Whole House Wiring

[bronco1552]

Hello all. I'm wiring a new house, pre-drywall, and I would like a couple opinions as to whether I'm on the right track with my ideas. I'm going to have my main receiver in the den to run my home theater set-up (TV, DVD, Satellite, etc..). Then, I plan on having two speakers in each bedroom and also under the patio cover on the back porch. I will run all the speaker wires out of a coat closet where I will have another home theater type receiver. I will also have a speaker selector box there as well. I plan on running RCA cables from the office computer to the closet receiver for streaming audio purposes and I also want to connect the two receivers together to be able to have sound from all speakers for either something coming through the main receiver or the closet receiver. What is the best way to connect these two receivers? RCA or digital optical cable? Will I need to position more than one subwoofer somewhere else beside the den in order to have good bass response wherever you are in the house? I will be running the speaker wire (4 conductor) from the speaker selector box to an individual volume control for each room. Is the speaker selector box powered in any way or is it simply an on and off switch for each set of speakers? Is there anything you all might suggest or any valuable tips you might have for what I'm doing? All of your help and advice is appreciated in advance!

 

[Audioholics]

Anywhere you want to run either component video, subwoofer audio, stereo audio, or digital audio (coax) you can pretty much do well with well-shielded RG6.

You may also want to look into undercutting that closet door and feeding a small AC vent into there.

When in doubt, run another cable to a potential subwoofer location.

Put a dedicated 20A circuit in the closet. Make sure they run the remaining power circuits such that lights and fans are separated from the outlets in the home.

When running audio, choose 4x14 gauge over 2x12 gauge and tie the pairs together. This gives you an extra pair of cables in the event one gets compromised somehow by a nail, etc.

 

[jneutron]

Put a dedicated 20A circuit in the closet.

Is that code?

John

 

[Joe Cornwall]

Whole house wiring suggestions

I might also suggest you run a CAT5e to each volume control location to allow for future inclusion of keypad control. Speaker selectors are either passive or powered for relays - the powered type will allow keypad or remote control operation. Run a CAT5e to each television location so you can put an IR target to operate the whole house system via IR remote - RF remotes, while outstanding performers, are expensive and you may not take that step for a while.

Regarding hooking the two recievers - I'd go with RCA line-level so you can relay analog signals like FM radio, cable box and other simple stereo signals without an A/D and subsequent D/A step. That said, the two systems may be plugged into different A/C circuits and TOSLink will prevent ground loops. Just remember that even excellent TOSLinks like our own Impact Acoustics SonicWave products have length and bend limitations - swept curves of more than 3" in diameter are best and performance can suffer to the point of failure with some products on runs more than 5 meters (some inexpensive optical outputs won't drive 3 meters).

Good luck

Joe C.

 

[bronco1552]

Thanks

Thank you guys for your suggestions. Wish me luck this weekend!