4 Conductor Speaker Cable run for 2 Speakers, acceptable method?

[rickm15752]

I ran a 4 conductor 14/4 cable from my amp to a room where I have 2 in ceiling speakers.  The cable loops at the closest speaker and then goes to the farthest speaker where it ends.  I plan to open the cable jacket with a razor knife at the speaker where the cable is looped and cut a pair of conductors to terminate at that speaker.  Then I'll go to the second speaker and use the other pair to connect to it. 
 
Is this an acceptable method?  I know it's a waste of a section of the wire that gets cut at the loop and is not used, but this way it's easier than pulling 2 separate cables. 

 

[wuench]

I don't see any issues with this.  

 

[TrojanHorse]

It should work if you cut carefully. But I don’t think you’d ever see a pro do it that way.
If this is for whole home audio or even a second zone run by a Home theatre amp, I’d say best practice is to run a 4 conductor and cat5e / cat6 to a wall plate in the room for volume control. The reason for both is to allow you to change systems in the future since some control volume at the speaker level and others use the cat cable to send a signal back to the amp. From this wall control location run 2 of 2 conductor speaker wires to each speaker location.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[upstatemike]

Rather than trying to do a fancy cut of just the first pair at the first speaker I would leave a big enough loop to just cut and strip the wires normally and then splice the wires that are feeding through to the second speaker. I think it is actually quicker and easier to do the splice. Trying to cut just 2 of the 4 conductors instead of a splice might sound like a cleaner solution but it really does not buy you anything and I would not consider it standard practice to do it that way.

 

[rickm15752]

Thanks for the replies folks.  This system will use Sonos Connect Amps, and I'll be using iPhones for volume control.    I thought about making a complete cut in the 4 conductor cable and then reconnecting the other pair that continues on to the next speaker with wire nuts or solder.  I dislike making splices for fear of introducing more resistance.  I think I'll try carefully slitting the outer jacket and grabbing hold of the rip cord to open more of the jacket to gain access to a pair for terminating.  And, I'll make sure I have a long enough loop  with ample wire in the event I need to do it the other way.

 

[LarrylLix]

Thanks for the replies folks.  This system will use Sonos Connect Amps, and I'll be using iPhones for volume control.    I thought about making a complete cut in the 4 conductor cable and then reconnecting the other pair that continues on to the next speaker with wire nuts or solder.  I dislike making splices for fear of introducing more resistance.  I think I'll try carefully slitting the outer jacket and grabbing hold of the rip cord to open more of the jacket to gain access to a pair for terminating.  And, I'll make sure I have a long enough loop  with ample wire in the event I need to do it the other way.

Shrink wrap or tape the split out point where the jacket ends. This is where you may have nicked the conductors and any bending can make it fail easily.

 

[tmbrown97]

I think it's fine - it's probably what I'd do in your situation...  That said, my current house (just purchased), they ran 4 conductor to an in-wall volume control, then separate two conductors from there to each speaker... seems like the ideal way.

 

[pete_c]

Here wired a 4 conductor speaker cable going to the room control box then to the two speakers with 2 conductor speaker wire. 
 
I also ran a cat5e to the same speaker room control box.