Under floor home audio Install advise

[Cal_GTA]

I'm just planning out my install and buying the bits i need, but i don't really know a great deal about audio cables so could do with some tips.

The tricky thing is, as it stands right now, i don't have any components, Amp, speakers etc due to our house being mid renovation and it being fairly far down the priorities list. However I will need to plaster over the cable conduits and lay the floors soon, so that we can move forward.

So what i'm trying to do is make sure i've got the right wiring in place for when we do get something, because i'm not ripping up the floor again! Its a fairly small room 3m x 4m and its never going to have some massive system. Just something good for films and a bit of music.

i was going to use the nexxia modular system - http://www.nexxia.co.uk/products.asp?section=Audio...

NX-WPM-009 Subwoofer Phono White Wall Plate Modular Insert x 2
NX-WPM-061 Speaker 4mm Banana Socket Euro Modular wall Insert x 4

So what cables should i be using under the floors? Is my plan going to work for a mini home cinema setup, or have i made some massive error?

i'm fine with all the coaxial, sat cables, phone etc, its just the audio stuff i don't have a clue about.

[DavidY]

What distances are you talking about. The sub cable ideally should be less than 10m.

Personally I would use Van Damme cabling for the speaker cable. Their Blue studio range is good no-nonsense cable and cost effective. It comes in different sizes but I would suggest either 1.5mm or 2.5mm, the latter would definitely future proof the system for upgrades.

http://www.vdctrading.com/products_gridview.asp?Su...

and their unbalanced patch cable will be fine for the sub-woofer

http://www.vdctrading.com/products_gridview.asp?Su...

Hope that helps

[Cal_GTA]

It's a very small area, roughly a 4m x 3m box. Which is why i didn't want to just slap in the bigest/best cables i could afford only to find that the audio kit i'd need to use them would be far too excessive given the space.

2.5mm is what i'd been looking at, is there any kind of minium system requirements for this?

i'd guess the total length of the sub phono cable including the run under the floor would be less than 5meters. There may never be a sub, but its good to have options. I've got so much other stuff on with the rest of the house that i don't have the time to research what we'd like/need.

Thanks for the links, here is my amazing current setup

DavidY said:

What distances are you talking about. The sub cable ideally should be less than 10m.

Personally I would use Van Damme cabling for the speaker cable. Their Blue studio range is good no-nonsense cable and cost effective. It comes in different sizes but I would suggest either 1.5mm or 2.5mm, the latter would definitely future proof the system for upgrades.

http://www.vdctrading.com/products_gridview.asp?Su...

and their unbalanced patch cable will be fine for the sub-woofer

http://www.vdctrading.com/products_gridview.asp?Su...

Hope that helps

[DavidY]

The Van Damme cable is very good, if it's good enough for a lot of studios then it's fine for the home. I use the Blue 2.5mm cable for my rear speakers, unless you have a really large amplifier (> say 500W per channel) driving lots of current than 2.5mm will be fine. At your sorts of distances it won't break the bank either.

[NIIKME]

Cal_GTA said:

Is that a blue'y youre watching there

[Cal_GTA]

NIIKME said:

Is that a blue'y youre watching there

pfff...i wish. It was a terrible film with Sandra Bullock, that my girlfriend wanted watch - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477071/

dont watch it

[Autopilot]

Cal_GTA said:

i don't have the time to research what we'd like/need.

In my opinion, you need to make time to know what you want from the system otherwise you won't get it right. I've just finished my install and it was bit of a pain and the AV equipment I bought did actually change the requirements of the install...allow me to elaborate from experience (pain) of my recent install.

I have a mid 1800s three story house, so wanted the build to be as sympathetic to a building of this age as possible, so meant keeping everything clean and tidy! I have an LED tv mounted on a chimney breast and wanted the AV equipment on floating shelves in one of the alcoves. To keep things tidy, I chased the cables in to the wall and they pop out in the alcove. The cables from the TV that needed chasing in were a power cable (Figure of 8 type....had to buy a longer one to reach the power), an HDMI cable to connect to the amp, an ethernet cable (the TV has built in iPlayer and Smart Hub etc etc, so needed connecting to my broadband router), and an aerial lead, so 4 cables in total. I then put three batons up running the height of the wall in the alcove and plaster boarded over it. The cables that came from the TV run from where the chasing on the chimney ends and fed under the plasterboard where I left a gap in the baton for them to travel across. My amplifier was to go on a thick floating shelf in the alcove next the TV, the HDMI cable pops out through a hole I cut in the plasterboard where the amp would eventually sit, the ethernet then runs behind the plasterboard and then under the floorboards where it then pops out by the router. The power cable pops out through a hole slightly higher up when the next shelf was to go and the aerial just traveled to where the lead comes in to the house.

The hole in the wall (where the HDMI comes in behind the amp) had to be big enough to get speaker cables through, and like all things these days, the amp is also net enabled (spotify, internet radio etc) so it meant running another ethernet cable from the router, under the floor, behind the new plasterboard wall and through the hole behind the amp.

The shelf above was going to house my PS3 and xbox, so to connect them to the TV, all I had to do was each have an HDMI going to the Amp, and the amp does the rest. To power the consoles, I drilled a hole just below where a power socket poked through the new plasterboard wall and put the extension lead where it would roughly sit, and fed the lead down the wall, through the hole, put the plug back on, and plugged it in.

The whole house was then re-plastered and everything made permanent. I did use conduit in the chased walls, but due to angles, there is no way anything can be added later or removed for the matter, they're in there for good!

When I put the shelves up (made them myself) I put the PS3 and xbox on the top shelf, plugged in to the extension lead etc. When the lower shelf was done, I put the amp up, put the HDMI leads in and then had to cut the plug off my amp so I could feed it through up behind the wall to the top shelf where the power was and put a new one on.

Next came the speaker cables. I bough a 50m roll of cable off of amazon... like this one, just 50m of it http://www.amazon.co.uk/Quality-2-5mm-Loud-Speaker...

The speaker cables run through the hole behind the amp and then down under the floor. As my Amp can be bi-amped, I ran two sets of speaker cable to the front speakers (Floor standers), so the tweeter and bass can be powered separately. The rest all had just one set of cable, and of course a lead from the amp to the sub.

The most important part of my install was knowing what I was buying and how it all fit together, it really was all about planning the install. In fact, I'd say the planning took as long as the install itself did. It's fair enough to have a rough idea where you want speakers an amp and a TV to go, but it getting power to things and then finding things like you need an ethernet cable etc which really take the planning. As my TV is so thin and is only 1cm away from the wall, I couldn't bring the power to the TV (not that I'd want to have a socket on the chimney), hence me having to buy a longer lead that I could chase in to the wall.

I don't see why you can't do the work required now and then get it all plastered and put the AV gear in later, but you really need to plan it properly or you'll end up with neat speaker socket plates etc on walls, and then have ethernet cables (which can be avoided as you can buy wireless kits for TV's and Amps etc) and power cables all over the show and you'll lose the effect you're after.

You don't need to spend a huge amount on speaker cables! There is a thread on here and on AVforums that makes fairly entertaining reading...people spending £100's on cable, science type geeks spending a couple of quid of power cable to be used for speakers as they understand things better etc etc

Good luck with your build

[Cal_GTA]

in-depth response there!

I appreciate i should learn more about this before installing sockets etc. But i know roughly what i would like and it won't be anything near as involved as your setup sounds. If the rest of the house was sound then i would be really going to town on this. Alas things like the heating system and leaking pipes seem more pressing right now!

If i can not have speaker wire trailing along the skirting boards then i'll be pretty happy.