I'm having someone come over next week to run new speaker wire to my surrounds.

My room is roughly 20 feet by 20 feet with a cathedral ceiling that goes from 11 feet up to 16 feet.

He'll have to run the wire through the wall going up about 14 feet, then across the attic to the other side (20 feet), then down about 6 feet with the furthest speaker being about 10 feet across from that point.  Adding all that up, there's 50 feet of wire for each speaker not including slack.  I have 5B's in the back (if that matters).  They aren't wall mounted, there's a ledge in the back and the speakers sit on the ledge.

I'm using 12 gauge for the 5T fronts (probably overkill since the farthest one is only about 10 feet from the AVR) and to the 5C.

I know I need to make sure he uses a wire that is certified for in-wall use (C-2?), but what gauge? 

Thanks!

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Joe
If you can't have fun doing it, it's probably not worth doing.

Yeah I would stay with the 12 guage.. It will be less likely to get hot..  and for the amount of wire you will be running may not require 12 gauge but I would run it anyway.. It will have a lower resistance as it gets warmer in the house..

If your guy is cool with pulling 12 gauge then you might as well go with that, but a lot of folks go with 14 because it is easier to pull. 

I wouldn't worry about them getting hot though, the coating will keep the wires insulated and people run thinner gauge wires in their walls all the time with no problems.   

 

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Jason Hicks
Aperion Audio Guru

Running 12-gauge speaker wire to your surrounds would definitely be an OVER-KILL.

 

The series resistance for a 50- foot run would be .1485 ohms for 14 gauge and .0935 ohms for 12 gauge.

 

If your household wiring @ 14 gauge rated at 15 amps doesn’t get Hot under full load then those surround speakers running at 130 watts per channel would no-way reach the wiring limits.

 

If you drive the surround 6-ohm speakers with 130 watts they may draw about 4.65475 amps. You will probably never do that so that is why I say 12-gauge is really an OVERKILL!

 

I would run #14 gauge because it will withstand the pull through process better than a smaller gauge wire.

 

Jack

Thanks everyone. It sounds like 14 gauge is the way to go.  I'm just hoping this guy doesn't get stuck in the crawl space

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Joe
If you can't have fun doing it, it's probably not worth doing.

My (hopefully) last question about speaker wire.  Do speaker wire wallplates degrade the audio?  I'd like to put banana plugs on the surrounds, have that wire run through the wall and terminate at a wallplate behind my media center.

I'd then plug a wire into the wallplate, also with a banana plug, and terminate that wire at the AVR.

This will be 14 gauge wire throughout and the run will be the same as before (about 50 feet for each speaker).

Thanks! I really appreciate the help; I'd hate to go through all this and wind up doing the wrong thing.

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Joe
If you can't have fun doing it, it's probably not worth doing.

joetag:

My (hopefully) last question about speaker wire.  Do speaker wire wallplates degrade the audio?  I'd like to put banana plugs on the surrounds, have that wire run through the wall and terminate at a wallplate behind my media center.

I'd then plug a wire into the wallplate, also with a banana plug, and terminate that wire at the AVR.

This will be 14 gauge wire throughout and the run will be the same as before (about 50 feet for each speaker).

Thanks! I really appreciate the help; I'd hate to go through all this and wind up doing the wrong thing.

 

Nope, using wall plates doesn't affect the sound quality at all, we use them here at Aperion HQ in our soundrooms. 

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Jason Hicks
Aperion Audio Guru

OK, another speaker wire question (sort of).

My wire guy came over today and looked around. He said, "well I could make that back wall look like swiss cheese because there are 3 fire breaks in there that I have to drill through - why don't you just use wireless?"  I told him that Yamaha didn't have that option to which he said, "so? just buy a kit" (this is one of those times that you feel real stupid in life).

He pointed me to the Rocketfish (Best Buy) Wireless Speaker Kit and said he'd come back if that didn't work out.  So, what the heck, I bought one and hooked it up.  I have to tell you, it sounds OK to my ears.  I read some online customer reviews and some people had problems with popping (none so far) and a hum (interference from something?).  One guy plugged them in backwards (he plugged the speakers into the transmitter and vice versa - said he shorted out his receiver when he turned it on).

I respect the opinions I read here much more than what I read in places like Amazon, etc. Anyone have a take on this setup?  You can see my front and back (I posted a picture in the Gallery). 

 Thanks!

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Joe
If you can't have fun doing it, it's probably not worth doing.

If you have a choice...always go wired.

Wireless is only for situations in which you have no choice. However, if it is not cost effective to drop wires, and your wireless is working, great! I can understand not wanting to tear your walls apart. I had the luxury of having wires run when my room was renovated. It does sound as if wireless was your only practical choice.

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Scottiemon

I have to say that running surround wires through established walls is a pain in the but.  Luckily my cousin is an journeyman electrician.  He helped me run my wire.  I ended up going down through the basement and up through my back walls.  The electrcians fish tape is one of the best tools an electrcian has for running wire.

I sort of remember basements. I was born and raised in the Cleveland, OH area and basements were normal.  I lived in California for about 18 years and I've been in Arizona for the last 9 years.  Closest thing to a bsement in both states is an underground parking garage.  This house is especially dificult because there's no crawl space and it has cathedral ceilings.  Looks very nice, but it's a pain for running wire.

Now that I have the rears finally working, I am noticing just how bad that room is for sound. When dialog is coming out of the front and the rear there's a noticeable echo. At first I thought maybe the rears were out of sync with the fronts but they aren't. I'm going to try and angle them down a bit (they're sitting almost 9 feet high right now) and see if that helps. 

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Joe
If you can't have fun doing it, it's probably not worth doing.