Immediate advice needed!

grimmace19

So, my basement is nearly finished. The sheet rock is done, trim almost complete, granite installed, carpet is tomorrow. I'll be 100% ready to go by Tuesday. I had the a/v company prewire everything from a back closet to all speaker points. We agreed that I would use the bare wire method for connection and just have the cables for the speakers come out of a small plate.

I came home today and found that they chopped off my extra length and installed banana plates! Very upsetting as it was very clear I didn't want this and the extra connection involved for audio quality purposes.

The contractor has offered to rip apart everything, get to all the wires, and replace from scratch. This seems unreasonable to me as it will delay my basement by weeks with the process involved.

Am I over reacting thinking that my sound will be somewhat diminished? Knowing what he offered, what do you guys think is a fair solution? I really don't want my basement destroyed again, but I don't want any regrets coming out of a project costing A TON of money.

I told him I'd have a solution by the morning but I'm really not sure what to ask for.

rpf65

Rip out everything for a wire pull? That sounds like somebody trying to invent a new kind of stupid. Worse case I can think of would be cut sheet rock close to floor, and hide it with the trim.

Don't know what's going on there, but a wire pull shouldn't be a reason to start from scratch.

polrbehr

Since he didn't offer you any type of refund, I'm guessing he's willing to rip everything
out because he feels you will not want to go that route, especially if there will be a lengthy delay in getting everything finished? You can always come out and ask him for something extra.
I would live with the banana plates, even without knowing what kind of cable you ran.
I'm sure everything will sound fine, but maybe ask the A/V company what they think anyway.

Dennis Gardner

Compromise is the best road to take. You could ask him to put in WBT or Cardas posts at his expense to get the best quality connections. I think that your concern with running continuous may be a tad too picky, unless you are using ultra high end wiring. We live with connections at our amps, speakers, wall outlets, breaker boxes, power poles, etc. without much thought on a continuous requirement. Look for a quality connection point as a compromise and peace of mind. Personally, a nice plate connection looks better than a bare box or wire coming out of a hole plate.

I understand your position,but if they have done high quality work, I would look past this misstep and enjoy your new spaces.

BlueFox

Personally, I would NEVER go with permanent cables. In this situation my attitude is "I am paying for 'X', and I want 'X'. Fix it."

gdb

Ask him how much it would be worth to him to NOT redo the job. Take that as a discount off the original contracted price. As mentioned previously, notching studs and drywall behind the base moulding is easy and not too messy. If at some point you decide to pull the base, cut the caulk/paint with a knife first to avoid tearing the paper off of the drywall. (make sure you're left with some of the paints used !! ) He should have run PVC conduit to facilitate future wire-pulling in the first place, IMO. Good luck, however you decide to proceed !

F1nut

I'm going to venture a guess that this inwall speaker cable is not some wildly exotic stuff whose main purpose is for HT use.

Since you don't seem to like the idea of the banana connections, take the plates off then solder extensions onto the existing cable, heat shrink the solder connections and shove it all back into the wall leaving only the tails to connect to your speakers. Easy peasy, no need to rip apart anything.

mrbiron

I like Jesse's idea if something "HAS" to be done.

Quite honestly, i think you are being a little picky about this. If you need comfort, get some kind of refund/reimbursement to make you happy. Maybe he calibrates your **** on his dime.

tonyb

Tad bit over reacting.....who wouldn't want banana connections ? Makes it a lot easier to move stuff, change cables to speakers, etc. Cleaner look too. I'd just want quality posts and not the cheap crap.

If it's any consolation, I've seen some pretty high end systems using wall plates with esoteric wires hooked to them. What wire is behind that wall plate, I dunno, but I bet it isn't the same quality going to the speakers.

scubalab

My experience with contractors is when they F up, they offer to 'fix', but are sure to tell you how long it will take, how it won't come out as nice as the first time, blah, blah. It's all a bluff. You could either call him out on it and make him re-do it, or try to come to another resolution. Ask for a partial refund, higher quality connections, or additional/discounted work.

We had a stamped concrete patio put in 10 years ago that sits a couple feet below grade except at the front. I told the contractor I wanted it to drain away from the house and toward the front. He screwed up, there are some high spots and I called him out on it. His answer? He said I must have messed with the forms. Really? I sabotaged MY own house? I didn't back down. He finally said he'd remove it, but said it likely wouldn't come out as nice. (In his credit, It did come out awesome.) I called his bluff and said OK, you can tear it out, or install drains at your cost. He went with the drain. To this day, I'm still torn on whether it was the right decision... but we live with it and don't let it bother us.

I've learned that unless you do your own work, you'll NEVER be 100% satisfied. Just try to make the best of the situation and move on. If it were me, I'd go with Dennis or Jesse's recommendations.

Best of luck today!

EndersShadow

I'd agree with Tony. If it was me I would have ASKED for wall plates, just would have specified either Audioquest FLX or Kimber Kabke in wall wire so I knew what was back there. And also some good wall plates.

If it was for a stereo setup I wouldn't have run wires in wall at all if it was home theater I would have for sure.

I also would have had him run wire for 11.4.2 but only terminate for the speakers I currently had or planned to have soon.

DaveHo

Unless this is a high buck 2 channel system, I don't think having the wall plates is the end of the world. That said, I think the cable coming straight out of the wall via a plate with a grommet looks much cleaner than banana plates. I would have also run the wire in conduit so it could be replaced if needed. In the end, I don't think I'd have him rip up the walls to replace it. I think asking him to pay for top quality connections is reasonable.

drumminman

I like F1's's solution. I don't think you'd be able to hear the difference if you use make a good mechanical connection wire to wire, and then reinforce it by using good quality solder like Cardas or WBT. If you decide to go banana plugs be sure and use the highest purity copper you can get. In my system it makes an easily audible difference. Doug at Douglas Cables (a member here) carries a brand called Furez that are a great bang for the buck.

grimmace19

Thanks for the advice and help guys. Here's the solution were working on. Upgraded wall plates of my choosing, building speaker cables about 6 feet for the front three using the same wire as in the walls but doing high end bananas and covering with tech flex and heat shrink, plus money back on the job.

I'm pretty happy with the solution as long as they don't mess up anything else in the meantime.

Moose68Bash

The question is: What can you live with without regrets?

Jesse's solution is great, if you are not going to spend the next X years second guessing whether you should have asked the contractor to redo the work and deliver what you spec'd.

I personally always expect to get what I spec'd and what I paid for. Unfortunately, these days it is a lot harder to do than it used to be. (OK, I'm a little long in the tooth and perhaps have rosy view of the "good old days.")

Do a gut check about what you can live with, make your decision, and don't look back.

With that said, if you let the contractor walk away without redoing the work, definitely make him give you one or more of the concessions others have suggested above.

msg

Some good suggestions here. I have nothing else to offer by way of a fix, but I do feel a bit annoyed for you. I hate when stuff like this happens. Seems like it's always a case of assumption and lack of communication somewhere.

I don't think you're overreacting. I think you're well within your right to be bothered by this. OTOH, ripping it all out would probably bother you more, so at least you've reached some measure of acceptance/agreement. Personally, I think it sucks that you are forced to make any sort of compromise, and I hope type get some concession for this. To me, the irksome thing seems more that a deviation from plan was made without your permission. You're the one who has to live with it. You wanted it a certain way and are spending, I'm sure, a significant amount of money on this project. If there were not a decent possible fix, this would annoy the $@#* out of me, as a matter of principle, and I'd probably have to just knock the house down and start from scratch.

Not sure why they didn't leave slack anyway. I thought it was just good practice to always leave slack/extra in cable runs?