Trying to think ahead on stereo wiring....

[robs400]

I'm sure there are some threads in here that contain pics and intricate details of awesome mega garage stereo setups...I unfortunately am not realistically going to be putting one of those in my garage.

I have a few old surround sound speaker sets (center, left front, right front, left rear, right rear, and sub). I have tried selling them on craiglist but have had no luck so I figured maybe they could be used in my slowly moving garage space.

I have two older receivers, a pioneer unit and an RCA unit. I'm wondering if it would be worth picking out a spot to plant that and run some wires through my walls to a few speaker locations as the walls are currently all exposed.

Whats customary to run speaker wire through walls? Along the same path and holes that my electrical is going through? small holes that are separate? Or perhaps up along the ceiling in the space that will be created by the strapping?

Again this is nothing exotic but I figured it might be something I could work on while waiting on some other work to finish up.

Any pics or ideas would be great, I'm def. no stereo guru so any input would be helpful. And a pic for good measure....

 

[madmanmerc]

while building my home I was planning on wiring every room in wall. my brother who is in insurance advised me to make sure that all wires were in wall wires because if there is a fire due to wiring I would not be covered. the difference in price is not that great so maybe you should look into that.

 

[Steroblan]

I would use the path of least resistance and try to conceal as best I could. Keep it away from the electrical wiring if possible. If you are just installing the stereo, then the two speakers will work fine for your shop.

 

[bww_mnm]

In wall 12 gauge for long runs. Monoprice.com is tough to beat.

 

[bww_mnm]

http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=102&cp_id=10239&cs_id=1023901&p_id=2817&seq=1&format=2

 

[GYPSY400]

I would recommend that you run the wires in their own holes to prevent any possibility of interference.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk

 

[Bojans]

BMW has it right, Monoprice is great. I did whole house audio (and garage) with their wire. do not run the speaker wire in the same path as electric for fear of interference. You also may want to consider adding an in wall volume control so you could hide the receiver away. For about $30 you can get a bluetooth receiver to add onto your stereo and just stream from your computer or phone to the stereo.

 

[Donald Cook]

You could use shielded speaker wire, I use it anyway even if the electric wires aren't nearby.

 

[OJ Bartley]

A couple of things...

- as stated above, don't run signal (speaker or RCA, etc.) wires with electrical. Cross them at 90* when you have to, but try to keep them at least a few inches or more away on a parallel path.

- ideally, if you can run conduit (maybe hard plastic or "smurf tube") for the path of your wires, you'll have the flexibility if you need to replace or add anything, and it gives them a little more protection.

- again, as mentioned, use in-wall rated wire to meet code (and for peace of mind).

- since you have no walls, you might as well pre-wire the full surround setup. Speaker wire is relatively inexpensive, and even if you only start out with 2.0, you might want to upgrade. Since you actually have all of the speakers now anyway, run the wires while it's easy to do. Any make sure you account for a subwoofer (or two) while you're at it.