Cables for rear speakers

[SteveOh_UK]

Hi folks.

I need to put some rear speakers into my room for my home theatre but the only way I can see to do it (without smashing my new house to bits and getting grief from the wife) is via a run around the exterior of the house, probably about 50′.

I planned to put a plastic conduit under the gravel at the external wall floor juntion of the house and run some good quality speaker cables through it.

So my question is this,

Is there any way to do this using CAT6 or other cabing method?

thanks for any help

 

 

 

[skirge01]

Are you sure you’ve exhausted all options for running the cable inside the house?  Such as:  beneath carpeting, behind baseboards, around and behind door trim, through attic or basement…

I’ve never heard of doing this outside, but people do have outdoor speakers, so it’s not really a new concept.  You just need to ensure the wire is protected from the elements.  I’m not sure where the idea of Cat6 came from, but I’m pretty sure normal speaker wire will hold up to weather much better than ethernet.

[paratwa]

[quote=skirge01]

Are you sure you’ve exhausted all options for running the cable inside the house?  Such as:  beneath carpeting, behind baseboards, around and behind door trim, through attic or basement…

[/quote]

 

 

I would have to agree. If you have access to your attic, run the cables up inside the walls then use speaker wire connection plates and attach the wires to the plates. That way you can always remove the speakers easily. Or you can mount in wall speakers. That is the cleanest approach. Baring that I would run the wires behind or along the baseboards then use some cable covers up the walls to the speakers. If you paint them to match the walls they become almost invisiable.

 

There is also some flat speaker wire that you might try. You can run it along the baseboards and it comes in white, but I do not know if it is paintable.

 

 

I would not suggest using cat 6 wires at all. Use either 16 or 18 guage speaker wire.

[Adidas4275]

you can do it inside. I promise, i have worked in 2 story houses, 1 story houses, 20’s homes, homes with basements and with out, plaster walls and drywall…

 

all can be retro fitted with speaker wire….

 

monoprices CL2 rated 16g wire is great for small speakers, the longer the run the bigger the wire needs to be….. 14g is a good utility speaker wire… long runs and higher watts will be fine.

 

if you are dead set on going outside, use the gray conduit and glue every joint.  make sure to have the opening and exit of the conduit in a juction box on the side of the house.

it will work, but if you ever sell the house the new owners are going to be like “what the hell?”

[Author]

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