In-wall wiring - terminate or not?

atlanticjay

Hi, all -

Starting my journey into building my first HT room & setup. My "room" is currently an unfinished basement room (bare studs), so I am planning to run in-wall speaker wire.

Originally, I was trying to figure out what all terminal plates, plugs, etc. I would eventually need. But then the certified installer dude at my local A/V store said that I should just bring the wire right out of the finished walls to the speakers and receiver - rather than terminating at the wall and using regular speaker wire to go from the wall terminal plate to the speakers/receiver.

His theory is that terminating really just gives more opportunities for poor connections, which makes sense to me. So, 2 questions:

1) How many of you with in-wall cabling terminate at the wall vs. just pulling the in-wall wire through?

2) I have found a couple of places locally where I can get in-wall cable much cheaper than at Future Shop, my local A/v store, or even on-line. BUT - it seems most everyone has WHITE. If I don't terminate, and my speakers are not right up against the wall (probably both fronts and rears will be floorstanders), how will I hide this unsightly white cable?


Also, any thoughts on using 14/2 vs. 14/4 cable? The only reason I thought 14/4 is that if I wanted to try bi-wiring or bi-amping in the future, the extra strands are already there. (But it's more expensive)


Thanks in advance for all comments.