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Whole-House Audio Tutorial - Prewiring

Section 2: Prewiring a Whole-House Audio System

You've got your entire whole-house audio system planned out, right? Down to the last detail? Well, the sheet-rock is going up soon, so you'd better get those wires pulled anyway! What do you pull? Where can you get it? Where do you pull it from/to? We'll answer those questions and more in this section.

Even if you don't have anything planned, you can use the information here to lay in most of what you'll need later.


Introduction to Pre-Wiring

The objective of prewiring is to get as much of the wiring into the walls as is possible before the sheet-rock goes up. It's a whole lot easier to lay in the wires when the walls are open. Even if you don't have your whole-house audio system planned out yet, it's better to go ahead and put in as much wire as you can now. You'll have to "fish" that much less wire later.

When should you lay the whole-house audio wiring? Preferably after all AC wiring is complete, and after as much construction is complete as is possible. (Excepting, of course, the sheet-rock going up.) The reasons are simple: If you put the audio wiring in before the AC is complete, there's a good chance that the electrician will route the AC wiring too close to your audio wires...causing interference. Secondly, if there's still a lot of framing going on, you might not be able to place wires everywhere you need to, and there's a bigger chance that someone could damage the wiring.

Let's cover one special case here: You don't have a clue what you'll be doing eventually. Single zone or multi zone? Keypads, IR pickups, or manual volume controls? You can proceed without having all the details worked out, but youmusthave these three things figured out: Where the "headend" will be (see Section 1), which rooms or areas will likely have speakers, and whether these speakers will be built-in or free-standing. If you know these three things, then you can prewire your whole-house audio system. You just won't have provisions for local sources, headphone jacks, IR distribution from pickups in other locations, or audio from sources not located at the headend.

Before pulling any wires, consider areas where the cabling will be concentrated. Plan out, beforehand, where these "trunk" areas are, and how they will be routed. There may be areas where some 1" PVC piping, used as a "poor-mans's conduit" will assist in passing trunks through walls and floors. This most often occurs above and below the headend location, and through entire levels of multi-story homes. Use more than one pipe when necessary, never a larger pipe since a larger hole in a stud or rafter may be against code!

One neat trick, regarding "pull strings" in longer pieces of conduit, is to use a length of nylon string that is a little longer than twice the length of the conduit. Before putting any wires in the conduit, tie a wadded up cleanex onto one end of the string. Tie the other end onto a nail driven in near one end of the conduit. Stuff the kleenex into this end of the conduit, go to the other end, and use a vacuum cleaner to suck the line through. (Our little "Dust-Buster" does the job nicely.) Untie the kleenex and tie this end of the string onto a nail. Now, to pull each new wire through, simple pull the string through as far as it will go, tie the wire onto the string right next to the opening, go to the other end, and pull the wire through. You can thus use your pull-string over and over, and from either end! Now ain't that clever?

Figure 1Standard Audio Wiring
Do the following and you probably won't be far off:
  1. Run 14 or 16 gauge speaker wire, between the left and right speaker location (see speaker placementbelow), then...
  2. to a two-gang wall-box near the door (loop about 12") then...
  3. on to the headend location.
  4. From the two-gang wall-box, also run an IR wireback to the headend.
  5. Repeat for each speaker pair.


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Speaker Related Wiring

Audio speakers are driven with (ta-da!) Speaker Level Audio. Although still low-voltage, the overall wattages involved are by far the greatest of any low-voltage wiring. Thus the cables are much bigger than other low-voltage wires, rivaling the "Romex" AC wiring. Fortunately, they're stranded and much easier to work with. This also presents a problem with connectors. The only connectors suitable to carry speaker level audio are spring terminals, screw terminals, banana jacks/plugs, wire-nuts, spade and ring lugs, and faston connectors.Do notattempt to pump speaker level audio through phone jacks, phono plugs, or "RJ" telephone jacks; they'll melt. (The only exception is headphone jacks. Headphones pull so little current that a mini-phone jack is acceptable.)

For going into and out of walls, we like the five-way binding posts. These have the same connection on both the inside and outside, and are very quick to terminate. You can connect wires in five different ways: Banana plug, spade lug, bare wire (like a screw terminal), pin, and tinned leads. although not cheap, we use the gold plated type since we're dealing with relatively high current here. The gold plating really does make a difference.

Most in-wall and ceiling speakers either have spring terminals (you don't need anything extra) or spade lugs. If they have spade lugs, you'll need four 1/4" (lug width) blue (for 14 - 16 gauge wire) crimp spade jacks for each speaker pair. And a crimp tool. Surprisingly, we think the speakers with spade lugs are easier to install since you run out of hands trying to: hold down the spring, hold the speaker, and push in the wire!

Speaker Placement

Speaker placement is very important to the overall fidelity of the system.
Wall Speaker Placement

Figure 2Wall-Speaker Location
For free-standing and in-wall speakers, you'll want the speakers to be along the long wall of the room. The speakers should be located between 1/8 and 1/4 of the length of the wall in from the end. The closer to the side wall, the better the base. The further from the side wall, the more even the sound when the listener is not facing the speaker wall.

If the room is very large, you can place speakers on the opposite wall also. Make the speakers facing each other the same channel.

The speakers should be located between 4 feet and 5 1/2 feet from the floor. This height corresponds to the height of the listeners ears. If the speakers will mostly be listened to while standing, the higher location is preferred. If the speakers will be mostly listened to while seated, the lower level is better. Wall-mounted speakers are visible, clean looking, but visible. So they usually get mounted closer to the average "picture frame" height of around 4 1/2 to 5 feet.

Ceiling Speaker Placement

Figure 2Ceiling-Speaker Location
With ceiling speakers, you'll want the speakers to be on the longest centerline of the room. The speakers should be located between 1/6 and 1/3 of the length of the ceiling in from the end. The closer to the side wall, the better the bass. The further from the side wall, the more even the sound when the listener is not facing perpendicular to the centerline. Ceiling speakers tend to be placed a closer together than wall speakers because the listener is often closer to the speakers.

If the room is very large, you can place four speakers in the ceiling (observing the 1/6 to 1/3 rule along both center lines). Make the speakers closer together the same channel.

Speaker Pre-Construction Brackets

If you are planning to install the speakers right away, we recommend that you install pre-construction brackets before the sheet-rock goes up. Most speaker models have pre-construction brackets, and they are available separately. Pre-construction brackets have several advantages: They hold the speaker wire in place; they force the sheet-rock installers to cut proper sized holes for the speakers; they simplify the actual installation of the speakers; and they provide additional mechanical stability for the finished speakers, improving the sound quality and reducing the chance of developing a mechanical "buzz" at certain frequencies.

If you do not want to use pre-construction brackets, angle a long nail into the side of the stud and tie-wrap the speaker wire to the nail. This way the sheet-rockers will have to at least cut a small hole for the nail. (Sheet-rockers will typically cover up anything that isn't physically sticking out!)

If you aren't planning on putting in the audio system for a while, tie up the wires at the speaker locations so the wall or ceiling can go up, but take photographs and measurements so you can find the wires later!

Speaker Enclosure

You can do a lot to improve the sound quality of in-wall and in-ceiling speakers with a few simple modifications in the wall or ceiling before the sheet-rock goes up. These things aren't necessary, but the improvement in sound is well worth the effort. The net effect is to build a simple speaker cabinet behind the speaker. The items are listed below in decreasing order of improvement.
  1. Nail a couple of 2x4's between the studs (or rafters), around 2 to 3 feet apart, on each side of the speaker. If other wiring or plumbing interferes, you can shift the 2x4's up or down. (The speaker doesn't have to be centered between the 2x4's.) For ceiling speakers, if necessary, also cut a sheet of 1/2" plywood to make a "top" for the speaker cabinet.
  2. For wall-speakers -- as the sheet-rock goes up, run a bead of caulk between the 2x4's and studs that make up the speaker "cabinet" and the sheet-rock. Also caulk closed any other holes, such as where the speaker wire enters. This requires working with the sheet-rocker to run a bead of caulk around the opening just before the sheet-rock is nailed up over the speaker location.
  3. Lastly, to increase the bass response of the speaker, pull the paper backing (vapor barrier) off of some insulation and position the remaining fiberglass in the enclosure. (This can be done though the speaker opening after the sheet-rocking is complete.)

Speaker Wire

We use speaker wire made by Monster Cable.Wait!I see the face you're making. I'm not talking about that battery cable stuff. No triple-ought wires here. It's a little known fact that Monster Cable makes some really nice 14 and 16 gauge speakerwire that is just perfect for whole-house audio. They come in two and four conductor versions. The four conductor version comes on a 500' spool. The two conductor version comes on a 1000' spool. We rarely use the two conductor version. The wire is nicely color coded, and is sturdy, yet very flexible. This stuff is really a pleasure to work with! I'm not a hard-core audiophile, but the capabilities of this cable haveneverbeen an issue! Forget that zip-cord; Use Monster Cable once and you'll be hooked forever.

If all your speaker runs are 100 feet or less, and your speakers are 30 watt (average) or less, then you can use the 16 gauge speaker wire. Otherwise, use the 14 gauge wire. Rather than get some of each type of wire, most people just buy the largest required wire in bulk. A word of caution: Most of the connectors you'll be dealing with will accept up to 14 gauge wire. Going with anything bigger will present major connection headaches later.

Speaker Wire Runs

As described above, most speaker wire runs will start at the furthest speaker, go past the other speaker, loop through a wall-box in that room, then proceed on to the headend. Give yourself a little slack at all these locations for connections. If you have your plans all marked up as specified in Section 1, run speaker wire from speaker level audio output wall-plates (marked 'C', 'D', and 'E' on your plans, or from the furthest speaker, past the other speaker, then to any volume control (marked 'F'), then to the headend.

For a headphone jack, pull an IR wire (see below) from the wall-box where the headphone jack will be (marked 'H' on the plans), back to the headend. Ultimately, you will "parallel" the headphone jack with that zone's amplifier. In Section 1 we mentioned that you would have to have a volume or on/off control for the corresponding speaker pair. This is so you can turn off the speakers when listening to the headphones. See Section 3 for information about hooking up the earphone jack.

Also pull speaker wire from any local source inputs (marked 'c', 'd', or 'e' on the plans) back to the headend.

Another tip: Use deep boxes and don't bother "cinching" down the cable retainers in the wall-boxes. You'll need to be able to shove the extra cable back into the wall before you can mount the volume control, keypad, or IR receiver in the wall-box. A wall-box won't hold much coiled up speaker cable! Use a tie-wrap to keep the cable from backing out of the box prematurely.

As with any low-voltage cabling, you should try to stay at least 18" away from any AC wiring. If you must cross an AC line, do so at a right angle. The most annoying thing that can happen with speaker wiring is to pick up AC hum from being to close to AC lines. If the coupling is after the volume control, your speakers will hum constantly...24 hours a day. This could be deadly in a bedroom! Speaker level audio is fairly immune to picking up AC hum, but it can happen. Electrically speaking, the amount of hum picked up is proportional to the distance between the AC and audio wires, times the distance the wires run parallel to each other. So...you can run very close to AC wires for a very short distance (less than 24") without trouble. And you can run parallel, but far away (greater than 18") to AC wires over large distances without trouble. But running less than 18" over large distances is begging for trouble.


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IR Wiring

What we generically call "IR Wiring" would be better called "Whole-House Audio System Control Wiring." With the Xantech line, and many other manufacturers, the control wiring actually carries an electrical equivalent of infrared signals. With some other manufacturers, such as Square-D's Elan system, and AudioEase's system, the control line carries vendor specific digital control signals. I can only speak for the Xantech requirements, but believe they will suffice for most other vendor's equipment as well.

IR Emitter/Pickup Placement

For the purposes of this discussion, you can treat the keypads just like an IR Pickup. (They just re-create the IR signal instead of converting a real-time IR signal.) You will need to run IR Wire from each remote IR Emitter ('I' on your plans) and IR Pickup ('i' or 'k' on your plans) back to the headend. Youcandaisy-chain the IR Wire between IR Emitters and Pickups within the same zone, but for the ultimate in flexibility, we like to run separate wires back to the headend. This way, all options are open. The only time we combine functions is when there is an IR Emitteranda pickup at the same location. With four wires in the IR cable, you can still keep the upstream and downstream signal separate. (Wiring details in section 3.) Also, if you plan on having an IR Pickup and a keypad in the same wall-box, these can both use the same cable.

IR Wire

The IR wire is a particularlyundemandingapplication and, with Xantech components anyway, we have never seen a problem with any kind of wire used. Some people just use some of their extra four-pair cat-3 or cat-5 telephone wirefor this job. Works fine. My only observation is one of experience when wiring the equipment at the headend: If the telephone and IR wire are identical, it just adds to the confusion when connecting the headend equipment. If a different wire is used for IR, then it is readily apparent which wires go where, and for what purpose. For this reason, and because the extra wires in four-pair only add to the confusion at both ends, we prefer to use good old quad wire.This is the stuff that home telephonesusedto be wired with. You know it: Thin stuff with four wires--black, red, green, yellow. Use 22 gauge with solid conductors.

IR Wire Runs

Not much to say here other than the normal low-voltage wiring notes. Although we have never seen a problem with AC coupling on IR wires, there's no reason to tempt fate. Keep at least 18" away from AC lines, cross at right angles, etc. One little note about all low-voltage wiring: You can run all low-voltage wiring together with impunity. Coupling between various low-voltage lines won't be a problem. (Although such a blanket statement just begs for flames from purists and engineers, keep your flames to yourself: I'm talking about real-world experience here, not theory.)

Pull IR Wires from each IR Pickup and Keypad location ('i' and 'k' on the plans) and from each IR emitter location ('I' on the plans), back to the headend.


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Line Level Audio Wiring

As was mentioned in Section 1, we try to avoid line-level audio runs wherever possible, because line-level audio justlovesto pick up AC hum. If you must run line-level audio, pay extra attention to where you pull the cable!

Jack Placement

You should already have your plans marked with an 'a' or 'b' for these jacks. We use 1/8" stereo mini phone jacksin a TechWire wallplate. Then we use a 1/8" stereo mini plug to 2 RCA female jacksadapter cable to connect the equipment.

Line Level Audio Wire

We scoured the Belden catalog and found the best cable for this job. This two conductor shielded wire has excellent characteristics. It's very thin, but looks are deceiving. The solid conductors are very easy to solder onto the connectors at each end, if necessary. (A task we manage to avoid; See Section 3.)

Line Level Audio Wire Runs

Just pull this wire from each audio source location (marked 'a' or 'b' on the plans) back to the headend.

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Miscellaneous Wiring

Depending on the job, there may be a few other wiring tasks related to whole-house audio.

AM/FM Antenna

Don't forget that the tuner (at the headend) will need an antenna for AM and FM reception. (You can't use the CATV feed.) We use one of those little amplified indoor AM/FM antennas. We place the antenna as high as possible at the headend, or even in the attic. Try to place the antenna as far away as possible from any metal or electronics. You will need to run coax from the antenna to the headend. You will also need an AC outlet near the antenna, or run an IR wire (for power) from the headend up to the antenna.

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Final Checkout Before The Walls Go Up

Think you've got all the wires ran? Double-check your plans and the job-site. Make sure everything is labeled and check off the expected connections at the headend. One final thought: There might be some areas where dropping in an extra pull-cord might be real handy later. If there are any areas where access will be particularly difficult (areas without attic or crawl-space access) pull a length of thin nylon string through the studs and rafters and tie it to a nail on each end. Costs virtually nothing, but could save endless hours of "fishing" (not the good kind) later.

Now wait for the sheet-rockers. We'll see you in Section 3when they're done and you're ready to begin the equipment installation.


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