Same Speaker wire length?

M

mountaindew

Audiophyte
I'm in the stage where I begin to install the speaker wires in the wall before the sheetrock goes up. At the front where the screen will hang which is 96'' width X 54" high, I will have the 3 speakers there, 2 towers and a Center speaker there, and for the 2 bookshelf speakers for surround, plus adding another 2 speakers for the rear surround making it a 7.1 channel Theater Room.

Now, I'm having trouble to put the rear speakers. I've made a layout (map) of where the speaker will be. You can see it for yourself. I'm hoping you can help me where to place the rear speakers.



My question about the speaker wiring is...does it matter if one side of the speaker is longer than the other? For example, for the front speakers, you can see where the right tower speaker is longer to the receiver than the left tower speaker. I'd run the wire behind the screen, up the wall, and through the joist above all the way to the receiver under the stairs. Do I just cut the speaker wire length I need to fix each speaker? Or do I need to cut the speaker wire length to make it the same length for the left tower speaker to match the right tower speaker? If so, do I need to do the same for each section pair of speakers as for Front, Middle surround and Rear surround? Or just simply cut the wire to fit for each speaker?

Reason I asked is...well, I wonder if cut to fit, would it affect the timing of the sound as it comes out of each speaker? I'm thinking that it wouldn't matter, because it's the speed of the electricity is so fast that you wouldn't notice it, so I just cut the lenght to fit for each speaker?

By the way, I'll be using a 12 gauge speaker wire for it. Any tips, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance! :)

Mountaindew
 
M

MDS

Audioholic Spartan
mountaindew said:
Reason I asked is...well, I wonder if cut to fit, would it affect the timing of the sound as it comes out of each speaker? I'm thinking that it wouldn't matter, because it's the speed of the electricity is so fast that you wouldn't notice it, so I just cut the lenght to fit for each speaker?
Yes. The speed is generally accepted to be about .7C (70% of the speed of light). For all intents and purposes, even if one speaker wire were 1 mile long and the other 1 foot long, the signal would arrive at each speaker at exactly the same time.
 
JohnA

JohnA

Audioholic Chief
I don't think so...

You shouldn't have a problem with having some a few feet difference; mine are different lengths and I can't tell a dif. What I would worry about is the placement of your rear speakers. According to the image the Right Rear looks to be about 6-8' further back than the Left one. That WILL cause problems. With your layout I would mount them from the ceiling, so they can be placed on the same listening line.

Hope that Helps
 
M

mountaindew

Audiophyte
Thanks!

That clears up the speaker wire length question.

I agree about what you said about the rear right speaker. Only problem is that we're having a suspended ceiling. Is there a method of placing a speaker up in the ceiling having some kind of a rod/pipe that runs to the joist, running it down past the ceiling panel, making it look like a custom fitting, having the speaker attached to the rod/pipe?

I was thinking of placing the rear speaker parallel to the left rear speaker, meaning I'd have to put the speaker in the bar area. Would that be good?

Thanks in advance!

Mountaindew
 
L

Leprkon

Audioholic General
you might be able to get away with using the same sort of brace they use for a ceiling fan... one than spans above the rafters, with a hanging pipe and you can get from any Home Depot or Lowe's... you just have to figure out how to mount the speaker onto the end of the pipe...
 
S

sjdgpt

Senior Audioholic
How about using a bracket from the stairwell to mount the left rear?
 
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