So I'm installing a home theatre...

T

themacko

Barking at the moon.
Well I'm moving into a house in about 2 weeks with a couple friends. I'm more of the 'Bob Vila' out of the group (used to install shutters for a while) so I've been in charge of doing the renevating.

Now that all the fix-it stuff is done, I'm working on installing our home theatre that we have going. Between the three of us we have a 32" TV, DVD, VCR, CD changer, stereo/reciever and surround speakers (minus a sub). I've run the speaker wire under the carpet between the slab and the padding, so that's done. Now my problem is wiring through the pre-existing wall.

I'm going to install the rear 2 speakers about 80 inches straight up the wall. I'd like to keep the drill holes as small as possible, but I'm not sure how to go about feeding the wire through. Using fish tape is an option, but it's a real pain in the ass to deal with when you don't have conduit to run it through.

Has anyone done something similar .. what have you tried or what would you suggest?

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

BTW, it's standard sheet rock (drywall) and I don't THINK I have any studs to contend with. I don't know about insulation though, as it is a perimeter wall.
 
Drill a hole at the entry point, and at the exit point at the floor. Make these holes verticle. Take a long pull chain (those chains that are on ceiling fans, hold pens onto counters at stores, etc) and feed it down the top hole. When you get enough of the chain into the hole that it's reached the area where your bottom hole is, take a large magnet, put it against the hole, and it will attract the pull chain. Then, pull chain thru hole with magnet. The bottom hole probably needs to be slightly larger then the top one, the top one needs to be just large enough for your wire. attach the wire to the chain, and pull it thru, bingo, all done.


Brian
 
wow, sounds like something MacGyver would think of. Thanks man, I'll try that first thing in the morning!
 
Actually learned that trick watching a home improvement show where they were installing home theaters (had professional home theater people doing it). So, that was their trick :)

Brian
 
I wimped out and didn't go through the wall .. I simply tacked the wires to the inside of the window frame and they're barely noticable. Thanks for the tip, though!

Anywhoo, for those of you who have never had surround sound this is awesome! I'm using some fairly cheap equipment but it still sounds sweet to me. I watched the beginning of Saving Private Ryan and it's totally cool, the bullets whizzing behind you and the loud bass thumping out explosions .. tight stuff. If you're thinking about doing the whole surround sound thing, my advice is go for it. I can't freaking wait until the football season starts!!
 
Alright, you talked me into it. I'm going to setup my awsome Cyber-Acustics sound system to be suround sound. So may I ask: where should the subwoofer be placed? In front of me, under me, behind me...where?!
 
With a sub woofer, it doesn't matter where goes really. It can be anywhere in the room because the low frequencies aren't really directional. Meaning, you can't tell where they are coming from. So, you can just stick it in a corner somewhere.
 
The guy at Ultimate Electronics was telling me that subs are generally best somewhere in front of you and 6-8 inches away from the wall. I've got mine in a corner to the left of the entertainment unit. I think that as long as it's not crammed behind furniture it's pretty much fair game where you put the sub.

<shameless self-promotion>
BTW, I'll take some pics and put up on my .Mac ;) just because I'm so proud of it. I'll post here when I do.
</shameless self-promotion>
 
Yes, and the reason it's better to put it away from the wall a bit is so that the sound gets reflected to the rest of the room.

You generally hear low frequencies through your body, where the sound travels through your bones and then to your ear rather than hearing it directly from the air.
 
Considering all the crap we have, ours was VERY simple to set up! The speakers... eh, we have the cords near the wall... you can barely see them, so it doesn't matter where they are...

here are some pix of our setup... taken with the crappy digital camera in our dv camcorder... you figure they would make them look better for the price we paid for the damn thing!

Edit: Click and drag the link to your address or location bar for these to work! Stupid Geocities won't let you just click on the things!!

Surround Sound :)
Satellite
DVD (we have no use for VCR's anymore! bah!)
and to finish it all off... our newest purchase... the tv! 53" Widescreen just kills it all!

here's our sub... it's awesome...

- casey
 
A good friend of mine has his big ass Kliptch sub suspended under his living room floor in a crawl space. damn it is cool, just the right amount of rumble and thump to get you through any blow em up, shoot everything movie. I on the other hand don't have the $$ for that but got a great deal on a Bose system. It is lacking the true surround sound that I am used to but it is ok in it's "virtual" surround. but I can't put that sub anywhere in my tiny apartment it rumbles like a mofo. and damn, with sunday ticket and a six pack, I can feel the hits every sunday.. I can't wait!
 
I have an issue with setting up suround sound here in my room. The cords to the speakers are really, really short and can't really go out of the entertainment system area, which is all in front of me right now as I type this. So I was wondering: are there any special tricks to make the sound reflect perfectly off of all the walls in the room or something? Anything I can do to make the sound better, other than get a new setup?
 
Probably, maybe even less than $10.
But that's not my REAL issue (as I forgot to mention:) my issue is I have a small area I can work with. I cannot work with the entire room, because it's a shared room... e.x.: kitchen and a living room.

So I need to work basically with a small 6 foot space in front of me. :(
 
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