running wires for a surround sound setup

techead

techead

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after buying my marantz/jamo setup, I was forced to pack it all away until I moved into my own place...

Now that is less than a month away, Im looking at the ins and outs out the cabling options. Slightly pre-mature I know, but I would like to plan it out in my mind.



Point 1, Im renting in a block that doesnt allow you to fart loudly... so the chances of the owner allowing me to drill into his precious walls, in fact, do anything with a long-last effect are simply out of the question. He is already do me a favour by charging me 2/3 of what he could be charging for this place...

with this in mind, Im trying to think what is going to be the best way to mount the rear speakers?

Secondly, the floor is tiled. I dont think he will take kindly to me taking an angle grinder and grinding a nice line towards the back and popping the cables into there and re-grouting that :) What is going to be the best/neatest way to get cables to the rear speakers?

views and advice appreciated
 
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techead said:
after buying my marantz/jamo setup, I was forced to pack it all away until I moved into my own place...

Now that is less than a month away, Im looking at the ins and outs out the cabling options. Slightly pre-mature I know, but I would like to plan it out in my mind.



Point 1, Im renting in a block that doesnt allow you to fart loudly... so the chances of the owner allowing me to drill into his precious walls, in fact, do anything with a long-last effect are simply out of the question. He is already do me a favour by charging me 2/3 of what he could be charging for this place...

with this in mind, Im trying to think what is going to be the best way to mount the rear speakers?

Secondly, the floor is tiled. I dont think he will take kindly to me taking an angle grinder and grinding a nice line towards the back and popping the cables into there and re-grouting that :) What is going to be the best/neatest way to get cables to the rear speakers?

views and advice appreciated
Click to expand...

Can you get into the ceiling at all?
 
Very large rug! :D

Or just run the rear speaker cables along the skirting boards and underneath the couch, or continue them straight to the speakers. If you use silicon to seal them in there then you can peel away the silicon later leaving it looking like nothing was ever there. The silicon thing only works on certain surfaces though, so be careful. You could lightly oil the surface beforehand too to prevent the silicon permanently installing itself.

There are very few options for rear speakers unfortunately and yours appear to be out of the question...
 
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I'm in the same boat with my rear speakers. Haven't actually managed to find time to sort mine out properly. Currently it's kept relatively neat by means of a big rug. It's unfortunately one of those things that's best sorted by means of construction.
 
Why don't you get speaker stands for the rear speakers? As for running cables you could always buy conduit to run them in, but just don't stick it to anything. Slightly more tidy than exposed cables, but not permanent.

Something like this and just run it along the skirting
IMG_3140.JPG
 
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And if you're renting, its unlikely the owner would take too kindly to drilling into the wall or gluing wires all along it. Unless you're happy to lose your deposit.
 
Ah this is making me feel very frustrated... Maybe I will have to keep the rears packed away until I buy a house one day... :(
 
techead said:
Ah this is making me feel very frustrated... Maybe I will have to keep the rears packed away until I buy a house one day... :(
Click to expand...

That's a reasonable option too. 3.1 isn't too bad IMO. Sure, 5.1 is great for movies, but I don't miss it.
 
Just get a loose rug and run the cables under that. Then get some speaker stands. Cable enters through the bottom and runs through the stand up to the speakers' connections. I don't understand the problem...
 
I am also running 3.1 for the moment.

I will be gutting my lounge and putting in decent conduiting under the floor for speakers and such.
 
Buy the very small conduits (about 10x10mm) and just put them along the walls on the floor next to the skirting.

Speaker stands.
 
My surrounds are collecting dust. Haven't bothered with them partly because of the wiring, but mainly because they don't add much value after the novelty wears off, especially given the initial effort of setting them up. Running a 3.1 setup and I still love it, and it's perfect for a variety of applications, not just movies.
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
My surrounds are collecting dust. Haven't bothered with them partly because of the wiring, but mainly because they don't add much value after the novelty wears off, especially given the initial effort of setting them up. Running a 3.1 setup and I still love it, and it's perfect for a variety of applications, not just movies.
Click to expand...

I guess it comes down to how much 5.1 content you are watching? I'm going deaf in the one ear so I'm probably gonna go with the 3.1 option for now...
 
techead said:
I guess it comes down to how much 5.1 content you are watching? I'm going deaf in the one ear so I'm probably gonna go with the 3.1 option for now...
Click to expand...

But setup on the left/right side of the lounge as opposed to the front?
 
What I found really helpful for doing the surround sound cabling at my place, where I have a concrete ceiling and can't get into the roof, was to use the polystyrene cornices that they sell nowadays - they all have quite a large hollow channel behind the cornice which allows you to run quite a bit of cabling through them. And they simply glue to the wall, so there's no drilling involved. And they're relatively cheap.

Getting them off would involve repainting the wall though, so it probably won't help in your case where you can't modify the walls, but for those who can it really improves the appearance of the room and makes the surround speakers look very neat (especially if wall-mounted).
 
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