Help with in-wall speakers for home theatre...

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Help with in-wall speakers for home theatre...

sheldybro

20 posts

Geek

#22442 28-May-2008 14:27

Hi everyone, i wouldnt mind a bit of advice on in-wall / ceiling speakers.

Our house is currently under construction and i need top get my skates on and work out my speakers,
I am allowing to have a couple of floor standing front speakers, with an in-wall centre speaker and a couple of in-ceiling rears.

With the in walls/ in ceiling i have heard that they need to be built into a sealed box for better sound, is there any specific size these sealed units need to be?? HxWxD ??? Do speakers need to breathe???

As for brands and models of speakers i havent purchased any yet so any thoughts on this would also be appreciated.
No set budget, but as cheap as poss without losing quality.

No Amp yet either, but like the look of the new denon or yamaha

Anyone had any experience with the JA Audio speakers that are being thrashed on trade-me??

All advice welcomed.

Cheers
Sheldon

TameIti

97 posts

Master Geek

#133891 28-May-2008 16:16

I can't really help you on the above but I would like to add, if your house is under construction maybe you should think about running Cat5e ethernet cables to rooms all connected to a 24 port switch. Just an idea.

neilinnz

165 posts

Master Geek

#133894 28-May-2008 16:21

We're building too and I've run cat6 to all rooms and the corners of the living room. All these runs to a 24 port patch panel.

Does anyone know if I can simply patch in any rear surround sound speakers without anything else? Eg. make a cat6 speaker cable and patch two rear outputs from a surround sound box to the corner sockets and from there use another cat6 speaker cable?

I've not got surround sound but was just interested for the future.

(sorry to hijack your post)

cyril7

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#133899 28-May-2008 16:37

Hi Sheldon, I personally recommend that you create a sealed baffle box behind inwall and inceiling speakers. In theory a ceiling for instance without a rear baffle will in itself create an infinite baffle, which in theory is an ideal, however in practice it is found that sealing behind the speaker is best.

However there are other things to keep in mind, the issues of sound degradation is very much to do with the low frequency response of the speakers. So inwall fronts that can operate as full range speakers I definetly would install a rear baffle, however in ceiling speakers that are say 6" dia and more likely to be set to small (therefore have an amplifier imposed cutoff around 80Hz) then the issues of not rear baffling are not so much an issue.

So if they are inceiling rears that you will most likely set to small then dont worry about ceiling. An inwall centre is also normally set to small, but by nature of a wall cavity will be sealed, just ensure it is well sealed with gluing the gib. When I cut the speaker hole I normally rear in with finger loads of no more gaps and seal all around the stud and nog to gib corners to ensure a seal, then fill with wadding. As for size well in a typical home you will find standard wall cavities are based around 600mm spaced studs with 800mm spaced nogs, so you normally end up with the same cavity size/volue but the speakers may sit in different places of the cavity. If there is a room behind the wall of install or the wall is an outside one then you should line the back of the cavity, I normally use 12mm mdf panels held with 9mmx9mm beading.

TameIti and Neil, I recently shipped Sheldon 2x 16port cat5e patch panels and all the cable and gear to go with it and a heap of RG6 coax bits for that too, be assured his house will be DataCentre capable.

Neil, I dont recommend puting speaker signals through RJ45 8p8c connectors or keystone sockets or you patch field. You readily can run several amps in a speaker circuit, RJ45s are not really designed for that and you could damage the patch feild. I also would never use Cat5 or 6 for speaker runs, but no reason why not, but I would avoid putting it via the patch panel it might start smoking.

Cyril

neilinnz

165 posts

Master Geek

#134049 29-May-2008 08:04

Is there really enough power going through a speaker cable that it will affect a patch panel?

cyril7

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#134051 29-May-2008 08:16

Well what is your amp rated at? The real issue is its a low impedance circuit, 6-8ohms, so even if low power there can be very high currents, well beyond the rating of RJ45s

Cyril

neilinnz

165 posts

Master Geek

#134114 29-May-2008 11:41

Cyril,

Thanks for the info. I don't have an amp yet, I was cabling up in case I did get a surround sound system. I did a bit more reading up and it sounds like it's not a good idea to use catx cables to carry sound as they might set your house on fire.

The gib board goes on today!!! So I've just been up and run two speaker cables alongside the cat6. They'll sit in the wall until I need them.

Cheers

cyril7

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#134117 29-May-2008 11:43

Your lucky, you got there in time.

Cyril

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sheldybro

20 posts

Geek

#134141 29-May-2008 13:13

Thanx again Cyril, as always very helpful.

TameIti and Neil, as cyril mentioned, my house will be full of cables and wires so i think i have got that all covered.

cheers
Sheldon