Hidihg cables for 'Home - Cinema' surround sound

[Brian Sharrock]

It's time to consider 'doing' the Lounge ...:(

Since it last saw a coat of paint we've accumulated more kit and re-arranged seating etc . I know that extra Electrical outlets are needed and where they'll have to go .... which entails lifting the floorboards and chasing boxes and channels into the walls. While I'm at that ... I might as well tackle the 'signal' wiring that's accumulated into the house.

I'm looking for suggestions, advise, don't-do-this, from readers for coping with the '5.1' cables; the computer network cables; that have proliferated. Should I consider putting in green tubing to enable me to pull-out the old stuff and push-in better/different audio cables in the future - if I either win the Lottery or the cost of audio kit comes down? What appropriate termination boxes are available?

[Ian Stirling]

Wireless may be an alternative for eliminating the computer network wiring. It does not work well for all houses, and is comparatively much, much harder to work out if it will work beforehand.

Look on

for an idea of the network terminating boxes, they have a couple. Conduit is a really, really good idea.

You'r practically guaranteed to find out that you want to put in another cable, be it for routing a satellite dish signal to the decoder box across the house, to the fish tank leak alarm, to a little circuit that tells you when the hot water is back up to temperature, to .... And always make it at the least twice the diameter you think you need.

As to audio speaker cable, or audio signal cable, there is no perceptible improvement to what existing professional cables can achieve. Vendors of carbon fiber cables made only from the hair of virgins et al are merely peddling ignorance.

[chris French]

We are currently using a wireless network, with a pc and laptop, connecting to net via Cable via wireless router. Fine for web net use as the limiting factor is the net connection, and while ok for general use it is much much slower when doing things that show this up - such as shifting large files about the network.

I'd stick to a wired network wherever possible, and use the wireless aspect where necessary/desirable.

[N. Thornton]

have you considered putting it all behind the skirting board? Could be less work - no plastering, maybe no chasing, perhaps, and if you want, even no painting.

you're bound to want to, so spare space is always good. I'd sling in a multicore LV cable, its only a tenner for 100m and will prove useful if you have any diy electrical tendencies. Loop it into any LV boxes so its accessible.

Regards, NT

[Pet]

The chap that did our plastering said he'd recently done the cables for somone's sound system by whipping off skirting, running cables and re-fixing skirting with.... Velcro!

Made a really tidy job apparently and also made later fitting of additional wires a breeze as and when required.

[N. Thornton]

clever!