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deadlifter
01-07-2004, 06:03 PM
I'm new to this.

I'm just about ready to buy my first set of surround sound speakers. My question is this, how do you guys ususually wire your's. Could I just go under the carpet?

uncooked
01-07-2004, 06:48 PM
well you could go under the carpet but then most likely you will have bumps or like a ridge. i dont know how powerful your talking for a system but i would suggest using 14 - 12 gauge wire. if its a average 80 - 120 watt system. "per channel"

the best would be to run it through the walls "behind the drywall" but i dont think your building the room by the sounds of it.

my suggestion would be to try and tuck them underneath the base boards. or even take them off and put them back there and carefully re nail them down making sure not to hit the wire.

markw
01-07-2004, 08:24 PM
A few years ago I was able to get some 16 gauge flat wire that, when run under wall to wall carpeting, was totally undetectable. This got me through my rental years. I would go in before the carpet was laid and tape the needed runs to the floor with masking tape. When the guys laid the carpet, no way anyone could tell there were wires under there.

uncooked
01-07-2004, 09:12 PM
yea that mosly depends on the quality of the under lay i guess. " and flat wire is a must lol"

i would really recommend thicker then 16 gauge if you are running more then 30 feet to the back though. its possible to loose some signal. i just ran 25 feet of 16 gauge to the back of a second 5.1 project and im going to have to take it all out and re wire. im making no mistake this time and going with 12 gauge.

there was just alot of static in the rears comapred to the fronts that shouldnt have been there.

recoveryone
01-08-2004, 06:07 AM
yea that mosly depends on the quality of the under lay i guess. " and flat wire is a must lol"

i would really recommend thicker then 16 gauge if you are running more then 30 feet to the back though. its possible to loose some signal. i just ran 25 feet of 16 gauge to the back of a second 5.1 project and im going to have to take it all out and re wire. im making no mistake this time and going with 12 gauge.

there was just alot of static in the rears comapred to the fronts that shouldnt have been there.

Not sure why you were getting static, but am sure it was not from the wires, unless they could have been out of phase (wrong connection). I have had my 16 gauge (running 20'-30') for over 5 years and have never had a problem. I just clean the ends once a year, never have any static or hissing. As far as placement in a finish room, I would go with 1 or 2 different setups:

The baseboard is good
Run along the crease of the wall and celing (if you have kids, Kid Proof)

The wire I used was plain old white Rat Shack 16 gauge that match the walls and then painted it over to make sure it matched. I have to point it out to friends when they come over cuz they don't notice it. Running under carpet IMHO is just asking for problems, all padding wears down and you can't maintain it or switch it out.

Keith from Canada
01-08-2004, 06:25 AM
i would really recommend thicker then 16 gauge if you are running more then 30 feet to the back though. its possible to loose some signal. i just ran 25 feet of 16 gauge to the back of a second 5.1 project and im going to have to take it all out and re wire. im making no mistake this time and going with 12 gauge.

there was just alot of static in the rears comapred to the fronts that shouldnt have been there.

I would be somewhat concerned about other areas of your HT system if you were getting static from your rear speakers because this is something unrelated to the speaker wire. 16 guage wire is more than sufficient for running to surround speakers...12 guage would be overkill.

Willow
01-08-2004, 07:17 AM
I would be somewhat concerned about other areas of your HT system if you were getting static from your rear speakers because this is something unrelated to the speaker wire. 16 guage wire is more than sufficient for running to surround speakers...12 guage would be overkill.

I would agree with my fellow canuck....I use 16 for fronts and backs...no static. the rears are home depot 16 and works great. I would also look at the connections maybe wires are touching somewhere

markw
01-08-2004, 08:17 AM
Here's that link...

http://home.earthlink.net/~rogerr7/wire.htm#wiretable

topspeed
01-08-2004, 08:17 AM
There was a great post on the old forum that had a link to graph that showed what wire gauge you should use for a specified distance. I think Woochifer or Smokey posted it. It was pretty cool as it accounted for any signal degradation over distance. You might want to check that out.

As for the question, obviously if you can get into your attic or crawl space and drop some wire between the sheetrock, that will be the cleanest install. Put some nice Niles faceplates on it and, viola'! You're good to go.

If that doesn't work, using good quality flat wire such as Nordost Valhalla (NOTE: I didn't say use Valhalla, I said LIKE Valhalla) will make tucking it under the pad much easier. If you don't have carpeting in your room you could easily get some pre-fab crown molding and tuck it into the ceiling/wall crevice and conceal it behind the molding (in this case you could use normal round wire). This is perfect for ceiling or high wall mounted installs and you get the added bonus of dressing up your HT room. Crown moldings are always classy.

Good luck