In-wall speaker cable or interconnects (for multichannel/theater)?

[2FlyingYorkies]

Wondering if any of you have done in-wall wiring for speaker cable and/or interconnects?

Getting ready to set up a home theater, and it's becoming clear that in-wall will be necessary for at least the ceiling and speakers and balanced subwoofer interconnects. I'm not looking to spend a mint, but also feel I can do better than 14-gauge in-wall rated zip cord. My equipment rack will almost certainly be in an unfinished area adjacent to the viewing/listening area, so I'm looking at 20-40ft runs for every channel thru the walls and ceiling.

Some of the more theater focused forums may yield me more responses, but we 2-channel folks sometimes take a different view towards the cable loom than they do, and this system will be used for music as well. Really interested in what cabling products you used for these sorts of applications and if you're happy with them.

 

[Speedskater]

For the in-wall speaker cables, there is nothing better than 4 conductor 14AWG Romex® (SouthWire brand) [Hot, Hot, Neutral & Safety Ground].
Connect both Hots to one terminal and the Neutral & S.G. to the other. It's an effective 11AWG, a twisted quad and it's in-wall fire rated.
Dis I say that it's extremely inexpensive?

 

[nicoff]

When I wired my HT long ago (20+ years) I did not use any fancy in wall speaker cables.

In the end, I ended up using Mono amps sitting next to the speakers which resulted in not using the in-wall speaker cables at all.

But that meant that I had to run interconnects from the preamp to the monoblocks after the fact. They hide under the carpet. I guess that I could have run interconnects in the walls but I never thought of that.

I agree with the previous post that you do not need fancy expensive cables (or interconnects) but you want them to be well built cables. I also like the idea of four conductor cables as some speaker manufacturers recommend biwiring . I have been happy with cables and interconnects from Blue Jeans Cable.

 

[Speedskater]

Yep, the Blue Jeans Cable, LC-1 is the best long RCA interconnect you can buy.

 

[2FlyingYorkies]

Interesting! I never would have thought to use Romex as a speaker cable. I guess it's reasonably high purity copper, and is clearly in-wall rated... Good thought on using 14/4, as the 10/2 I used for my dedicated electrical circuits was rather inflexible, and the quasi-star-quad geometry is a nice plus for noise rejection. The only downside I can see (other than offending audiophile cable sensibilities) is that the portion connecting to the in-room main speakers will be pretty ugly. I could cover it with some tech mesh sleeve and pretend it's high end custom cable

 

[nicoff]

....
The only downside I can see (other than offending audiophile cable sensibilities) is that the portion connecting to the in-room main speakers will be pretty ugly. I could cover it with some tech mesh sleeve and pretend it's high end custom cable

You might be surprised to see the options available....

Or....

 

[Mr Peabody]

I used some Tributaries spec for in-wall.

Analysis-Plus Chocolate I believe is rated for in-wall, I know the XLR's I just bought, I almost didn't, because it was said for in-wall, ended up to be nice cables but the XLR's would still pushing your budget for long run, not sure about speaker wire in that series.

BJC is a good option as well, although I found entry level "name brand" cables bested them, at more money though.

For example, I had a $35.00 BJC RCA set and compared them against a few others I had around. A set of entry Transparent ($75.00 at the time) was better in the extreme highs/lows but the BJC midrange I still preferred. They both was preferred over XLO. My Siltech New Yorker killed them all, most expensive of the lot though.