Speaker wire and speaker shielding questions

[jdchess]

Hey guys. I'm pretty new at all this and I have a couple of basic questions. I'm in an apartment and I plan to use some wire molding to run cable to my rear surrounds and also to run a coax for my cable line (the cable connection is on the wrong side of the room). Is there any problem in running the speaker wire and the coax together in the same piece of wire molding? ...as far as interference and such...

The second question if regarding magnetic shielding on speakers. I have Pioneer speakers (fronts, center, and 2 surrounds). The two fronts and the center are supposed to be shielded (at least the back sticker of the speaker says they are), but I noticed that if I set the center speaker on top of the TV (which is a Toshiba 30' HD CRT), I still see some slight color distortion. Does this mean that the speaker is NOT shielded properly or at all? The speakers are a few years old.

Also, I'm considerin buying a new center channel speaker. If I get a speaker that is truly magnetically shielded, can I set it on top of the CRT without any worries about damaging the CRT over the short or long term? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!!

 

[jdchess]

One other quick question about wire molding. I found some metal wire molding that I really like the looks of. Would there be any problem at running the speaker and coax cable through a METAL wire channel like this? I thought that the metal might cause intereference of some sort. I would really appreciate any advice. Thanks!

 

[RH Customs]

There will be no problem running speaker wire as long as it is at least 14 gauge, now on the coax make sure it has at least one shield.

RH

 

[jdchess]

Thanks for the reply.

So you don't think there would be anything wrong with running the three speaker cables through a metal channel of wire molding? I'm using flat speaker wire.

 

[RH Customs]

It all depends,now will there be some distortion induced? Maybe, but none that should be audible.

RH

 

[RLA]

Hello,

In your application you could twist decent RG-59 or RG-6 around the speaker wire the entire length of the speaker wire run and not introduce any RF interface into the system. You are safe as long as the coax has some shielding properties. Its high voltage romex runs and 12 volt, 18 volt low voltage runs that you need to avoid. If you have a long run of coax you may consider RG-6QS, with this cable terminated properly you will have zero problems.

Hope this helps
-Ray

 

[jdchess]

Thanks for all the input guys. I really appreciate it. I ended up tucking the coax cable just under the baseboard molding, which worked very well. I ran three runs of flat speaker cable just under the carpet and then used a metal wire mold channel to run the three wires up the wall to the rear surrounds. It all came out very clean and neat. My only concern was running the speaker wires through the METAL channel, but it seems to be OK. Could I run into any problems with it down the road?

 

[markw]

I wouldn't use it in the road. The traffic may damage the insulation.

Could I run into any problems with it down the road?

Seriously, no. If you aren't having problems now, why do you think you might later? ...unless you change something.

 

[jdchess]

Awesome. Thanks for all the input guys.