the wall, cut a square out of the drywall that spans above and below the cross member. Make sure it is big enough to get your drill/bit in there. Drill the whole needed. Replace square of drywall, screen/tape, mud, paint.

Oddly enough the wall my TV is on is the only one in the house that doesn't have cross braces. Unfortunately very few of my downstairs walls can have wired ethernet because of this.

Good luck, the cleaner the look the better.

 

[sdifox]

Get wireless transmitter for the line level signal and just amplify the rear speakers near the rear speaker. so you need a pair of wireless transmitter/receiver + 2 mono amps. I still don't understand why you can't run it through the attic, I have never seen any attic that has no space for a cable. Is it an A-Frame house?

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: lokiju

Originally posted by: davestar
you can get flat speaker cable that wouldn't be noticable under carpet/padding

For the amount I'd need it'd be about $100. I actually priced this out already at Frys.

fry's sucks

partsexpress

couldn't find flat wire at monoprice

QFT....radio shack may have it too.

Wiring rear surround is not a huge job. Even with cross supports.

Also if you have decent padding you shouldn't feel typical rear surround wiring under a pad and even in high traffic areas it should be ok. If you have worries you can tape it down.

going under the carpet is usually harder than other methods though.

I have a solid concrete wall on my tv side. I am going to have to feed it back up along the CATV coax then over through the drop ceiling. Fortunately I am going with wall surrounds as that other wall is solid concrete too.