Sound systems recommendations and wiring

Make sure to select the Cable yourself. The quality of the Sound is directly related to the quality of Cable.
Check out the likes of Richer Sounds who would be able to recommend various cables depending on quality and price. I've no connection with them, I just admire their dedication for good Hi fi and Sound.

I would not by cable from richer sounds or any AV shop. I've bought TVs and sound systems from them etc but not cable. If you post on the electrical forum you will get more solutions or the AV forum, but the cross sectional area of speaker cable is important. Having it all the same size is helpful. Newer sound systems have auto set ups and you can balance out the sound for irregular shaped rooms and they will tell you if you have the polarity of the cables mixed up etc.

people have recommended

http://www.bluejeanscable.co.uk/
http://www.cables.ie

And I've bought from www.cpc.co.uk

something like this is about 10 euro for 100M
http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-power/7-0-20mm-white-100m/7-strand-speaker-cable-white-100m/dp/CBBR1069

This would be better

http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-power/jy-1250rb/2-x-0-57mm-ofc-cable-red-black/dp/CBBR8172?in_merch=Featured%20Products

over twice the "size" CSA of the cheaper stuff but still has OFC conductors

I did not spend much time looking for you, I picked the first few cables in the sizes i wanted to compare

http://www.cables.ie/100m-speaker-cable-2-x-4-mm very thick cable sometimes too thick to fit into some sound systems so watch out for that

This here seems like a relatively good deal for 2 x 2.5 mm² OFC, this is the best value i could find in 5 minutes, by far an electrical wholesaler would charge you about the same for poorer quality IMHO

http://www.cables.ie/classic-speaker-cable-2-x-2-5-mm-ofc.html

Guys in AV shops have a huge mark up on cable, they also massively over spec them. I've also found that electrical wholesalers are not great value either.

I'd agree that if you bought it yourself you could get better value and cable. AV guys will try to fill you with science, shielding is important more important than coating IMHO, but buying the thickest copper you can for your money and keeping the cable away from power cables is the most important thing.
The environment you install the cable in is important, if you keep it away form other cables you wont need all the high end shielding and fancy stuff as much


cheapest way to do it it work out where you want 5.1 sound, that will be a speaker in ever corner, a centre speaker by the screen and a base point (usually in a regular house right beside the amp and does not need a cabling point)
You could always get a couple of speaker points from your amp sound system cabled to your kitchen or gym etc if you'd like stereo sound in there and you have a nice fancy system that can be controlled by an app.
Many sound systems support zones you could have 5.1 in one room but use all your kit to power stereo speakers (two speakers) in another room all from the one place, the apps for android and iphone would switch these zones. This is a much cheaper way of doing this than something like sonas

It would also be good advice to have a Cat 6 data point from the sound system location to where your wired internet router is, this is always better than wireless and your new system my not have wireless, it might be a model up, but don't rule out using apps with your system

There is not much to wiring a house for sound once you know where your focal point is, worst thing would be to pay 100 euro for rubbish cable from an electrician (supplied to him by a wholesaler that had to get on special order from somewhere)

You'd be better to just order it and get something a little thicker than the normal .22mm cable but not into stupid money, then have it sent to the electrician. (unless the electrician is well up to speed)

If you have a rough drawing and requirement for sound pm it to me and I'll have a look if you want, I've marked up loads of them at this stage.

BarneyMc wrote: »

Planning this myself. Is there any merit in adding cable for a 7.1 setup or is 5.1 more than adequate? This site gives a good layout of all setups.

I don't think there is IMHO very little out there in 7.1 but the two cables would cost you nothing .I had it and never used it my amp can turn and sound input 5.1 and play 7.1 and I'm happy with that but no harm in future proofing I guess, but I wouldn't bother for myself

I have sonos wireless speakers throughout my house. In the sitting room I have the playbar, sub and two play 1's. In the kitchen I have a play 5 and a couple of play 1's upstairs.

They're all wireless and they just need to be plugged into the mains. The sound from them is superb and they can be all be used individually or together. Really good stuff but pricy.

BarneyMc wrote: »

In a new build would you recommend wiring it for a standard wired setup?

Sonos do an Amp that you can connect standard speaker to, like ceiling speakers etc. and control them via the Sonos app. A great thing about sonos is the siplicity of the system and people of all ages can easily use it.

Sonos use their own mesh communications system that is extremely stable (I have zero drop outs) in about two years. The sound from my setup in the sitting room is stunning, I have the playbar above my TV and a Sub in the corner of the room with two smaller Play 1's behind. I easily switch from sound from the TV to streaming music from Spotify in seconds and if I want I can turn the large Play 5 in the kitchen on and stream the same music through that too.

It's expensive though, the sub and Playbar are €700 each, play 1's are €200 and the play 5 is €400 but worth every cent