Basement Speaker Wiring

pbrown22

I know this has probably been posted before, but I was not getting good answers to my searches.

I am finishing my basement and want to run the speaker wires in the walls and/or ceiling. I just don't understand the best way to do this. A friend told me to use conduit, but I am just not sure how it works. I know there are restrictions about following the electrical wires, but any suggestions are welcome.

Any good sites to demo this? Any good suggestions period?

Thanks in advance.

okiepolkie

Conduit is great if you ever want to "upgrade" the in-wall wire. The conduit would be run through the ceiling joists, or walls. If/when you needed to run new wire, you can just attach the new wire to the end of the old one and pull(although it doesn't always work).

If you don't think you will be in the house for a long period of time, or if you have high quality(good shielding), wire to begin with, then you wouldn't need the conduit.

Another rule of thumb would be to keep speaker wire at least 6" away from the electrical lines if you have to run them parallel. If they are run perpendicular to each other, there won't be a problem.

I would suggest running high quality wire(good in-wall rated) to begin with, so you won't have the need to upgrade later.

Lowell_M

I used 12-ga In-wall Belkin wire in my basement project, but can't remember who I bought it through. Anyway, it has a real nice outer covering that allows for pulling through studs and such without damaging the wire. Looks like nice wire, although i don't have much experience to compare it to.

Sansui

okiepolkie wrote:

Conduit is great if you ever want to "upgrade" the in-wall wire. The conduit would be run through the ceiling joists, or walls. If/when you needed to run new wire, you can just attach the new wire to the end of the old one and pull(although it doesn't always work).

It can be real hard pulling wire through three or more 90* turns even if someone is push feeding the wire on one end regardless of the size of conduit used. Just a thought...