Wiring & Setting Up A Surround Sound System

godtabh

The actually wiring I can handle but setting up the speakers and hiding the wires ext I'm not so sure.

How do people do it?

If this was your living room how would you do it?

(To the right of the tv is a perpendicular wall, sofa at the bottom of the picture)

Just wondering to get things going on this forum!

brav

I think your best bet in a case like that is to run the wires along the skirting board. Usually there is a little gap under neat the board between the skirting board and the floor board, or else try standing near the board and might push it down a little to squeze in the wire.

So to keep it neat the speakers will have to either be on the ground next to the wall or else on a floor stand next to the wall so you can run the cable from the skirting board up the stand.

mossym

ever use a router? take the skirting boards off the wall, and route a channel in the back of them for the cables.

brav

mossym wrote:

ever use a router? take the skirting boards off the wall, and route a channel in the back of them for the cables.

yep that would be the perfect solution, i suppose it depends on how much effort you want to put in!

godtabh

This is a brand new apartment and doing that now would be handy but the builder doesnt take many of my calls!

Gona be putting down the floors my self so it maybe a solution.

Was actually thinking of putting the wires under the floor and have pop ups but not sure if that would go down well later on

brav

Whats wrong with the current floors?

If your taking them up, then it will be a lot easier to route the wires.
You could also lay down some waven or some kind of pipe to protect the wires a bit and also in future if you wanted to run a another cable, it will be easier.

Sparky

Yeah leave a fish wire in.
If it was me, depending on adjusting location of TV. I had to install a system for somebody who didn't want and cosmetic damage done. In the end, I routed the cables behind the skirting board and clipped them neatly behind the curtains so that they could not be seen. It was a quick job, but thankfully the results looked great.

In your picture, I'd say the skirting route would be the best all round and to install either a surface or sunk single gang box for speaker terminals (if you want) and then use those designed look speaker stands that are adjustable to head height when sitting down and that have a glass base.

Something simular to these
http://www.futurehome.co.uk/ProdImages/genie-stand.jpg

godtabh

brav wrote:

Whats wrong with the current floors?

If your taking them up, then it will be a lot easier to route the wires.
You could also lay down some waven or some kind of pipe to protect the wires a bit and also in future if you wanted to run a another cable, it will be easier.

There is no floors at the moment. The place is being built and should be ready by Janurary at which stage I'll be putting down the floors.

The picture is of the show rooms

brav

Ah, at least you thought of this before.

has it been chased yet? or are the walls already done?

As Sparky said just leave a fish wire there and if possible try to get a chase done for each speaker and put a 1gang speaker terminal for each point for a much better finish.

Good luck, post up the results when done

Sparky

Yeah. We want progress pics.

godtabh

Was talking to the builder. Was meant to be able to get in a tell him what I wanted at the end of the month but prob bot gona happen till the end of Jan now

godtabh

Would do people thing of this as an example of wireless?

I reckon the wireless network I'll be setting up will affect the speakers or would I be wrong?

Any other decent wireless models out there?

paddylonglegs

Kearnsr,I'm in the same situation,about to put down the woodfloors and planning the surround set-up.

What I plan to do is, when putting down floors you need to leave an expansion gap of bout 10mm around the perimeter of the room.I plan on placing the rear speaker cabling in the gap and placing the skirting on top.

It just seems too easy....

brav

Thats what we did when we put down new skirting boards, saw the gap from the floor boards and seemed too perfect!

As for the wireless system, yes its on the same frequency as nearly every other wireless systems out there: Wireless networks, wireless A/V senders, some wireless phones, xbox 360(the worst in my experience, the minute a controller is turned on i notice interference in the a/v sender)

Usually though wlan isn't too bad as if it is interfering just change the channel on the router.
Also it looks like those wireless speakers have
"as the 2.4-GHz wireless system combines Advanced Adaptive Frequency Selection using a bi-lateral authentication system, to minimize interference."
which should really reduce the interference, however be warned if you have an xbox360

godtabh

brav wrote:

which should really reduce the interference, however be warned if you have an xbox360

I have a 360 plus a wireless nic for it!

Plus I am going to be setting up a wireless file storage system to run MCE to the 360 so there will be a lot of devices!

If I change the channel do I get rid off all interference? Not 100 sure about this this aspect.

Is this expansion joint actually meant for the wood to expand or is it a gap purely for wires?

brav

obviously its for the wood to expand but a small speaker cable wont make much difference

as long as your not running 3x2.5 any small cable would be ok, but since you can put the wires down before the floor is done I would reccommend putting under the floors, as allows room for more.

Have you decided on what systems your going to have?
E.g. 5.1 requires 2 front 2 back, 6.1 is 2 front 2 side 1 back etc


as for changing the channel, yes it will help, eg if you were having interference and your wireless channel was at say 11, you could change it to the other side like 3 and will probably help.

However as for the wirelesss controllers for the 360 I think they interfere with most of the channels, a real pain.

paddylonglegs

brav wrote:

as long as your not running 3x2.5 any small cable would be ok, but since you can put the wires down before the floor is done I would reccommend putting under the floors, as allows room for more.QUOTE]

I had considered this first but will this not make the ground uneven?A brand new concrete floor will be levelled perfectly

godtabh

paddylonglegs wrote:

I had considered this first but will this not make the ground uneven?A brand new concrete floor will be levelled perfectly

Depends on the quality of the finish!

brav wrote:

Have you decided on what systems your going to have?
E.g. 5.1 requires 2 front 2 back, 6.1 is 2 front 2 side 1 back etc


as for changing the channel, yes it will help, eg if you were having interference and your wireless channel was at say 11, you could change it to the other side like 3 and will probably help.

I was gona go for a Samsung 2.1 system that sounded savage. Then another 6.1 system was pointed out in another thread so its between the two of them and it will prob come down to how I can wire it all.

Doesnt a 6.1 system have a back speaker also? Or does the extra speaker go in the front? This is the only thing putting me off the 6.1 set up i.e were does the extra speaker go. If its behind it wont be any use to me because of the wiring

brav

yep 1 back

"6.1 is 2 front 2 side 1 back etc" and also the centre speaker

godtabh

brav wrote:

yep 1 back

"6.1 is 2 front 2 side 1 back etc" and also the centre speaker

Just looking into it a bit more.

6.1 is 2 front, 2 behind, center and sub isnt it?

godtabh

This is a mock up of what I was going to do. Can any one else suggest somethig that would be better and if they want to throw in a system for around €400 let me know as well

brav

as for the 6.1/5.1 the 5 or 6 means 5/6 speakers, the .1 means a sub so 5.1 has 5 speakers, 1 center, 2 front, 2 back and 1 sub.

as for your layout, its not bad for 5.1 but if you were able to under the floors, then i would think about moving the rear left as shownand maybe the rear right back a bit so people on bottom sofa hear it a bit back futher

godtabh

brav wrote:

as for the 6.1/5.1 the 5 or 6 means 5/6 speakers, the .1 means a sub so 5.1 has 5 speakers, 1 center, 2 front, 2 back and 1 sub.

as for your layout, its not bad for 5.1 but if you were able to under the floors, then i would think about moving the rear left as shownand maybe the rear right back a bit so people on bottom sofa hear it a bit back futher

Dont know why I thought 5.1 was the same as 6.1! Something I was reading didnt make sense and I think I just repeated it!

If I could find away of putting the 6th speaker behind some where I would but I cant figuer out how I would

Sparky

One tip. Make sure you have your sub outside the soundstage.

Subs can be put anywhere as they are not non directional.

mossym

not non directional..?

okay, too early in the morning, and struggling to figure out double negatives? but i reckon you have too many there?:D

also, subs may be non-directional, but it is important in the room where you put them. a good trick is to put the sub at your listening position, then go around the room and see where the bass sounds best. That's usually the best spot to put your sub to avoid bass traps and reflections in your room

Vexorg

I think the work "not" is there to see who is really listening

I recall trying to find info and sub placement when I got my first sub and found this article easy to understand at the time.

You might find it useful.

Sparky

Slip of the word "not" there.:o

Nice article above.

boy_wonder

kearnsr wrote:

Would do people thing of this as an example of wireless?

I reckon the wireless network I'll be setting up will affect the speakers or would I be wrong?

Any other decent wireless models out there?

Bought this a few weeks ago with pixmania. Its a pretty good system, sound-function wise etc but note that onlt the surround sound speakers are wireless!! You will still have to wire up the left, right, front and woofer to the main unit. So this brings you back to hiding wires.

Vexorg

Are the rear speakers powered?, do you need to have power cables running to the rear surrounds?

Sparky

From the looks of the picture, it looks like there is a wireless receiver to bridge the rear speakers to the main unit. Obviously this receiver would have to be powered.

boy_wonder

Yes the rear speakers are powered. The receiver must be plugged in and the rear speakers are wired to this.