Opinions on Wall Connectors

[Beowulf]

I was just hoping I could get a few opinions on connections for my home theater set up.

When our home was being built it was pre-wired with 14 gauge cable 5.1 surround and then terminated with a 5.1 female banana jack wall plate where all of my HT gear (preamp processor, DVD player) will be installed in a media niche/alcove. The other end of the speaker cables come to another female banana jack wall plate as well (I have some on-wall speakers from Vienna Acoustics I will be using).

It looks really clean, but my main concern is that with all these jacks/plugs … is it still an optimal set up or will there be a lot of degradation of the sound because it is passing through all these terminals?

I will be using banana plugs and cables from the media alcove to the amp and then banana plugs and cables from the wall to my speakers which also accept banana plugs. All in all (from the amp to the wall, from the wall to each speaker) it will have to cross through 4 sets of banana plugs and jacks before it finally reaches the speaker. Will this cause any loss from crossing all of these plugs?

Just in case, here is a list of my HT gear:

Speakers:

Vienna Acoustics Schonberg Series – Webern on wall speakers for the L/C/R
Vienna Acoustics Schonberg Series – Berg for the Rear Surrounds
Vienna Acoustics Schonberg Series – Subson subwoofer

HT Audio/Video Equipment:

B&K Reference 50 s2 preamp
B&K Reference 125.7 s2
Sony PS2 (for the DVD for now)
Mitsubishi WD-62825 : 62"

Cables:

In Wall Speaker Cables - 14 gauge in wall construction quality.
For the out of wall application I will most likely make my own 14 gauge cables as well, it just makes since that if the cables in the wall are already 14 gauge, then it wouldn’t be much of a benefit to go with anything other than a high quality cable of the same gauge.

Audio/Video Cables:

All of my Component/HDMI/Optical and Balanced XLR’s are through Monster THX (I know you guys aren’t big fans of Monster , but most of them were thrown in when I bought the equipment which saved me a few hundred bucks so I will have to stick with these guys for now.

So what do you think ... keep the clean look of the banana wall plate jacks or pull the wall plates off and connect the speaker cables directly to the speakers and amp?

Thanks in advance for your input it is really appreciated!

 

[mtrycrafts]

So what do you think ... keep the clean look of the banana wall plate jacks or pull the wall plates off and connect the speaker cables directly to the speakers and amp?

Thanks in advance for your input it is really appreciated!

Go for the clean banana wall palets if the speaker mounting on the wall will allow banana plugs as they stick out an inch or more.

 

[Bryce_H]

I personally am of the mind the fewer connections between points the better. when I ran all the wire for my HT in my old townhouse, I just had passthrough plates for the cables (both interconnect and speaker). Will be doing the same in my dedicated basement HT I am building from scratch right now.

 

[Shinerman]

There should be no degradation in sound as long as all your contacts are secure. Just make sure the Banana plugs you use make a good snug connection with the binding post they are plugging into. I use one large wall-plate behind my system to connect 3 surround speakers, 2 pool room speakers and 2 kitchen speakers. No problems at all.

Shinerman.

 

[Beowulf]

Thanks for the quick replies everyone!

Since this is my first shot at making my own speaker cables ... as far as the tightening of the banana plug adapters onto the speaker wire ... how tight is tight? Does it really need to be smashed down tight, or just snugg enough so that the speaker cable will not come out when tugged on? And should I leave the wire twisted or unfray it so more wire makes a contact with the banana plug?

Thanks again

 

[HTnewbie]

I have been battling with wall terminations too for a install that I am doing right now. This is a Great Room just adjacent to our kitchen (both rooms are a full gut & reno so I had access the walls and ceilings at the stud level). On one wall of the Great Room we are installing a wall-wide entertainment center (yeah, wife approval, blah blah). It will house all the hardware and a 61" RPTV. Behind it I am installing an 8-gang j-box with Decora cover for all connections that go into the wall (six coax lines, three network, output to central audio distribution panel, AV output to kitchen LCD, bridge to nearby PC, and speakers (surrounds, rear surrounds and front Presence speakers (Yamaha 2500 receiver))).

I bought decora and keystone inserts for every imaginable connection. Biggest question was how to terminate on the wall for the speakers. Originally, I was going with keystone inserts with bulkheads that were banana on the room side and binding post in the back. After conferring with Duffinator and Brian Florian of the "Secrets" site, decided to do away with the wall bulkhead all together and run the wires straight out of the wall to the receiver (Bryce on this thread said the same). This avoids the need to a connection on the in-wall side, the banana bulkhead and inside the outside wall banana.

Fortunately, I left enough slack wire hanging out of the wall to pull this off. On the receiver end I will be using the Ultralink Studio banana jacks. Cables to the LCR mains will be straight and don't pass through the wall. While my BagEnd speakers have binding posts, I am going to use bare wire there as well.

Yeah, this does away with the connections but it also reduces the "cool factor" but you have to make choices.....

Hope this helps.

 

[Beowulf]

I have been battling with wall terminations too .....

Hope this helps.

Wow sounds like a great set-up! Our HT is in a great room too, I have enough speaker cable in the wall to go straight into the speakers, but the installers left me little slack on the Decora 5.1 plate and I am unsure if they can reach my amp when I finally get it installed.

Thanks your input is appreciated.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Thanks for the quick replies everyone!

Since this is my first shot at making my own speaker cables ... as far as the tightening of the banana plug adapters onto the speaker wire ... how tight is tight? Does it really need to be smashed down tight, or just snugg enough so that the speaker cable will not come out when tugged on? And should I leave the wire twisted or unfray it so more wire makes a contact with the banana plug?

Thanks again

Solder it. You get a good connection physically and electrically speaking.