Home Theatre advice

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D16Civic

Matt
VIP
This ended up a little longer than I thought, sorry.

I have a room I'm currently working on turning into our main tv/entertainment area. Basically I'm working with a blank slate, but plan on wall mounting a tv and hooking up a surround system in the near future.

I've already installed recessed lights, and added a couple outlets where the tv and electronic gizmos will go. My question involves running wiring for surround sound purposes, and the research I've done has resulted in some conflicting information, specifically regarding a subwoofer. Some recommendations I've seen have specified using coax, and some just regular speaker wire, and I'm just looking for advice as to what I should run.

This is all being run in-wall and across the ceiling in the attic, as this is the only room in the house not over the basement, it's a fucking pita getting up there, and I've had to cut out small sections of drywall in the wall and ceiling to fish wire through because I don't have enough clearance to drill through the top plates in the walls, so this is gonna be a 1 shot deal (hopefully). My goal is to avoid having coax and speaker wire running like a maze all across the room.

I haven't picked out a receiver or speakers yet, just trying to plan ahead. What I'm thinking is as follows:

2 runs of speaker wire to each side for the rear so I'm 5.1 or 7.1 compatible
1 run of speaker wire for the sub and/or 1 run of coax for the sub
1 run of coax for satellite tv at the front of the room

Anything I'm missing or other advice would be welcomed. Thanks in advance.
 
Powered subs run off a single digital coax cable. it looks like a beefy RCA more or less.
ul-c2sw.jpg

HomeTech Solutions: C2SW - Powered Subwoofer Interconnect - Ultralink Products, Inc.

Keep the sub up front. no need to run it anywhere. Shove it in a corner by the tv wall or something. Remember, it needs a plug outlet too most likely.

Some receiveres offer a wireless rear amp so no speaker wire is needed to run the surrounds and might be something to look into.

The new samsung is bad ass. I want it.
Samsung HW-C700 Home theater receiver with 3D-ready HDMI switching at Crutchfield.com
 
Ok cool. That cable was my biggest question. The sub may have to be at the rear of the room due to the layout of furniture and such, kinda limited because it's open off the kitchen on one side. In any event I'd rather be safe then sorry. Luckily A/C power isn't a problem.
 
A good quality cable could cost you a fortune, specially for a long distance. Back about 5 years ago, my dad spent $150 on a 4 foot monster cable. Remember that you get what you pay for.
 
Not to long ago I remember seeing several reports that Monster Cable is just bending consumers over but maybe that only applies to their digital cabling. Digital is digital after all.
 
Unless you have a sound proof room, or have interference issues, a standard cable is all you need. Your ears won't be able to tell the difference.
 
Yeah the monster cable stuff isn't gonna make a difference to my ears. I paid 40c/ft at Home Depot for 16/2 in wall cable and a comparable Monster product is 1.30-1.40/ft.

Got all my wire and cable pulled last night and terminated all the ends. I still have a fair amount of drywall repair and mudding to do as one wall had 70's paneling glued to the old drywall and there was no saving it, as well as a few spots I cut out to pull wire up. No big deal though.
 
With "audio" branded cable - you get raped for what you pay for. While there are special audio cables, its all very ho-hum details: how many pair in a wire, whats the jacket rated for voltage/temp-wise, how much capacitance in a few hundred feet, does it have a shield...

For a home you just need to get something like 8451 Belden for signal and maybe 8461/8471 for speaker level - my memory is fading after learning 4/8 conductor codes. For audio the only convienience is stiffness ie how well you can coil it and store it, but at home you're just going to run it and never touch it again.

The only cable i've found that requires true maintenence and consideration is Cat6 cable. If you actually meter your Cat6 cable you'll see that once a handcart with 100lbs rolls over it - its done. You can unspool and spool a hundred feet maybe 6 times before it's only Cat5 grade. And most stuff you get off the shelf that claims Cat6 doesn't even start out at the right performance for adequate speed/packet loss. What a bitch.
 
6 years later the TV and receiver have permanent speakers mounted. Better late than never.

Receiver is a Yamaha Rx-v 673.


Speakers are Kef t-205.

IMAG1233.jpg IMAG1234.jpg
 
Solid install! Looks good.

Thank you. I have an extreme anal retentiveness about visible wires of any sort. Drives me absolutely bananas.

Considered going in wall/on wall with the speakers and finally settled on these after doing an install for someone else. Being frugal I couldn't pull the trigger on the normal list price of $1999. Finally found them on sale for 2 weeks direct from manufacturer for $1199 before xmas. Still hesitated lol. My wife gave me a little push to just go ahead and do it. Something about working hard and deserving to spend a little $ lol. Who can argue with that?

Bought a new Harmony Hub remote to control the whole thing, and honestly I'm not impressed. Had an older Harmony 700 but with things working via RF control nowadays it was no longer an all in one solution. The Logitech app for the remote has some bugs that need to be worked out, the Macro commands are a little bit clunky, and I can't get the damn thing to work with the Comcast X One box at all.

I do have it controlling the tv, Fire tv, amp, blu-ray player, and an OTA box. Right now I'm giving it a C+

On a side note I ended up using MOCA bridges instead of WiFi or hard wired ethernet to connect everything to the home network. Some trial and error and playing around with different connections but it's all seamless now.
 
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The are so cheap now compared to the old days. We have a 75" in the living room, 60 in the man cave and a 50 in our bedroom and a 42 in the guest room. Lol. Unheard of just 10 years ago. I think i paid more for my first 42" plasma than all of these combined. The 50 inch bedroom tv is the newest. Samsung from the wholesale club off the shelf. It's 4k but nothing special and was under 300 bucks. Honestly see no need to spend more than that other than for size incremental. Great quality picture and sound.
 
6 years later the TV and receiver have permanent speakers mounted. Better late than never.

Receiver is a Yamaha Rx-v 673.


Speakers are Kef t-205.

View attachment 25609 View attachment 25610

I just bought a Yamaha RXV 385 and I love this thing. Is it still going for you? After upgrading TVs I had to redo my receiver as it didn't have HDMI inputs... it was 12 years old. I bought a cheap receiver that lasted a year before one of the banana plugs busted. (I'm planning on making it into a house sound system eventually)
 
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