wireing & Acustics

[Mike T]

Just a few quick questions. My house is tore up because of water damage from a minor flood, so the carpet is all up. I seen a post on running power under the carpet & pad. My question is do you think it would be OK to run that FLAT speaker wire under the carpet and pad for the back and side channels and take the easy way out , or run a heavier gauge wire through the walls? If I did it now, I could even tape the wire down with the ever usefull duck-tape to keep it in place and put the pad and carped right over it. Any suggestions?

Also, I will have carpet in the room, but no draperies ect right now. I was looking in a few sound rags, about accustic sound squares that are hung on the wall. kind of expensive depending on how many, ect. Were could I find out about these, and are they any good, and do you have to be a rocket scientist to figure out where to put these? I just posted in another section about picking me up 2 more pair of Heresy II speakers in the box for a decent price, and going with an all Heresy home theater - Audio room. Wife calls it the living room, but what does she know.......

Thanks for any help, advise, ect....

Mike T

[P.HUNT]

Yes it is fine to run speaker wire under the carpet I have done it several times. Both Monster and Radio Shack both have a flat 12 gauge wire, of course the Radio Shack is cheaper.

Here is a link to some DIY sound pannels

http://home.comcast.net/~audio-worx/page2DIYpanels.html

[PrestonTom]

There would be no problem. This is low voltage so there is no fire risk.

If it is a long run and you need a heavy gauge but are concerned the bump under the rug would be too large, then you can bi-wire. I believe this would be the equivalent of two units lower (heavier). That is 2 runs of 16 ga is approximately the same as on run of 14ga. Other possible advantages of bi-wiring are minimal if not suspect, although it would allow you to bi-amp in the future.

Sorry to hear about the flooding. I live in New England and we have had a great deal of rain recently. Basements are prone to flooding, so it is a nagging fear that I have. I hope your mess is cleaned up and all is well.

Good luck,

-Tom

[Guest " "]

aside from the other considerations....I would some thought to a furture possibility of another instance of wate damage and design a soulution accordingly....concerned about speaker wires under a carpet that you recently had to pull up due to water damage

[artto]

Not sure exactly what you mean by acoustic sound squares, but for now Ill assume that you mean something like this http://www.auralex.com/acoustic_foam_wedgies/acoustic_foam_wedgies.asp

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Yes, they work, as long as they are made of open-cell foam (as opposed to closed-cell foam which is typically used as packing material). Auralex and Sonex are the predominant brand-name manufacturers, available at discounted prices through pro audio/musical instrument retailers like Sam Ash & Guitar Center. Cheaper stuff is available from other sources (search Google) but you wont find the wide array of style, thickness and color choices

No, its not rocket science, but there are certain rules and approaches that should be followed. You can take a look at my thread in this Forum section (Architectural) for some ideas (arttos klipschorn room). Basically you want to at least take out the first reflection points on the room walls and ceiling. To locate these areas you can use the old mirror trick (angle of incidence = the angle of reflection). Sit at your normal listening location. Have someone hold a small mirror (6-12 will do) flat against the walls and ceiling, and move it around until you see the midrange/treble speakers reflection in the mirror. These are the locations where you should first try placing the acoustic absorption material

Dont forget that the thicker the material is, the lower the frequency absorption typically is, and that they are not 100% absorptive at any frequency, and that the sound which is not absorbed is reflected. The angular and curved surfaces provide diffusion to the unabsorbed sound. There are other materials and ways to achieve the same results, much of which you can read in the above mentioned thread