Getting cabling back to surrounds without clutter

[ted_b]

This post is asking best practice questions about cabling (speaker or interconnect) for an ITU-designed 5.1 system.

This is the second home that I've had a large music-oriented 5.1 system (the previous one had 7.1 as well, but that's a different day). This time I am framing in and building up the room from scratch, so I have more options. That's what I want to ask about.

All my speakers will be approx 9 ft from me, with my full-range floor standing surrounds at approx 90-100 degrees. I designed the room slightly wide for that reason, and that width allows for some rack room on either side wall, but currently am visualizing front racks in front of and below my center channel. Note: my racks will be full cuz the room equipment must support 2 channel, 5.1 music and a pull-down projector screen-type video system. My front speakers take first priority as I listen 50% stereo, so those speakers will not have nor need cable tunnels or anything buried or hidden to wire them up. But the surrounds are significantly back near the back wall and require some planning to get either interconnect (assuming I put 2 channels of amplification in the back of the room) or speaker wire (if surround amps are in front rack with everything else). Subwoofers are taken care of and not an issue here.

I may or may not invest slightly less (per meter) in the longer runs of cabling for the surrounds, but in either case I would like to have them hidden/buried/out-of-the-way for normal foot traffic and overall aesthetic. I am open to some sort of side wall channel (adds to the length vs going point a to point b) or even a channel beneath the carpeting if that would work.
As I said earlier, the width of the room allows for equipment racks to be placed on, say, the right wall area, but that means I have robbed from Peter (short cabling for fronts) to pay Paul (shortened cabling for rears). Not sure I like that solution.

Anyway...I can figure this out but wondered if any of you surround fans have some best practice advise. Thanks

 

[proufo]

My dream system has a dedicated 7-channel amp for the 5 movie/ambiance surround speakers (LS, RS, LSB, CSB, RSB) (2 spare amp channels) in a star configuration with the amp/Dolby Surround processor behind the listener(s) position (balanced interconnects).

The 5 mch/Quad channels (different LS & RS speakers) are handled by the primary 7-channel amp.

 

[HDave]

I went down to the basement behind my entertainment center with the wires for the surrounds and surround backs, stapled them across the joists and brought them up by the cold air return. I had to notch the vent and didn't put on banana plugs until I had all wires ready. I used more speaker wire doing it this way but nothing ever ran across a walk path. This was the best set up I had until my wife wanted me to only use half of my 15' X 30' room. (Now in a 15' X 15' area). Pull down and threw out that older wire and bought a higher quality on the renew.

 

[ted_b]

Thx HDave but I’m already in the basement/lower level.

 

[HDave]

Thx HDave but I’m already in the basement/lower level.

Plan B, they do make plastic concealers for along the wall or across walk paths, depending on how much you need it can get pricey. Since your down maybe up will be an option.

 

[sbrom]

I went down to the basement behind my entertainment center with the wires for the surrounds and surround backs, stapled them across the joists and brought them up by the cold air return. I had to notch the vent and didn't put on banana plugs until I had all wires ready. I used more speaker wire doing it this way but nothing ever ran across a walk path. This was the best set up I had until my wife wanted me to only use half of my 15' X 30' room. (Now in a 15' X 15' area). Pull down and threw out that older wire and bought a higher quality on the renew.

My sympathy on the square room. All those reinforcing bass resonances! My room is 15x16 and it took some corner bass traps to tame it. As to hiding wires, I’m a work in progress. First step is to evolve the placement over time for optimal sound. Next buy some cable channels for on ceiling and wall.

 

[filper]

Is the ceiling finished ? What are the dimensions of the space including height ?

 

[LuvMyQuad]

What filper asked is key. How is the ceiling finished?

 

[HDave]

My sympathy on the square room. All those reinforcing bass resonances! My room is 15x16 and it took some corner bass traps to tame it. As to hiding wires, I’m a work in progress. First step is to evolve the placement over time for optimal sound. Next buy some cable channels for on ceiling and wall.

You're correct I use to utilize 2 subs with my older Yamaha AVR. Changing from the Yamaha to the newer Marantz changed my sound stage the bass was too much, went to 1 sub and also moved my 4 way Floorstandings to the back to balance the bass.

 

[ubertrout]

I have two of these, one on each side of the room, with monoprice speaker cable run through the walls/ceiling between them: https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=3642. The AVR and fronts are on one side, the four rears are on the other. The clutter is pretty minimal and frankly when I sell the place it's not going to be a mess to clean up, and perhaps even a selling point.

 

[ted_b]

So to add to this: the insulators will be here next Thursday and I have decided to run flexible PVC (aka smurf tubes, but the gray smooth kind in my case) and pull wires to the three "upgrade-ready" hard to reach places; i.e left surround, right surround and HDMI cable to pj (although for that run the HDMI cable will simply be in wall and the smurf tube will be for future needs.

I am thinking of long-term replacing my McCormack DNA-250 modded surround amp (stereo) with two monoblocks. Until I do I will likely pull speaker cable through to the rears. Keeping in mind that I listen to hirez multichannel (like most here) and my surrounds are full-range, timbre-matched (and maybe soon identical to my fronts) and equidistant ITU. Once I have the ability to run XLR then those runs will be interconnect...but I get ahead of myself. In either case (and short term my focus is speaker cable) I do not own that length of cabling today. Kal is recommending to me to do Canare 4S11. Any opinions or other recommendations for, say, 30 ft of wire to each (given that the run is up and over and not a straight line, the speakers are truly not 30 feet from amp as the crow flies)? Thx in advance.

 

[marpow]

I am going to watch this thread as I will be doing the same thing in a couple months, lots of interesting stuff here.
This Crutchfield article is at least giving some good pointers. If you scroll down they show a picture of flat speaker wire behind base board. Super easy and can get to it in the future if needed. Not sure of the quality of the flat speaker wire but that is a debate for another time.

 

[HomerJAU]

Ideally you’d use twisted pair cabling as that reduces electromagnetic interference from other cables including ac power.

In my new main 7.1 (at the time) system by side and rear cables went under my room, in my garage. I added 4 ceilings about a year later and ran those in the ceiling space between the main rafters and supports to support an iron roof, about a 20mm gap. I could push a electricians flexible/extendable fibreglass rod though and grab it to use as a pull-through, with cables taped to the end. I ran the four cables out a wall to outside and small rectangle profile conduit down the outside the back into my room behind my rack. All totally invisible from inside. The conduit looks ok, it can’t be seen from my yard or out on the street.

 

[bmoura]

I am going to watch this thread as I will be doing the same thing in a couple months, lots of interesting stuff here.
This Crutchfield article is at least giving some good pointers. If you scroll down they show a picture of flat speaker wire behind base board. Super easy and can get to it in the future if needed. Not sure of the quality of the flat speaker wire but that is a debate for another time.

Kal Rubinson says that his go-to speaker wire is Canare 4S11, available in bulk from studio supply houses on the internet.
https://www.amazon.com/Canare-Speaker-Cable-Premium-Bananas/dp/B01N9N2UA3