New House A/V Wiring...

Coqui said:
Good because that will make everything so much easier (assuming you are trying to go for the professional look here)
It has to look nice, but the sound from the speakers need not be the highest quality.
 
theacoustician said:
Long meeting.

So, what's your budget again?
Haven't hashed one out yet. In the short term, before the sheet rock goes up, I need to put the speakers, the controls, and the wiring for the speakers and a/v outlets. Nothing on the head end yet.

I'd like to stick to under $100 a pair, so obviously not high end.
 
long tall smiley said:
Haven't hashed one out yet. In the short term, before the sheet rock goes up, I need to put the speakers, the controls, and the wiring for the speakers and a/v outlets. Nothing on the head end yet.

I'd like to stick to under $100 a pair, so obviously not high end.
Ok, I think I can suggest some specialty flex conduit that you can throw in so you can do most of the cabling later.

As for the speakers, how many "zones" of audio are you looking to do at once? What to you see feeding audio to these speakers?
 
theacoustician said:
Ok, I think I can suggest some specialty flex conduit that you can throw in so you can do most of the cabling later.

As for the speakers, how many "zones" of audio are you looking to do at once? What to you see feeding audio to these speakers?
I plan on running all the cable that I can foresee I will ever need (at least that I can think of) through the finished walls before they are finished. Anything I leave off now will be in unfinished areas.

The living room and kitchen will definitely be one zone, even though they will have separate volume control, they will be fed from the same source. I'm thinking for the kids bathroom I would like to make that so that it can access the head end audio and/or a separate audio source located upstairs. In the master bathroom I'm thinking the same thing, access to the head end with the option to change control over to an upstairs source at that sources physical location.

for now I would say just a basic stereo reciever, with of course the possibility to hook up a computer or cd player to the system.
 
long tall smiley said:
I plan on running all the cable that I can foresee I will ever need (at least that I can think of) through the finished walls before they are finished. Anything I leave off now will be in unfinished areas.

The living room and kitchen will definitely be one zone, even though they will have separate volume control, they will be fed from the same source. I'm thinking for the kids bathroom I would like to make that so that it can access the head end audio and/or a separate audio source located upstairs. In the master bathroom I'm thinking the same thing, access to the head end with the option to change control over to an upstairs source at that sources physical location.

for now I would say just a basic stereo reciever, with of course the possibility to hook up a computer or cd player to the system.
I'm going to say this and I hope you take it seriously : you'd better fucking run fiber through that house or at least run some empty conduit for it later. Several providers (Verizon, SBC) have said over the next 3 years they're going to lay billions in fiber to bring it into your home to deliver internet and hdtv. They're already offering fiber to the home in some places. You will be very sorry if you have to retrofit fiber. It's even more of a bitch than retrofitting copper cable.

As for the speakers, I'd get a 70V system. Running 8 ohm or 4 ohm over that distance is not a real good idea (line loss, safety issues). Check out JBL Control 24CT. Everything you'll need for those rooms. Have them wire it and run it back to where ever the head end is. From there, you can pick and amp and sources later. If you want to go uber cheap, you can do a intercom system, but don't expect any type of quality out of that.
 
theacoustician said:
I'm going to say this and I hope you take it seriously : you'd better fucking run fiber through that house or at least run some empty conduit for it later. Several providers (Verizon, SBC) have said over the next 3 years they're going to lay billions in fiber to bring it into your home to deliver internet and hdtv. They're already offering fiber to the home in some places. You will be very sorry if you have to retrofit fiber. It's even more of a bitch than retrofitting copper cable.

As for the speakers, I'd get a 70V system. Running 8 ohm or 4 ohm over that distance is not a real good idea (line loss, safety issues). Check out JBL Control 24CT. Everything you'll need for those rooms. Have them wire it and run it back to where ever the head end is. From there, you can pick and amp and sources later. If you want to go uber cheap, you can do a intercom system, but don't expect any type of quality out of that.
Are you saying that your standard RJ45 connectors and coax connectors are going to be replaced with optical connectors?
 
long tall smiley said:
Are you saying that your standard RJ45 connectors and coax connectors are going to be replaced with optical connectors?
Yes, in fact, I'm telling you that the only RG6 you'll see in houses soon will be from sat LNBs to receivers.
 
theacoustician said:
Yes, in fact, I'm telling you that the only RG6 you'll see in houses soon will be from sat LNBs to receivers.
I guess I better start selling all my NICS then before they become obsolete...:(

Another question for you. Since there is a vault that peaks over the wall between the kitchen and living room, what would be the best ways to mount the speakers on the inclined ceiling?
 
long tall smiley said:
I guess I better start selling all my NICS then before they become obsolete...:(

Another question for you. Since there is a vault that peaks over the wall between the kitchen and living room, what would be the best ways to mount the speakers on the inclined ceiling?
You'll be able to buy fiber converters post-wall plate to demux your internet off the fiber, as it were. You'll just need a different box to demux TV soon, but it'll all come from one jack. Sort like DSL if you see what I'm saying.

For high vaulted ceilings, its best if you do inwall speakers. You could still do in ceiling speakers, but then they'd have to be so loud to be heard at ground level that they would blast all over the house. You could pendant mount them, but then you'd have these cylinders hanging from the ceiling and I'm sure that wouldn't make the woman happy.
 
theacoustician said:
You'll be able to buy fiber converters post-wall plate to demux your internet off the fiber, as it were. You'll just need a different box to demux TV soon, but it'll all come from one jack. Sort like DSL if you see what I'm saying.

For high vaulted ceilings, its best if you do inwall speakers. You could still do in ceiling speakers, but then they'd have to be so loud to be heard at ground level that they would blast all over the house. You could pendant mount them, but then you'd have these cylinders hanging from the ceiling and I'm sure that wouldn't make the woman happy.
What will the fiber signal be demuxed to? I mean, what kind of connectors and cabling will run from the wall to the PC or TV?
 
long tall smiley said:
What will the fiber signal be demuxed to? I mean, what kind of connectors and cabling will run from the wall to the PC or TV?
I'm assuming internet will be able to be demuxed to RJ45. I'm going to guess the plan is to demux HDTV to HDMI.
 
theacoustician said:
I'm assuming internet will be able to be demuxed to RJ45. I'm going to guess the plan is to demux HDTV to HDMI.
Then, wouldn't running cat5 through the walls be enough? Assuming they drop fiber into the house, whats the difference between running that or gigabit ethernet through the walls?