tljraj Posted February 25, 2001 Share Posted February 25, 2001 If I'm understanding this right from past post using a coat hanger for speaker wire is just as good of a conductor as silver or copper???? If so, are there other factors to determine like distance/ length of run or oxygen free wire for better follow of signal???? (Man am I confuuuuussed) Reason for questions is that I'm buying a home at the end of March and plan on doing a quality job with parts. Home is 4490 SQ FT. Also What is the best setup for a home theater room size is roughly 28'x 40' L x W or W x L???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RossVTaylor Posted February 25, 2001 Share Posted February 25, 2001 I think the coat hanger experiment was with interconnects, but I might be mistaken. I used one, once, to jump start a motorcycle and it worked okay then! If you have the option when building, it would be really, really nice to be able to run 3/4-inch or 1/2-inch PVC electrical conduit to each speaker location. This may not be practical, but it would allow for flexibility in wiring changes in the future. At the very least, you might want to consider linking your equipment locations with conduit so that you can run Firewire or optical or whatever future standard comes along. As far as standard speaker wiring goes, I personally don't see the need to use anything fancy for regular "house music" or in-wall speakers. Check out some of the wiring threads in the Architectural forum, about 30-45 days ago I think. The demo theater room at the Klipsch factory is wired using regular THHN stranded copper wire in conduits, and nobody in our group was complaining about the sound! You've got a lot of planning to do, and it's not a bad idea to let a pro look it over. You want to run four-conductor cables to volume control locations in each music room, then from those locations you run two-conductor to each speaker location. In-wall or floor speakers? Plan for both? A/B switches in some rooms? IR control wires? Wires to potential subwoofer locations? There's lots more, too. Potentially frustrating but fun, if done right. Ross Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Phillips Posted February 25, 2001 Share Posted February 25, 2001 The coat hanger was used for digital coax.From what I've read,it worked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Posted February 26, 2001 Share Posted February 26, 2001 From my experience in the computer industry conduit size is a conundrum. No matter how big you make the conduit you will probably want it to be larger 6 months after you install it. I would suggest that if you get some professional advice you should take it and then increase the crosectional area of the recommended size by at least 100%. (Of course, this must be controlled by economic good sense.) Reason: as soon as you start construction the technology will change and more or different cables will be required. It is very seldom that cable is pulled out of conduit when "replacement cable" is added simply because it is still in use when you need to add more... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RossVTaylor Posted February 27, 2001 Share Posted February 27, 2001 Dick is right about conduit. This is definitely one of those "bigger is better" times. The 1/2-inch or 3/4-inch sized I mentioned are ridiculously small, but they're the largest practical size to run through a 2X4 wall. They'll handle basic speaker cable but not much more. I should have specified that the small conduit was suggested for speaker wire only. Where I suggested you run conduit between equipment locations, or between floors, you should try to run inch and a half or two inch conduit. Ross Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Adams Posted February 27, 2001 Share Posted February 27, 2001 Just a thought.... But while I'm certain it would not meet code for routing electrical wiring, I don't see why one couldn't use thin wall PVC (such as PR180 or PR200) as conduit for audio/video cabling. Due to it's thinner wall, a larger O.D. could be used in a standard 2X4 wall. And, it's much cheaper and easier to work with. Tom Adams Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lerajie Posted March 2, 2001 Share Posted March 2, 2001 You can use what's commonly referred to as "Smurf tube" for your wire runs. It is a blue flexible plastic tubing that can be found at most home improvement stores. It can be bought in several sizes and can be very easily worked with by novice and pro alike. ------------------ lerajie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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