Surround sound cable?

TKK

I'm in the middle of doing up the sitting room in the house. The skirting is off the wall and I want to hide some sound cable for a surround sound system behind it (timber floors have enough clearance around the base of the wall to drop the cable in).

I have an old poor quality 5.1 system which has cable for the speakers but I plan to upgrade this in the future and do not want to end up with poor cabling letting a decent system down. What sort/grade of cabling should I go for? Is planning for another 5.1 system the right thing to do? Is there any point in thinking of a 6.1/7.1?

Also would it be worth my while installing a socket/patch panel of some sort to terminate the cables behind the entertainment unit? I would imagine terminations for 6+ cables would require a largish terminator block. I may just put a blank single socket and cut a hole in the plate and feed the wires out there. Any thoughts/recommendations?

pH

Just buy some OFC speaker cable like this:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?TabID=1&criteria=speaker%20cable&ModuleNo=17717&doy=27m7

As for terminating I hid all my cables and terminated them on wall plates like this:

Behind Amp


each speaker location:


Remember that the ".1" is normally just a phone cable as most subs are active.

mossym

i think you meant phono, not phone...

also..i like your block..but if you're going to the time to tun cables, run nice fat cables. if those are standard speaker posts on the block you can attach heavy guage cables to those. those little green connectors don't look like they'l take any larger guage wire.

TKK

Cheers lads. Any thoughts on the 5/6/7 speaker layout?

mossym

that depends..if you have a cheap system now, how much are you going to invest? will it be a sytem ina box or a more serious setup? will you ver even have 6.1 or 7.1 setup? if you're planning a reveiver that will handle 6.1 or 7.1, and you have space in your room for the extra speakers then why not do it?

i guess running wire is cheap(relative to the rest). You can always run the cable just in case you decide to use 6.1

I've seen some 6.1 mixes on dvds..never seen a 7.1, although with the arrival of blu-ray and hd-dvd that may change..

pH

i think you meant phono, not phone...

indeed!

but if you're going to the time to tun cables, run nice fat cables.

I'd rather not turn this into a speaker wire debate

Cheers lads. Any thoughts on the 5/6/7 speaker layout?

6.1 (center rear) is quite nice, and the extended DTS and DD formats support it, though it's not extemely common on DVDs at the moment.

7.1 has 2 center rears at TBH nothing really uses it at the moment, but if you're preparing the room it would be best to go for at least 6.1, and tbh with the new HD formats coming soon 7.1 isn't a lot more work.

mossym

no arguement on cables, even those that argue vehemently on the merit of one cable brand over another( which i don't buy into by they way) will say run the biggest cable you can. that stuff you linked to would be perfect, i'd just go for the 12 guage version of it over the 17 guage if i had the room to fit it..

nephster

pH, where did you get those wallplates? Been looking at loads of similar ones (going to chase in wires for a 7.1 system) online and the vast majority I found were solder tags, not screw terminals. I'm ok with a soldering iron but this looks a lot easier, especially with the sub output!

pH

The one I linked to is from keene.co.uk, though is is horribly overpriced. The ones i used did have solder connections at the rear, and tbh this is the easiest bit of soldering you'll ever do - it's by no means fiddly!

Try typing 'speaker plate' into ebay.co.uk and you'll see lots of them at reasonable prices.

nephster

Ah, worked out they're from Keene. But 90 sterling! Nexxia have them for almost 60 sterling less (7.1), think a bit of soldering is worth nearly €100

http://www.nexxia.co.uk/Wall_plate_Connectors/Dolby_Speaker_wall_plates.htm

TKK

Ok. I'm going to lay cables to allow me to upgrade to a 6.1/7.1 (6.1 is 3 rear & 7.1 is 4 rear speakers, yes?) system so that I won't have to worry about destroying the place in the future.

One further question. Do I need to ensure that the length of cable, e.g. running to the left rear and right rear are the same length? I seem to remember reading this somewhere before.

TKK

At those prices I'm unsure of putting in proper terminating boxes though.

For the speaker locations I may just leave the wire coming out from under/behind the skirting. As this will be behind furniture or the speakers themselves I can live with it.

For the section behind the entertainment unit I'm going to put in a single socket and a blank plate with a hole in the center with the cables coming out at that point. Since this will be behind the unit and will already be a jumble of cables I think this is a compromise I can also live with.

andy1249

Yes you are correct , each speaker cable pair need to be the same length or you may end up with some nasty effects.

pH

andy1249 wrote:

Yes you are correct , each speaker cable pair need to be the same length or you may end up with some nasty effects.

Amuse me! - tell me why.

Idleater

pH wrote:

Amuse me! - tell me why.

Never mind that, how about wiring the room and patch panels for BiWirable speakers.

L.

pH

nereid wrote:

Never mind that, how about wiring the room and patch panels for BiWirable speakers.

L.

Don't get me started!

JohnnieM

pH wrote:

indeed!

I'd rather not turn this into a speaker wire debate

The speaker wire you need is 79 strand speaker cable..Btw wont matter if ther's a difference in cable length (over the distance of a room)in a hall or stadium yes.. room. No

mossym

andy1249 wrote:

Yes you are correct , each speaker cable pair need to be the same length or you may end up with some nasty effects.

rubbish...whats important is the distance from the speaker to you...and most decent receivers will allow you to set this..

andy1249

I guess all that Richer sounds stuff is just a sales pitch then ?, thats where I got it from ,

http://www.richersounds.ie/asp/index.asp?ObjectID=310&RecordID=10


Seems you cant trust anyone these days.

pH

andy1249 wrote:

I guess all that Richer sounds stuff is just a sales pitch then ?, thats where I got it from ,

http://www.richersounds.ie/asp/index.asp?ObjectID=310&RecordID=10


Seems you cant trust anyone these days.

Well maybe not people selling speaker cable by the meter