Speaker wall Jacks or fixed wires from speakers to reciever?

[Jerod81]

I am having my basement professionally finished and am setting up a home theater area. I was thinking of having the contractor put in wall jacks for my speaker cables, so I could just plug the speakers into the wall, and then have wall jacks near my reciever. The idea being I wouldn't have to have the construction guys mess with my stereo equipment. My only question is how will that affect the sound quality? Is it better to have the speakers hooked directly to the reciever? Any help with this will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jerod
P.S.- Not sure if this matters, but the HT system will be a 7.2 system with a projector.

 

[BMXTRIX]

The use of wall plates will not affect audio in any significant manner and provides a clean final installation look to your system.

The downside is that it takes an extra bit of time to properly connect the wall plate and it must be done very exactly for best results.

Depending on your contractor will determine how well they are able to accomplish this task. I personally terminate all of my stuff to wall plates for my distributed audio, but a lot of my other cabling (HDMI, video, etc.) is brought directly to the equipment.

Either way is fine.

 

[r_malvia]

Monoprice

I had my theatre room fully wired by my low voltage contractor. If you can, buy everything in advance and supply the wires, connectors, wall plates, etc. to him. One word for you, "monoprice.com" (well, I guess two words). Bought all my wall plates, connectors, etc. from them. Good prices and solidly built. Even bought the 7.2 gang plate which is about $20, but it does make everything clean and simple for installation. Don't forget to run at least two HDMI's to your projector (just in case one craps out). Also run Cat5 or 6 to the projector as well as AVI. Even though you think you may not need it, it's cheap to run it now since the ceilings all opened up. Once it's closed, it's pretty much impossible to run stuff. I also left a few pull strings in the ceiling for future. If there's too many twists and turns, I would just put in a piece of 1" elec conduit with a pull string (keep the bends to a minimum as He-man won't even be able to pull a cable through if there's too many bends). When everything is pulled, make sure you full insulate the walls and ceiling. This will it somewhat contain the noises in your theatre room. If you can, ask your contractor about accoustic ceiling panels prior to drywalling. Good Luck!

 

[j_garcia]

I used wall jacks in my dad's new place because it looks much cleaner and works just fine.

 

[Jerod81]

Thanks for your replies. Now, my question is does monoprice or any other site sell a package deal for a 7.2 setup, with all the connections you would need for all speakers? Or do you have to piece it all together?
If not, this is a rough list of what I think I will need, Let me know if I missed anything:
-9, banana binding 2 piece inset wall plates (for speakers and subs)
-1, 7.2 surround sound distribution plate
-2, HDMI over cat5e/cat6 extender wall plates (comes with 2 each for running 2 HDMI's to projector)
-250 ft. of 12 gauge speaker wire
-50 ft. of Cat6 cable
I didn't see a jack for a subwoofer. Could you use RCA jacks and use them to connect a front speaker AND a sub?

 

[j_garcia]

Parts Express has one panel that has 7.1 audio and a few video connections as well (component and HDMI). I used this on my dad's and it worked very well. I didn't use the one for the sub, that one was hooked directly to the receiver, since it is in the same corner as the system.

 

[j_garcia]

HiFi Works by Sonance 7.1 Home Theater Wallplate 309-532

I don't see the other one, but you can always just build your own, which is what I did because the one that has it all was on back order for like a month. I picked up one like that and just added the HDMI plate to it in a triple gang box.

And these where the speakers connect:
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=261-352

 

[r_malvia]

Thanks for your replies. Now, my question is does monoprice or any other site sell a package deal for a 7.2 setup, with all the connections you would need for all speakers? Or do you have to piece it all together?
If not, this is a rough list of what I think I will need, Let me know if I missed anything:
-9, banana binding 2 piece inset wall plates (for speakers and subs)
-1, 7.2 surround sound distribution plate
-2, HDMI over cat5e/cat6 extender wall plates (comes with 2 each for running 2 HDMI's to projector)
-250 ft. of 12 gauge speaker wire
-50 ft. of Cat6 cable
I didn't see a jack for a subwoofer. Could you use RCA jacks and use them to connect a front speaker AND a sub?

Think you only need 7 banana binding wall plates because you need 2 sub rcas. You can use the rca plug for the wall mount plate for the sub. On monoprice, you can just mix and match what you need for each wall plate. Just be careful on where you plan to install the wall plates. I had mine installed fairly close to where I wanted my speakers, so I just have a small stub of speaker wire from the wall to speaker.

 

[BMXTRIX]

7.2 and 8.2 wall plates from Monoprice:
For only $16.12 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 2-Gang 7.2 Surround Sound Distribution Wall Plate | Banana Binding Post Wall Plates

For only $13.18 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 3-Gang 8.2 Surround Sound Distribution Wall Plate | Banana Binding Post Wall Plates

Speaker Wire:
For only $75.22 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 250ft 12AWG CL2 Rated 2-Conductor Loud Speaker Cable (For In-Wall Installation) | 12AWG Loud Speaker Cables

HDMI extender wall plates suck right now. Period. Either run HDMI or get a HDBase-T box... do not use cheapie HDMI extender wallplates at this time.

This sucks:
For only $16.10 each when QTY 50+ purchased - HDMI® Over CAT5E / CAT6 Extender Wall Plate (Pair) - Single Port (1P) - White | HDMI Wall Plates

This rocks:
For only $171.45 each when QTY 50+ purchased - HDMI® Extender Using Cat5e or CAT6 Cable - Extend Upto 328ft | HDMI Extender

This rocks:
For only $5.19 each when QTY 50+ purchased - Two-Piece Inset Wall Plate with 4 Inch Built-in Flexible High Speed HDMI® Cable With Ethernet Extensions - Dual Port (2P) | HDMI Wall Plates
with
For only $20.46 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 20ft 22AWG CL2 High Speed HDMI® Cable - Black | Professional 22AWG HDMI High Speed Certified Male to Male Cables

If you intend to hang your speakers on the wall, I've always stubbed out the speaker wire right behind where the speaker goes and connected directly.

Otherwise, you have a full single gang speaker plate on the wall.

While Monoprice has this...
For only $1.69 each when QTY 50+ purchased - High Quality Banana Binding Post Two-Piece Inset Wall Plate for 1 Speaker - Coupler Type | Banana Binding Post Wall Plates

I would more likely recommend this:
For only $1.81 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 1-Gang Recessed Low Voltage Cable Wall Plate - White | 1-Gang Recessed Low Voltage Cable Wall Plates

and run the wire directly into the speaker with a cleaner look.

For a front speaker and a subwoofer, you can use this:
For only $1.12 each when QTY 50+ purchased - Keystone Jack - Modular RCA w/Orange Center, Flush Type (White) | RCA Keystone Jacks
and
For only $1.21 each when QTY 50+ purchased - Keystone Jack - Banana Jack w/Red Ring (Screw Type) - White | Banana Keystone Jacks
and
For only $1.21 each when QTY 50+ purchased - Keystone Jack - Banana Jack w/Black Ring (Screw Type) - White | Banana Keystone Jacks
put it in this (or similar)..
For only $0.26 each when QTY 50+ purchased - Wall Plate for Keystone, 3 Hole - White | Keystone Wall Plates

While you can get this...
For only $6.44 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 50FT 24AWG Cat6 550MHz UTP Ethernet Bare Copper Network Cable - Black | Cat6 Straight Cables - 50ft

It may be good to go ahead and pick up a spool of cat-5 or cat-6 instead. It costs more, but over a few years, you may end up using it all.