Coax as a speaker wire?

[Ranger Digital]

A friend let an ELECTRICIAN wire his LV when he built his house. Now he is figuring out exactly WHY he should have NEVER let that happen. Electrician dont know jack bout LV (granted there are some companies that can do both, not this one, LOL).

For the TV, he has two extra coax. no center speaker wire run (even though "surround sound" wiring was done, go figure). can we use the coax and some how terminate those and use them for the center channel speaker? Its all run back to the receiver.

 

[nightwalker]

A friend let an ELECTRICIAN wire his LV when he built his house. Now he is figuring out exactly WHY he should have NEVER let that happen. Electrician dont know jack bout LV (granted there are some companies that can do both, not this one, LOL).

For the TV, he has two extra coax. no center speaker wire run (even though "surround sound" wiring was done, go figure). can we use the coax and some how terminate those and use them for the center channel speaker? Its all run back to the receiver.

coax will work as speaker wire, not the best but it works. You just have to put RCA ends on it instead of F connectors. I do often use coax to run to a powered sub and that's worked well for me.

 

[Ranger Digital]

thanks night. thought i could. rca one end, speaker ends on the other.

 

[AnthonyZ]

A friend let an ELECTRICIAN wire his LV when he built his house. Now he is figuring out exactly WHY he should have NEVER let that happen. Electrician dont know jack bout LV (granted there are some companies that can do both, not this one, LOL).

For the TV, he has two extra coax. no center speaker wire run (even though "surround sound" wiring was done, go figure). can we use the coax and some how terminate those and use them for the center channel speaker? Its all run back to the receiver.

coax will work as speaker wire, not the best but it works. You just have to put RCA ends on it instead of F connectors. I do often use coax to run to a powered sub and that's worked well for me.

There is a big difference between line level and speaker level. While I think this option stinks, I believe it's doable. Forget the RCA termination and solder 16/2 jumper to both ends. + to the stinger and - to the braid. Heat shrink the Franken-cable. Final step is a back charge to the Down's Syndrome addled sparky.

 

[samgreco]

The coax will work, but will present a higher impedance load (more resistance) to the amp. Not the best idea.

Again, you'll get sound, but if the amp is driven hard, it may have problems.

 

[mdesmarais]

If you have two coax, and you are driving speaker level, what might work is to use the center conductor of both. . . one for + one for -. Leave the shields unconnected. Or for that matter, you could short the shield to the center on each cable, then use one cable as + and one as -. That would give you the most current carrying capability.

Markd

 

[Timoh]

The coax will work, but will present a higher impedance load (more resistance) to the amp. Not the best idea.

Again, you'll get sound, but if the amp is driven hard, it may have problems.

Really? What do you think the impedance of the cable will look like to the amp in the 30Hz to 22kHz audiable range? I would have thought it would be negligable. In the CATV range of 55Mhz to 800 MHz, i can understand the cable is engineered to have a specific impedance. But down in the kHz range, I wouldn't have thought so.

Tim

 

[rrockoff]

A friend let an ELECTRICIAN wire his LV when he built his house. Now he is figuring out exactly WHY he should have NEVER let that happen. Electrician dont know jack bout LV (granted there are some companies that can do both, not this one, LOL).

For the TV, he has two extra coax. no center speaker wire run (even though "surround sound" wiring was done, go figure). can we use the coax and some how terminate those and use them for the center channel speaker? Its all run back to the receiver.

A few points to ponder:

- What would you estimate is the length of the coax cable? For a short distance I would not think it would make very much difference.
- Center channels are normally mounted somewhere close to the TV. Is your receiver close to the TV? How far is it from the receiver to the center channel destination?
- If you are concerned about using coax, can you use the coax as a "pull wire" to get 2 conductor in it's place?
- If all else fails, how about using wireless for your center channel?

Best of luck,

Rod

 

[samgreco]

The coax will work, but will present a higher impedance load (more resistance) to the amp. Not the best idea.

Again, you'll get sound, but if the amp is driven hard, it may have problems.

Really? What do you think the impedance of the cable will look like to the amp in the 30Hz to 22kHz audiable range? I would have thought it would be negligable. In the CATV range of 55Mhz to 800 MHz, i can understand the cable is engineered to have a specific impedance. But down in the kHz range, I wouldn't have thought so.

Tim

Well, you make a good point. This is what I have found:

RG6 - 18Ga. center conductor: DC Resistance per Conductor @ 20deg C - 28 Ohms/1M' Nom.
16/2 Speaker Wire : DC Resistance per Conductor @ 20deg C 4.2 Ohms/1M' Nom.

While you are right that at the frequencies you're talking about it shouldn't be much of an issue, it's still a lot more ressistance and I've always been probably way to careful

Also, I just realized after re-reading that the distance is likely quite short. That would make a big difference too.

 

[rrockoff]

OK, I just re-read your post and I think I can shed some light on this. I am going to do my best to make it sound like your Electrician friend actually knew what he was doing.

You said

For the TV, he has two extra coax. no center speaker wire run (even though "surround sound" wiring was done, go figure). can we use the coax and some how terminate those and use them for the center channel speaker? Its all run back to the receiver.

This means you have three coax wires (two extra plus main). Three coax wires are usually used for Component video. All you need to do is to terminate the ends with RCA connectors. It may be that he intended for you to use component video from your receiver / cable box to your TV. And possibly mount the center speaker directly above or below the TV.

If you haven't aleready figured out a solution, please reply with more details of your configuration.

Rod

 

[Ranger Digital]

rrock, while you ascertion is reasonable the electrician is still clueless, lol. That could have been his intention but it jsut didnt work. Here is why.

Actually there are FOUR coax and phone line going to the tv. Also there is a composite cable (L/R audio, vidio). TWO of those coax go to the audio cabinet on an adjacent wall. To answer the question of many "how long is the coax" I would say is about 25' long. Here is the odd thing, there are FOUR coax in the audio cabinet location but only two work TO the tv. It could be all four go to the tv and two got cut, not sure. Its NOT likely two coax can be completely severed. Makes no sense. Four coax in the audio cabinet and four at the tv over the mantle. but only two show to work. odd.

Using the composite absolutely sucks for the dish HD and the HD-dvd they want to add.

I think what I am going to do is propose to them that we or someone else run one more coax and a center speaker wire. Thaty way we can have component there and ready. Leave the composite so they can watch tv without the amp/receiver on.

Yes, they are "friends" but not THAT good of friends that i would do this all for free, LOL. I already hooked up all their others stuff as a "friend". Got to draw the line somewhere, LOL. If they were best friends, course i would be free. But, they aint.


What really sucks about the yamaha rx-v661 they are using is if you hook up component it ONLY sends out the signal component. So composite to the TV is just out of the question, aside from composite sucks anyways.

 

[DJK]

Can your friend use the coax to pull speaker wire into place? Coax is pretty strong to pull with.

 

[Ranger Digital]

djx, sorry i forgot to reply to that question. not likely but possible. thought about it the other day. I doubt that the coax is simply laying down a 9 foot wall with no staples or fasteners.