Surrounds wiring options

[jimbo7]

My SLA surrounds are waiting for me to hang them on the wall. The holdup is that I'm not sure how to run the wiring cleanly.

My living room has a vaulted ceiling which spans across the house to the kitchen next to it. There's a 9ft dividing wall between the living room and kitchen with a 1ft soffit capping it. This is also where the peak of the ceiling is. There's also a bay window on the living room side which is the front of the house. So as you walk in the front door, you walk through the living room with the tv to the left on the wall and open basement stairs with railing directly to your right, then into a fork to the kitchen or down the hallway.

This makes an interesting way to setup surround speakers. I can't crawl around much in the attic to get to where I can run wires for the right-side speakers. I've considered running wires below in the basement then up in the walls, but fishing wire through walls is foreign to me. The vaulted ceiling is my biggest issue here. I could run it behind the baseboard then up the wall on the outside with wire channel, but that's ugly looking. Or behind the baseboard then inside the wall up to the speakers. I've seen flat speaker cable that you can supposedly stick to the wall then paint over, but it would cost a small fortune to run all the wire I need.

I can take a picture or make a drawing if it helps give you an idea what I'm working with.

[Seth]

Something like Sewell Ghost Wire may help in this situation.

[jimbo7]

Something like Sewell Ghost Wire may help in this situation.

it would cost a small fortune to run all the wire I need

[Seth]

Something like Sewell Ghost Wire may help in this situation.

it would cost a small fortune to run all the wire I need

Cash out your bitcoin. LOL

Really though, you could run the perimeter of the room under the baseboard with standard duplex speaker wire and just use the tape to run up the wall to the speakers. Add a little texture, paint to match, and no one will know but you. Wouldn't cost all that much, one 25 foot role is less than $40. Not bad when compared to the headache of poking holes in the wall and fishing the wires up. Although, even that's not too difficult to do.

Pics and or a drawing of the room could help in getting an idea of what you're working with.

[Rich4349]

This very affordable borescope could make the wall fishing a little easier, too. I used mine to locate a carburetor accelerator nozzle that had found its way down the intake manifold and was resting on the intake valves, undamaged. It has two plane directionality for $100. Three plane articulation will quadruple the price.

You can also cut the back of your hair with its assistance


https://a.co/d/dcfE5sl

[jimbo7]

Seth, what if I run the wire along the baseboard, then cut a channel into the drywall and then mud over it? LOL

Rich, I have a small boroscope that connects to your phone that's paid for itself. It doesn't articulate like the link, but god I wish it did sometimes.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Seth, what if I run the wire along the baseboard, then cut a channel into the drywall and then mud over it? LOL

Considering 18 gauge is adequate for surrounds that's viable.

[Seth]

...what if I run the wire along the baseboard, then cut a channel into the drywall and then mud over it?

Do it. Might be smart to treat it like a seam and put joint tape over it.

[himhimself]

I popped a hole at the baseboard and behind each speaker location and fished the wire up, but there's a couple things that can make that approach difficult, or impossible. Insulation in the wall cavity will certainly make it harder. If there is fire blocking between the studs, impossible. You could check for that with a good stud finder. The biggest benefit for me was that I didn't have to patch or repaint anything. But otherwise, carving out a groove and taping and mudding over it seems the next best option.
One trick I learned for threading wires in tough spots was to use a strong magnet attached to the end of a fish tape to catch a washer or bit of metal on a string. Move it around until the magnet grabs the washer, pull the string through, then pull the wire.

[jimbo7]

I popped a hole at the baseboard and behind each speaker location and fished the wire up, but there's a couple things that can make that approach difficult, or impossible. Insulation in the wall cavity will certainly make it harder. If there is fire blocking between the studs, impossible. You could check for that with a good stud finder. The biggest benefit for me was that I didn't have to patch or repaint anything. But otherwise, carving out a groove and taping and mudding over it seems the next best option.
One trick I learned for threading wires in tough spots was to use a strong magnet attached to the end of a fish tape to catch a washer or bit of metal on a string. Move it around until the magnet grabs the washer, pull the string through, then pull the wire.

Oooooo I like this idea

[jimbo7]

Here's a quick and dirty sketchup of my living home theater setup. Not everything is perfectly to scale, but close enough to give you an idea what I'm working with. The TLAH's, SLA center, and S18 are not built yet. I have my SLA's and AT serving L&R and sub duty currently. Still deciding if I wanna built straight TLAH's for ease of build. I have a JBL 18" I've dying.....un-aliving to hear down low.

SketchUp file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J0oxX1 ... drive_link

Let me know if you can play around with the file. Draw and add notes and such. (I do have a basement FYI)

[Seth]

Interesting layout. I didn't envision the side channels too. Being as you have a basement, if it has unfinished ceilings, you could easily drill down at the foot of the wall to pass wiring through, run the wiring through the basement, and drill another hole near the speakers. For the interior walls, you can drill a pilot hole at the base of the wall, then space the actual hole for the wires over so they come up into the wall. My guess is there won't be access to the actual underside of the exterior walls. For those, just bring the wires in at the foot of the wall and either poke in and fish 'em up or try the channeled out drywall method.

I look forward to hearing how it all goes as the cabs get built and it all comes together!

[jimbo7]

I'm still considering my options to run wires through the walls. Drilling down into the basement then running them over and back up the wall would be the easiest. I'm thinking about pulling the baseboards to run wires behind them then up the wall. My thought is it'll prevent unsightly wires in the basement along with any extra holes or excessive lengths of wire and cable clips.
I see the need for fish tape and/or rods in the near future.

The other thing I can't decide on is wall plates for the surrounds or just for the receiver. I've been in a few house with huge coax plates that look kinda gaudy. I'm not 100% sure the rack is gonna stay where it is now (to the right of the tv). When that becomes clear, then I'll be ok with cutting a big hole in my wall. The surrounds will probably be just a hole in the wall big enough to pass the wires through. I can 3d print a small pass through plug if need be.
Which bring me to another question: Will SLA surrounds stay in place on the wall by French cleats? Could there be rattling at higher volumes? I'm not too worried about them falling off the wall, since the wires will be short and close to the top of the speaker so they'll be hidden from sight.

[Tom Smit]

I don't think that the surrounds will rattle at all. If there is a rattle, you could adhere those little round tabs on the back to cushion.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Surrounds don't rattle as they get no low frequency input.