Wiring my home theatre. What do I need to do? - Page 1

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Wiring my home theatre. What do I need to do?

Posted: 5/14/2015 9:53:09 PM EDT

I will be finishing my basement soon. I have my plan for cat5, home automation, and HDMI cables.

I currently have a 65" Samsung 7100 tv with the Samsung soundbar. The sound is fine, but I don't want to miss the opportunity to put speaker wire in the wall BEFORE the drywall goes in.

What do I need to run for speaker wiring?

Is speaker wire even used anymore? (Or is everything wireless now?)

Posted: 5/14/2015 10:01:44 PM EDT

[#1]

Look into Sonos. Pricey but absolutely worth it.

No wires.

Posted: 5/14/2015 10:21:55 PM EDT

[#2]

Fuck wireless.

Run heavy copper speaker wires to the rear/ side positions.

Posted: 5/15/2015 5:20:27 AM EDT

[#3]

Quote History

Quoted:

Fuck wireless.

Run heavy copper speaker wires to the rear/ side positions.

View Quote

This. Maybe one day it will be on par with wired, but right now it just isn't.

How big is the room? Do you want 5.1 or 7.1? You'll need runs for 2 front speakers, 2 rear speakers, a center channel and a sub at the minimum.

Ditch the cat5, go with cat5e or cat6. Digital media is where its at, yo!

Posted: 5/15/2015 5:26:35 AM EDT

[#4]

Quote History

Quoted:
Fuck wireless.

Run heavy copper speaker wires to the rear/ side positions.

View Quote

Yep. I've tried wireless for my rear speakers and it sucks ass. Go wired, get some decent wire rated for in-conduit use.

Posted: 5/15/2015 7:25:04 AM EDT

[#5]

Here is the layout.

RED is the TV wall.

Blue is the wetbar/tile

Green is the couch.

"Optional Bedroom" will be Christmas decoration, Easter decoration, Halloween decoration storage.

I concur on the "FK Wireless" statement. 2.4 ghz wifi messes with my subwoofer. I changed everything i could to 5 ghz, but I still have a few legacy devices that play havoc with it.

I am not ready to buy a receiver and a system. I DO want to ensure I have the correct gauge of wires run to the correct places. Someone mentioned conduit. Why? (To make it easier to repull? Interference-blocking?) PVC tubing good enough?

Posted: 5/15/2015 6:47:05 PM EDT

[#6]

Conduit just in case you ever want to pull anything else. Leave some strings in the conduit with the wire just in case.

Any decent speaker wire should do fine. Here's a link if you wanna get geeky about it: http://www.audioholics.com/audio-video-cables/speaker-cable-gauge Consider in-wall rated speaker wire too.

Run a signal cable for the sub (I'd pull a cat 5e/6 cable through just in case) and make sure there's an electrical outlet next to it. Maybe run one to each side of the couch just for the sake of eventual overkill.

Run for 7.1 even if you're not gonna use it. Just terminate into boxes with blank cover plates.

Any though that you might some day want a ceiling-mount projector? Run power, HDMI, and network to the spot on the ceiling just in case.

Make sure you make a diagram of what goes where and label everything.

Posted: 5/15/2015 8:22:32 PM EDT

[#7]

Quote History

Quoted:

Any though that you might some day want a ceiling-mount projector? Run power, HDMI, and network to the spot on the ceiling just in case.

Make sure you make a diagram of what goes where and label everything.

View Quote

Thx chairman. There will be HDMI from:

-the corner to the possible future projector location
-center of TV wall low to the middle of the wall (if I want to hang the TV)
- center of TV wall to corner (If I ever want to hang the TV and have NOTHING underneath it.

Also, yes, I will use Cat5E. I wrote cat5 as a typing shortcut.

Posted: 5/16/2015 7:09:24 AM EDT

[#8]

Quote History

Quoted:

..

Thx chairman. There will be HDMI from:

-the corner to the possible future projector location

-center of TV wall low to the middle of the wall (if I want to hang the TV)

-center of TV wall to corner (If I ever want to hang the TV and have NOTHING underneath it.

Also, yes, I will use Cat5E. I wrote cat5 as a typing shortcut.

View Quote

Electrical outlets at TV height, behind these possible locations.

Posted: 5/16/2015 3:31:51 PM EDT

[#9]

Quote History

Quoted:
Conduit just in case you ever want to pull anything else. Leave some strings in the conduit with the wire just in case.

Any decent speaker wire should do fine. Here's a link if you wanna get geeky about it: http://www.audioholics.com/audio-video-cables/speaker-cable-gauge Consider in-wall rated speaker wire too.

Run a signal cable for the sub (I'd pull a cat 5e/6 cable through just in case) and make sure there's an electrical outlet next to it. Maybe run one to each side of the couch just for the sake of eventual overkill.

Run for 7.1 even if you're not gonna use it. Just terminate into boxes with blank cover plates.

Any though that you might some day want a ceiling-mount projector? Run power, HDMI, and network to the spot on the ceiling just in case.

Make sure you make a diagram of what goes where and label everything.

View Quote

Ha! I was going to link to that article.

Remember OP - cry once, buy once. I've got 12 ga. running to my center, fronts and surrounds.

Posted: 5/18/2015 3:38:58 PM EDT

[#10]

Run RG-6 so you can put your sub in different locations or add additional subs.

I have a 20amp circuit for my sub amp, a 20amp circuit for my equipment rack and a 20amp circuit for my projector.

Are you going 5.1, 7.1 or higher like Dolby Atmos (7.1.2) or DTS Neo (11.1). And remember that .1 is the sub channel, not the number of subs. As I slowly upgrade, I'll probably end up with 10 subs (six 15's and four 18's).

Posted: 5/18/2015 4:56:11 PM EDT

[#11]

For your install location unless you're going north of 125 watts RMS (peak 250ish) 16/2 would be just fine. 16 AWG stranded copper 2 conductor. Box of 500ft will run you around $75-$100 shipped.

16/2 from your receiver location to your speaker locations. For best quality I would recommend in wall (square) for front/center/right and ceiling (round) for surround pair and surround rear pair. I would recommend pre wiring rg6 to the rear for a subwoofer. A short RCA can be used direct to the receiver from the sub if you desire it at the front of the room.

This will be a good pre wire to prep for 5.1, 5.2, 7.1 or 7.2.

Posted: 5/28/2015 9:32:09 PM EDT

[#12]

So, what audio outs come out of a modern receiver? I am planning on going 12-14 gauge for the speaker wire in the wall, then I see this at monoprice:

rca wallplate

DO I need to run RCAs in the walls?

Posted: 5/29/2015 5:37:15 AM EDT

[#13]

That is a video wall plate. One connector is from HDMI. The three on the left are for component video (red, green, blue) and the three on the right are for composite videos and L/R analog audio (yellow, red, white). I use something similar in my ceiling to run a 35 foot Monoprice HDMI cable from my equipment rack to the projector. I also feed the same video signals to an older TV in the living room but since the connections are hidden, I just have an empty junction box with wire running out.

As I mentioned in the private message, I used an F to RCA connector to run my sub cable in the wall. If you want to use a regular wall plate, it's easy to remove the connector from a keystone jack and put it on a regular wall plate.

Posted: 5/29/2015 11:21:01 AM EDT

[#14]

Thank you for the link for the keystone jack. The only thing I was finding was THIS and it was going to force me to do some creative adapter wiring behind the wall.

I plan on RG-6 through the walls from behind the receiver to my subwoofer location, and 12-14 gauge wiring to all my satellite speaker locations. I will probably just run them to junction boxes w/ blank panel covers over them, since I don't have any satellite speakers now. I just want to ensure I future proof my basement. I wish I would have had the foresight to have power and HDMI pulled through my upstairs walls in my last house when it was built!

Posted: 5/29/2015 11:27:50 AM EDT

[#15]

I've spent days in the AVS (the ARF of Home Theaters) build section reading about how guys wired and networked their theaters, you should too.

The best thing you could do is go a head and plan speaker locations, run wire and terminate with post wall plates and finish later. You really should put a lot of thought into location planning now to save your behind in the future. Wouldn't be the worst idea to pay a pro to come out and consult/plan design. You don't have to do anything beyond that.

Posted: 5/29/2015 2:16:10 PM EDT

[#16]

Quote History

Quoted:
I've spent days in the AVS (the ARF of Home Theaters) build section reading about how guys wired and networked their theaters, you should too.

The best thing you could do is go a head and plan speaker locations, run wire and terminate with post wall plates and finish later. You really should put a lot of thought into location planning now to save your behind in the future. Wouldn't be the worst idea to pay a pro to come out and consult/plan design. You don't have to do anything beyond that.

View Quote

I've been a member there since 2000. I spend the majority of my time in the DIY Speakers and Subs section.

Posted: 5/29/2015 2:32:04 PM EDT

[#17]

Quote History

Quoted:
Thank you for the link for the keystone jack. The only thing I was finding was THIS and it was going to force me to do some creative adapter wiring behind the wall.

I plan on RG-6 through the walls from behind the receiver to my subwoofer location, and 12-14 gauge wiring to all my satellite speaker locations. I will probably just run them to junction boxes w/ blank panel covers over them, since I don't have any satellite speakers now. I just want to ensure I future proof my basement. I wish I would have had the foresight to have power and HDMI pulled through my upstairs walls in my last house when it was built!

View Quote

have you decided on a location without doing any testing? About 1/2 of the sound of a sub is the interaction between the sub and the room. Moving it just a few feet to another location could cause dips or peaks in the frequency response at the listening position.

Don't worry about the peaks because you can add an EQ and pull them down. Valleys in the response are caused by the room and can't be EQed. You can boost a frequency 20db but it may only give you a 3db boost when you measure it.

Posted: 5/29/2015 3:49:28 PM EDT

[#18]

Also read up a Baluns. I don't see where you plan to put your equipment that will be a location to consider too and then pay attention to equipment noise fans etc.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Wiring my home theatre. What do I need to do?

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