I need quick guidance. Distributed audio

beaumeri

Member
I'm sorry if I post a duplicate question but I'm kind in a little rush. I need to close the walls of my new house but I have yet figured the whole house audio.

Is there a general wiring set-up I can do to be fairly safe to distribute audio in the whole house?

I already have 4 RG6 and 12 cat6 per room going to my Telco closet for video/data distribution.

I have 2 CAT6 going to each potential touch screen or music controller locations.

I have all my alarm wiring going to the same Telco closet. (HAI Omni Pro II - Not purchased yet)

I have mortised shade wiring installed going to the Telco closet. (Looking a Sivoia QED - Shades not purchased yet)

All my light switches are wired to be used with UPB system. All light on the same phase and outlets on separate circuits. (HAI Omni Pro II - Not purchased yet)

What should I wire for the whole house audio:
1 -- Speaker cable from the closet to each speaker and cat6 to each controller (touch screen or music controller).
Or
2 -- Speaker cable to the local controller (touch screen or music controller) and data (Cat6) to the Telco room?

I understand I have not selected appliance yet but is there a fairly safe way to pre-wire my speakers and controllers?

I'm simply trying to complete wiring and all the hardware will be purchased gradually as $$ is available.

My wall need to be closed within a few week for the bank to appraise the house building to release some more funding for the build. I need to wire as much as I can now so I can drywall/plaster and prime for the appraisal.

PS: It will not be a problem to make holes in the drywall after the appraisal if I forget something but I'm trying to avoid it if possible.

Any suggestions are welcome at this stage.
 
The CEA specification / recommendation for whole house audio is to home run your speaker wire, but loop the wires through the potential keypad / volume control location on their way to the actual speaker site in each room/zone. And run one (at least, more is better but may be overkill) Cat5e cable from the same home run location to each potential keypad location.

That wiring pattern gives you the best flexibility to use just about any system available. See the Wiring Your House 101 and 102 guides also on this site for more details...

Jeff
 
There are several options.

A suggested way to wire it so that you can use almost any system would be as follows:

Run 4-conductor speaker wire from the closet, make a loop at the keypad location, go to the first speaker, and then to the second. Some people say to take 4-conductor to the keypad location and then take 2-conductor to each speaker. If you do all 4-conductor it will go faster and you only have to have the one type of wire.

Run 2x Cat-5/6 wire from the closet to each keypad location. The reason for 2x is if you ever want to add Intercom or need a spare.

That should cover you for almost any system out there.
 
Thanks for the quick inputs..

I already have 2 CAT6 to each potential keypad/volume controller locations.

So I'll home run all my speakers wires looping by the potential keypad/volume controller locations.

Thanks again..
 
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