paulg1979

iTrader: (1)

Hi guys

I'm about to move into a new home which has just been built. I am laying wooden flooring but thought it would be a good idea to run speaker wires first.

I want surround sound and wondered what the best distance apart the front speakers should be form each other to get optimum sound quality. Also would you run the speaker wires under the underlay and wooden floor or in between the wooden floor and underlay?

Thanks

hades

Optimum speaker positioning depends entirely on the layout of the room, so we'd need more information to answer that. General guidelines is that the centre speaker should be where the screen is (slightly above/below), the front left and right should ideally be equally far to the side of the TV/centre and as far away from the back wall as the centre speaker and each other. You'll also probably want to avoid putting the front speakers too near a corner / side wall as it will result in overblown bass, and ideally the left and right speakers should be the same distance from the nearest side wall as each other. How far they should be away from back/side walls depends on which speakers you buy - some need "space to breath", others work better near back walls.

A perfect position in a rectangular room with one door would be to have the television in the centre of one (unbroken) wall, with L&R speakers equidistant from the television, not too close to corners and about the same distance from the television as your favoured seat is from the television.

As for the cable - the only trick really is avoiding causing lumps under the floor and crushing the cable. If the cables are nearly as thick as the underlay, I'd advocate cutting a small channel in the underlay, and running the cable in that, so as to leave the wooden floor a level base to sit on. If you have a waterproofing type membrane under the underlay, lay the cable above that.

paulg1979

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for all the information. I wasn't going to go to mad with the speaker cable. Obviously not going to buy door bell wire but you can also buy flat speaker cable can't you. My friend owns a Naim Audio system which cost £10000 and the cable he uses is fairly wide but quite flat. The room is rectangle but one of the shortest walls is all glass and the other leads to the kitchen so I was thinking of having the TV in the middle of the long wall and speakers either side maybe a meter away from the TV. I have Mordaunt Short 902i's which are stand mount speakers and have slightly smaller stand mounts for either side of the sofa. I haven't purchased a centre speaker yet but will make sure I buy a TV stand with enough shelves to hold my AV Receiver, PVR and the centre speaker.

Mollox

Don't know sod all about surround sound, but as for the cables i'd put them in the expansion gap between the edge of rthe wood and the wall or skirting before fitting the beading/skirting.

paulg1979

iTrader: (1)

Skirting will already be fitted as it is a new home so might be a problem.

hades

Sounds a reasonable arrangement of the furniture.

Yes, there are plenty of good quality flat & wide speaker cables, including Nordost Valhalla where a 5m pair of speaker cable costs a very similar amount to your mate's entire Naim system. Horses for courses: my front speaker cable is also wide and flat - but costs far too much for me to justify using it for the back speakers (it's about the right level for my system which is comparable with £10k of Naim set-up).

Anyway, to go back to original point, as long as you have some thickness and compliance ("suqashiness") in the underlay, I think you'll get away with flat cable. I'd put it under the underlay.

alistair

Here's a good guide.

I'd run cables for 7.1 and multiple cables for subs so that you can decide where to put that afterwards.

Al