Home Theater suggestions

I had the same problem when I first move into our Eichler. I ended up purchasing a sony dream sound system. Their are no wires to the rear speakers from the main receiver. It uses inferred technology to send the sound from a small transmitter to a small receiver on the other side of the room. I went with this system so that the phone and microwave would not interfere. Their are wires running from each of the rear speakers and a need for a power outlet. I have had this system over two years now and love it.
Good luck,
Margaret

The need for the power outlet nearby is the kicker on those systems and I've read about a lot of interference from household items. Blackberry interference is a pet peeve of mine. Anybody use/refer a home theater specialist to hide/route the rear channels onto a beam?

In my last Eichler, I ran wiring the same color as the beam down the beam and into the wall. I then fished the wires through the wall and had them come out where I placed the speakers. Of course, I also ran the wires behind the wall on the originating side.

In this house, I ran the wires over the roof when I had the roof done.

In this house, I ran the wires over the roof when I had the roof done.

Thanks. There's no walls to speak of where the routing goes though. I'm currently thinking that I can run the wires accross bottom of the glass pane. New window goes in very soon and I can hide the wire next to the floor transom where the window goes, then up the side of the chimney and along the ceiling line (there's a gap there) then accross the top of the slider transom to the beam, then securing the wires to the beam and painting. Does this sound feasible? Will be a few weeks till I can get to this project so keep the suggestions coming. Oh and the system is a Bose Acoustimass that is a few years old, but the wiring should be good for any system upgrade.

You may want to look into flat speaker wire. There are a couple of companies that make stuff that is as flat as masking tape.

Sounds like you are running the wire along an outside wall (at least most of the Eichler models I am familiar with have the fireplace on an outside wall).

In my case I dug a trench in the yard outside the fireplace wall from one side to the other, buried plastic conduit with weather proof boxes mounted to the exterior wall. I then put remodel boxes with Leviton modular faceplates fitted with speaker wire terminals on the inside and pulled speaker wire from one side to the other. This allows me to have speakers on either side of the fireplace and the narrow floor to ceiling windows with no wires showing on the inside and very little showing on the outside of the house.

Of course, this does not work for getting speaker/video wires across the room to inside walls.

Tod,

You'd be correct that I'm dealing with an outside wall with the chimney, but its also the glass wall, which makes going outside an around a no go.

Tborsellino,

I never heard of the stuff but a quick seach has me amazed!! I've never heard of it but it looks very promising, as the flat wire can mount on the walls [i]and[/] be painted! hmmmm... I must do more research, thanks for the lead!

Hello all,

I am revisiting this topic as the remodel got sidetracked (doesn't it always) and the home theater got pushed waaaay down the priority list. With the upcoming completion of landscaping, its time to start thinking and researching home theater again for a hopeful fall installation before football season.

The flat wire still seems like a viable option and my neighbor also suggested that I could router one of the overhead redwood decking boards to transport speaker wire to the rear where the rear channel speakers could be mounted.

One option I am trying to find out more about is the use of the new sound bar speaker technologies, which use a long multispeaker cabinet mounted in the front that uses "psychoacoustics" to create a Dolby 5.1 or better sound. Psychoacoustics is similar to what Bose has used for decades, but I guess the next technology reiteration.

I've found out so far that all the sound bars work best with a dedicated subwoofer to remove the bass from the sound bar, which I would have done anyway. Also that the Polk Surroundbar (non-HTIB) works better than the Yamaha unit which definitely requires walls to bounce the sound off of. My TV area is L-shaped, with the TV on one wall, the glass wall running to my left from viewing position and an open area to my right. Does anyone have any experience with these types of units that can share experiences?

we went through a bit of trouble wiring the house (through the walls and up/over/down the roof/walls). presently, we have wiring for a pair of rear speakers, but not a separate one for the sub (which i wish now we'd have done just to have had it more complete). having said that, though... the more i deal with it, the more i'm ready to ditch the whole 5.1/7.1 idea and get a nice pair of bose 901s and be done with it. methinks a good sound from a single source is better (when you have to factor in wiring, trouble, etc) than okay sound from crappy sources... so let me know if you want my PSB 5.1 set-up... ;)

Thanks, I alsready have a bose 5.1 setup - which is subpar in my estimation. If I go the routing direction (my wife will LOOOVE me, HAH!) I'll upgrade to much better components and sell my bose as well.

For context our model is the Oakland VC-694.  We have our HT in a built-in full wall book case  in the GP room.  I installed the wall mount speaker terminal plate inside the cabinet (out of view) below the TV.  The audio reciever speaker wires run to speaker terminals and can be connected with the thumb screw type post connectors.  Now the hard part.  I ran the speaker wire from the terminal box through the wall up to the the ceiling.  The wire reenters the room at the ceiling next to a beam and is hidden inside of a low profile cable channel painted the same color as the beam.  The channel fits snuggly against the beam and the tongue and groove.  The channel is low profile and unobstrusive even when you look up at it.   At the rear of the GP room the wires reenter the wall and drop down to another speaker terminal box mounted on the wall behind the sofa.  The surround sound speakers are wired into that box.  Our system is just 5.1.  The two surround sound speakers are on speaker poles that sit to the left and right of the sofa.

Shortly after moving into our Eichler, about 15 years ago, we installed ceramic tile in the family room. Before grouting, I laid speaker wires for the rear surrounds plus two more to the pantry into a whole house speaker distribution box through the grout joints and then they were grouted in. I used Belden 83322 instrumentation cable - 16awg, silver plated copper, thin braided shield, thin but super durable teflon insulation - regrettably super expensive these days due to metal prices. Wires run into the base of the walls (moldings off for tile installation) and then up to speakers or wall plates with jacks. Whole house speaker distribution and home networking is via EMT conduit on the roof, either up through walls or the side of the pantry vent. All holes re-sealed and patched by roofer. Recently added back yard theater (stereo, integrates with 2-zone 7.1 receiver in family room) wires up the same way, removable projector mounts on pergola beam, screen hangs over living room sliding door to back patio, and conduits extend hdmi over cat-6 and infrared remote control to control junction box near projector and infrared sensor, plus power. Infrared controller mounted in pantry, with IR blaster on the pantry/family room wall aimed at the stereo rack. Not for the faint-hearted, but a killer setup.