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CONCEALING SPEAKER WIRE (CONTINUED)
ABOUT EXTERIOR WALLS
Concealing wires in exterior walls is more complex, since the walls are stuffed with insulation to
protect the house from the heat and cold outside. Moreover, our national building code requires
that a horizontal stud placed between the vertical studs break the hollow wall space in exterior
walls. This “fire blocking” makes it very difficult to retrofit long lengths of wire. In some areas
of the country, the exterior walls are constructed of solid masonry and have no hollow space for
speakers or wires.
PLANNING THE SPEAKER WIRE ROUTE
Start by examining all the possible routes you might take to run the speaker wire from the speaker
to the home theater system. Use a stud sensor or other device to locate the internal structure of
the wall. You will want to avoid all studs or joists. Figure
10 shows a typical wire run from the
speaker location in the ceiling, across the attic, then down through a top plate (i.e., the horizontal
2-by-4 or 2-by-6 inch wood laid across the vertical studs) to a wall plate or a J-Box in the wall
behind the home theater system itself.
Find all the locations of your
existing electrical, phone, and
TV wiring, and then plan the
speaker wire route to avoid
them. Crossing wire paths is
acceptable, but 60 Hz hum may
be induced in the reproduced
audio, if speaker wire is run parallel to electrical wire for more than a few feet. If possible, try to
keep speaker wire away from parallel power cables by at least 3 feet.
To find exactly where an electrical cable is routed, try inspecting the inside of the wall by turn
-
ing off the breaker for a particular power outlet or switch, removing the cover plate and switch or
receptacle, and then shining a penlight into the wall. If you have access to an attic or basement
space, you can quickly see which part of the wall space is free of obstructions, as shown in Figure
11.
Figure 10. Running
speaker wire from a ceiling
speaker to a home theater
system location.
Speaker
Location
Volume
Control
Location
Stereo
Location
12