Hooking up home theater speakers can be easy to do you just need a plan and the right materials for the job. Before you get started you must plan your speaker and receiver placement. The diagram above should give you a basic idea of where in your room the speakers should go.
What you will need:
Wire strippers/cutter or a utility knife
Wire labels or masking tape
Speaker Wire regular or flat
Speaker Connectors
Flashlight
1. First place your speakers in their designated locations.
2. Determine wire lengths from receiver to speakers. Keep in mind turns and extra wire for mobility. You can use the actual wire as your measuring tape. Run the wire along the floor and cut it to length. Use wire cutters or utility knife. If cutting with a utility knife you can bend the wire and run the blade away from you where the wire is bent.
3. Label each wire so that the label remains hidden behind the receiver. You can use masking tape and a thin marker. You can also use fancy wire labels if you desire a professional touch.
4. Now that you have all the wires cut and labeled its time to strip the ends for your speaker connectors. How many speaker connectors you need will be determined by which equipment accepts them. Best practice is to use the speaker connectors if you can. Bare wire connections can become a nuisance if you have many of them to do. Also connecting a speaker connector out in the open light is much easier than sticking your head in a cabinet in the dark while twirling wires around to find a minute spot for it to go. You can get speaker wire connectors at almost any hardware store.
5. Now you will need to check the wiring diagram owners manual to see exactly where each wire gets plugged into. Usually the back of your receiver is easily labeled and should coincide with each speaker you placed. This is probably where you will need your flashlight to see whats labeled on the back of your receiver.
Notes:
- The easiest way to run your wires is along the floor in the corners of your home theater.
- You can get a bit fancier by attaching them to your baseboards with wire to wall connectors.
- You can get even more fancy by running wire inside of races/conduit. Most of them just stick to the wall.
- If you really want to hide your wires you can remove your baseboard moulding and run flat speaker wire behind the baseboards. This requires a bit more effort of course.
- If there is an attic or basement you might be able to run wires there and bring them back up or down to where your speakers are. If you live in a ranch style house you probably have both basement and attic. You can run ceiling speakers and wall speaker wire hidden quite easily.
We hope this helped. Good Day.
