Speaker wall jacks vs. straight run wiring. Opinions?

[mac_angel]

I'm in the planning stage of finishing our basement and I'm going to be building a theater room in it. I have another post in regards to sound isolation, but this is a different question.
I've seen in some homes they have wall outlets for speaker placement, much like these

I have a 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos setup. For my front main I'll be using a pair of BlueJeans speaker cables, and the centre will probably be close enough to the A/V Receiver to not need to run cabling for. But for the rest, I want to run in-wall speaker wiring. The plates/jacks in the pictures do make it look a lot nicer, but I was wondering about the audio quality of having so many connectors/breaks between the amp and the speaker. It would end up being A/V Receiver > banana plug > speaker cable > banana plug > wall jack > banana plug* > in-wall speaker wire > banana plug* > wall jack > banana plug > speaker cable > banana plug > speaker.
* I believe I've seen some of these plates that the wire can connect directly, so another banana plug wouldn't be needed on each end.
At first glance, thinking about running those lines, you wouldn't really think about all those connectors along the way. But realizing it, I was curious if there would be any effect to the audio quality. Especially since the speaker wire from the A/V Receiver to the wall and the wall to the speaker would more than likely be a different cable than what would be in the walls.

Alternatively, I was wondering about using something like this

and leaving 2' - 3' slack, and would be more of a direct connect. I know this way would be cheaper, and the other way would look nicer. But I was also wondering about the audio quality to help me make up my mind.

 

[RedCharles]

I have the same question. What did you end up doing?

Does anyone else have an opinion on brush plates vs plug plates?

 

[everettT]

I have the same question. What did you end up doing?

Does anyone else have an opinion on brush plates vs plug plates?

I use brush plates at the wall and brush 2u mount for my rack management. I didn't see a need for another break in the signal path with the terminal plates.

 

[mac_angel]

I have the same question. What did you end up doing?

Does anyone else have an opinion on brush plates vs plug plates?

Short-ish answer. I used them for the main hook-up at the front of the room, but sides, surrounds, and ceiling are direct wired with banana plugs. Front left and right have dedicated Blue Jeans cables.

I picked up bulk terminals for a 7.4.4, plus a bunch of ethernet ones. They say "gold plated", but to me they feel more like aluminum painted with gold paint (the gold looks a little too shiny, if you know what I mean). I'm still working on the basement, sadly. I'm on disability with a lot of health problems, and I've been doing everything by myself, including moving the drywall and putting it up. So on that point, I'm very proud. It is close to done, I'm just waiting for the carpet install and then I'll do the baseboards. I recently built acoustic panels; three for the wall, two for the ceiling. I also built a frame for my projector screen. I did hook up my system and installed the projector and watched a couple of movies on it. It sounds great, as usual. I don't really have the equipment to test if there is any signal degradation from the terminals though. Seeing that it's only one pair at the front, and only for the 8 surrounds, I don't think it would make that much of a difference. Someday down the road I might end up upgrading them since these ones feel so cheap. Depends on if my OCD gets the better of me, lol.
I picked some up from Amazon, enough to do a main connection at the front of the room, and terminals for the front right/left with subwoofer. I planned on building adjustable speaker shelves out of oak for the sides and back that cover the outlet completely, so the terminals wouldn't really fit (I didn't want to cut a hole in the oak just for a plastic wall plate to fit). And the ceiling is (top to bottom) pink insulation - vapor barrier - drywall (taped, mudded, and primed) - resilient channels going crossways - drywall again for the finished ceiling. All the speaker outlets are through a sealed plastic receptacle box into the stud, so the ceiling ones are recessed by an inch. I also built oak mounting plaques for my ceiling speakers (I have all Paradigm, and my ceiling speakers are Paradigm Cinema, not in-ceiling).

 

[Eppie]

I'm in the planning stage of finishing our basement and I'm going to be building a theater room in it. I have another post in regards to sound isolation, but this is a different question.
I've seen in some homes they have wall outlets for speaker placement, much like these
View attachment 51014View attachment 51015
I have a 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos setup. For my front main I'll be using a pair of BlueJeans speaker cables, and the centre will probably be close enough to the A/V Receiver to not need to run cabling for. But for the rest, I want to run in-wall speaker wiring. The plates/jacks in the pictures do make it look a lot nicer, but I was wondering about the audio quality of having so many connectors/breaks between the amp and the speaker. It would end up being A/V Receiver > banana plug > speaker cable > banana plug > wall jack > banana plug* > in-wall speaker wire > banana plug* > wall jack > banana plug > speaker cable > banana plug > speaker.
* I believe I've seen some of these plates that the wire can connect directly, so another banana plug wouldn't be needed on each end.
At first glance, thinking about running those lines, you wouldn't really think about all those connectors along the way. But realizing it, I was curious if there would be any effect to the audio quality. Especially since the speaker wire from the A/V Receiver to the wall and the wall to the speaker would more than likely be a different cable than what would be in the walls.

Alternatively, I was wondering about using something like this
View attachment 51016
and leaving 2' - 3' slack, and would be more of a direct connect. I know this way would be cheaper, and the other way would look nicer. But I was also wondering about the audio quality to help me make up my mind.

To answer the original question, proper plug plates do not degrade the signal. Audio is in the 0 to 20kHz band which is not affected by boundary reflections from terminals. That only becomes an issue when you get up in the megahertz or gigahertz band, like for radio and broadcast equipment. For terminations, you want to avoid corrosion, so avoid mixing different metals or having exposed copper. Mixed metals can lead to galvanic corrosion and copper will oxidize. Brush plates avoid those issues put properly terminated ends with gold plated connectors should not affect the signal path as there is a lot of contact area on a banana plug.

 

[TLS Guy]

I'm in the planning stage of finishing our basement and I'm going to be building a theater room in it. I have another post in regards to sound isolation, but this is a different question.
I've seen in some homes they have wall outlets for speaker placement, much like these
View attachment 51014View attachment 51015
I have a 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos setup. For my front main I'll be using a pair of BlueJeans speaker cables, and the centre will probably be close enough to the A/V Receiver to not need to run cabling for. But for the rest, I want to run in-wall speaker wiring. The plates/jacks in the pictures do make it look a lot nicer, but I was wondering about the audio quality of having so many connectors/breaks between the amp and the speaker. It would end up being A/V Receiver > banana plug > speaker cable > banana plug > wall jack > banana plug* > in-wall speaker wire > banana plug* > wall jack > banana plug > speaker cable > banana plug > speaker.
* I believe I've seen some of these plates that the wire can connect directly, so another banana plug wouldn't be needed on each end.
At first glance, thinking about running those lines, you wouldn't really think about all those connectors along the way. But realizing it, I was curious if there would be any effect to the audio quality. Especially since the speaker wire from the A/V Receiver to the wall and the wall to the speaker would more than likely be a different cable than what would be in the walls.

Alternatively, I was wondering about using something like this
View attachment 51016
and leaving 2' - 3' slack, and would be more of a direct connect. I know this way would be cheaper, and the other way would look nicer. But I was also wondering about the audio quality to help me make up my mind.

I think wall plates are fine. However, in a new theater you need to future proof it. Speaker technology is evolving and this will pick up at pace. So you absolutely need to run all cables including speaker cables in conduit. Cheap TechTube is your friend here. Make sure you have AC power at every speaker location. We are, and will move to active speakers with DSP. The receiver is no place to put a bunch of amps. So in your future, you will have speakers that have amps, electronic crossovers, with Eq and DSP for time alignment. The speakers will be connected not with speaker cable, but most likely Cat6 or similar. The improved SQ this will bring about will be highly significant and easily audible. HDMI protocols have evolved, and many have got taken short by cables behind sheet rock, and had to go to trouble and expense just to change a cable.

This is an absolute rule, that NO AV cable of ANY description is run in a wall that is not in conduit. NO exceptions.

 

[Alex2507]

Wall plates and cable pants with bananas on the speaker wire. That’s how you get the babes.

 

[Alex2507]

 

[WookieGR]

I wired both my theater room and media room with wall outlets. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I have videos of the wiring, framing, drywall, etc on my channel.

 

[j_garcia]

For speaker connections at my dad's place, I ran plates with binding posts. It is cleaner and easier. For VIDEO however, I ran passthru plates. Works great.

 

[Mr._Clark]

I've never noticed any issues with wall plates.

Smurf tubes are a good idea.