Equipment placement and cabling

[Greggj]

I need some help in wiring a new media room. I am moving into a new house with a partially constructed media room 19' x 22'. Nice but not perfect. It is dual use, two-channel listening and movies. Inputs are cable, DVD/SACD, Blu-Ray, FM tuner, and Apple TV (to access iTunes library). Pre-proc is an Anthem D2 with ARC. Amplifiers are Mac MC402 for main speakers and Rotel 5 channel for the rest. Speakers are Aerial Acoustics: 8B fronts, CC5B center, SR3 sides, and 2 SW-12 powered subs. I also have an Infocus 82 projector and a 120" 16:9 Stewart Greyhawk screen. My equipment cabinet is custom built in the rear of the room. So, there will be a run of 35-50' of cabling from it to the center of the room. Options are 1) run speaker wire from amps in rear to front and center; 2) run interconnect cable from pre-proc in rear to Mac amp in front and high quality speaker wire (I have Transparent) to fronts and speaker wire to center; or 3) purchase a mono-block amp for the center and run interconnect cable for fronts and center from pre-proc in rear to big amps in front. I know I need to keep cables short if possible but don't know which cables should be short in preference to others (interconnect vs speaker). I am also interested in cable recommendations -- however, I am not sold on super-high $ cables just to keep up with the Joneses: I have never heard the differences between mid-level cables and the expensive ones like Nordost. Anybody have any help for me? Thanks.

 

[highfigh]

I need some help in wiring a new media room. I am moving into a new house with a partially constructed media room 19' x 22'. Nice but not perfect. It is dual use, two-channel listening and movies. Inputs are cable, DVD/SACD, Blu-Ray, FM tuner, and Apple TV (to access iTunes library). Pre-proc is an Anthem D2 with ARC. Amplifiers are Mac MC402 for main speakers and Rotel 5 channel for the rest. Speakers are Aerial Acoustics: 8B fronts, CC5B center, SR3 sides, and 2 SW-12 powered subs. I also have an Infocus 82 projector and a 120" 16:9 Stewart Greyhawk screen. My equipment cabinet is custom built in the rear of the room. So, there will be a run of 35-50' of cabling from it to the center of the room. Options are 1) run speaker wire from amps in rear to front and center; 2) run interconnect cable from pre-proc in rear to Mac amp in front and high quality speaker wire (I have Transparent) to fronts and speaker wire to center; or 3) purchase a mono-block amp for the center and run interconnect cable for fronts and center from pre-proc in rear to big amps in front. I know I need to keep cables short if possible but don't know which cables should be short in preference to others (interconnect vs speaker). I am also interested in cable recommendations -- however, I am not sold on super-high $ cables just to keep up with the Joneses: I have never heard the differences between mid-level cables and the expensive ones like Nordost. Anybody have any help for me? Thanks.

You A) don't need to spend a buttload on cable and B) 35' isn't enough to cause sound degradation. Just don't run any of this cabling near and/or parallel to any high voltage wiring. That's a good way to induce noise. 14ga is fine for this but if you run a LOT of power, you might go to 12 ga. your interconnects are high impedance and because of that, you want their runs to be short. If everything was balanced low impedance, you could very well put the power amps at the front but you would then need to come up with a place to house them. The 16RU Omni rack is a pretty nice looking piece but it's too modern for most decor.
http://www.sparco.com/cgi-bin/wfind2?spn=A86Y092&merchant=google

I have used Planet Waves cable in rack or short runs outside of a rack and I like it. The ends are reusable and there's no audio or video quality issues. Flexible (huge plus, in my book) and not terribly expensive.

 

[Ravino4]

Amateur Audiophile-Looking for tips

Hi I'm an amateur audiophile so please go easy on me, I'm working on a custom set of speakers and wanted to check if I'm on the right track. I purchased some used tower speakers and replaced the components.

Here is what I had to start.

Pair of Scott SP-826 towers (used)
2.5" tweeter
5" mid
12" subwoofer
12" passive radiator
110W rms
200 peak

I swapped out the components, here is what I did.

1" Pyle Pro PDBT28 titanium super tweeter
5-1/4" PSB AL 32 Alpha Mini/Midi
12" Rockford Fosgate P1S812 subwoofer
the radiator is still the same, I'm looking for a replacement

I also have a center channel that is customized with new drivers aswell. Original was a Pure Acoustics QX900 C.
Two 5-1/4" woofers
1" silk dome tweeter

I replaced with.
Two 5-1/4" PSB Image 3LR Midbass
PSB 80011 tweeter

Tell me what you guys think. Thanks.