How to wire my lounge up

[Mutley]

I'm seeking the opinions, advice, experience of my fellow Hexites.

I just bought a new AV system - Onkyo 5405 (complete receiver and speaker package).
The problem I have is how to wire it all up.

I have a Samsung C650 TV and a Samsung DVD player, and a Squeezebox 3 to wire into it.

Here is the problem:

The AV unit itself sits on the TV shelf, below the DVD player and TV. All well and good. The front and centre speaker are there too. I need to place the sub behind the sofa (from where we watch the TV, and the surround speakers will go on the wall behind the sofa. The Squeezebox also sits next to the sofa.

That means I need to find a way of trailing 15metres x 2 of speaker cable, mono phone cable (for the sub), and either stereo phone cable or digital coax for the SB3 across the lounge to the receiver.
There is no obvious way of doing this - the floor is carpeted (carpet has been down for 10 years or so). In my experience, if you take the carpet up, it doesn't go back down again in the same way. I'm thinking of running some trunking (D-Line) around the skirting; it will also have to go around a door frame as well. Trouble is, the smallest trunking is not big enough for all those cables, and the next size up is too big, and would like very unsightly (and fail the WAF test).

So, what are people's experience of doing this kind of wiring? Any tips, ideas, useful URLs, ideas on the right kind of wire?

TIA
Muts.

[blueball]

Can you not move the squeezebox closer to the Amp/TV? Mine sits beside my TV and a short optical lead connects it to amp.

I take it you do not have a cellar, or a hatch to get under the floor?

[Mutley]

Can you not move the squeezebox closer to the Amp/TV? Mine sits beside my TV and a short optical lead connects it to amp.

I take it you do not have a cellar, or a hatch to get under the floor?

Your bet is correct.

There is no useful place to put the SB3 near the TV, and it's ideal place really is near the sofa, where it can be seen across the whole lounge, including from the dining room table.

[shaithis]

it's either time to re-decorate or go with the smaller trunking and some fairly pricey CAT5 converters.

[Mutley]

CAT5 converters?

[shaithis]

http://www.hdtvsupply.com/cawipr.html

They allow you to pump all types of data over CAT5.

Although when the wife sees the prices, she may go for the bigger trunking

[Mutley]

<gulp>

Hmm. That trunking is looking very attractive right now.

Great idea though, sticking everything down cat5.

[scaryjim]

Can I just check your measuremeant? 15m would be an absolutely *huge* lounge! Are you having to go round three sides or something?

Could you buy some multicore cable and do everything with a single (albeit fat) cable? You'd need to add on your own connectors at each end but tucking one cable round the bottom of the skirting (you could even tack it down with the appropriate staples / cable holders) might work out a neater solution than sticking lots of trunking round the room...?

[Mutley]

Can I just check your measuremeant? 15m would be an absolutely *huge* lounge! Are you having to go round three sides or something?

Could you buy some multicore cable and do everything with a single (albeit fat) cable? You'd need to add on your own connectors at each end but tucking one cable round the bottom of the skirting (you could even tack it down with the appropriate staples / cable holders) might work out a neater solution than sticking lots of trunking round the room...?

Yes, the wire has to be tracked around 3 walls effectively, hence the great length. It also has to go around a door frame, which adds some length as well. Its annoying aspect of the plan of the lounge!

Multicore is an interesting idea, I shall investigate.

[pipTheGeek]

Go with redecorating and run the cabling up into the ceiling, then you can run it almost shortest route and back down where it is needed?

I confess, I didn't do this. My AV reciever is in the opposite corner of the living room to the TV, Bluray player, x-box, front speakers etc. I have a bundle of cables, all the necessary audio cables plus a cat5 and a phone cable that run round the edge of the room just tucked under the carpet. I don't have an HDMI reciever yet so no HDMi cables. I did consider going up and over, but my floors upstairs are huge chipboard sheets that are tongue and grooved together. I'd have to take down two stud walls just to take the necessary floor up!

I would say that 15 metres is a fairly long run. Don't go stupid on cable quality (unless that is your thing) but get something that has a decent amount of copper in it. I had two (cheap) 10 metre stereo phono cables that used to run round my room. There was a significant loss in these cables that meant a source that was running through them required the amp volume cranking up, it didn't sound good. This might also be an issue if you try to make your own cable.

[Mutley]

Redecorating isn't an option unfortunately, and running the cables through the ceiling would require huge upheaval upstairs.

I may try lifting part of the carpet and see if it goes back down OK.

I'm no audiophile, my hearing frankly is not that good (I'm at the age where hearing starts to decline, and 20 years of playing guitar very loudly has taken it's toll!), so stupidly expensive cables aren't my thing.

What kind of speaker cable would you suggest? Do you think the 43 strand stuff is adequate?

[mycarsavw]

Is the edge of the carpet stuck or gripped?

Can you get under the skirting, or can you attack the bottom of the skirting with a dremel/cutting disk to give you a channel in which to run the cables?

[Mutley]

The carpet is gripped. The fit is pretty tight to the skirting board, and the is no room to fit cables underneath.
I guess I could route a channel along the skirting and around the architrave, and cap it with some kind of trunking. A lot of work though, and could go horribly wrong.

[Andeh13]

Do you NEED the AV receiver near the TV? With the likes of a Logitech harmony one / 900 you could put them anywhere in the house you wanted and control them via IR relays. Then all you'd need is one HDMi cable to connect receiver (everything plugs into) to the TV. removes even more electric stuff from the TV area = win for wife.

Aside from a blu-ray player/games console etc, how often do you actually press any buttons on the front of your receiver/digi box/PVR etc etc?

[Mutley]

Do you NEED the AV receiver near the TV? With the likes of a Logitech harmony one / 900 you could put them anywhere in the house you wanted and control them via IR relays. Then all you'd need is one HDMi cable to connect receiver (everything plugs into) to the TV. removes even more electric stuff from the TV area = win for wife.

Aside from a blu-ray player/games console etc, how often do you actually press any buttons on the front of your receiver/digi box/PVR etc etc?

Thats a good point, and one I've considered. The previous 5.1 surround amp that the new AVR is replacing was 'elsewhere', but proved to be a pain.

However, in terms of leads and wires, there is a HDMI cable from DVD player to AVR, coax from Squeezebox 3 to AVR, then HDMI from AVR to TV, and TOSlink from TV to AVR. SO unless I wanted to move the DVD player as well, it would be a problem.

So far what I've done is hidden the sub behind a chair, not far from the AVR, and manage to hide the leads behind other bits of furniture, which just leaves the surround speaker cable, which I've loosely tracked along the skirting and architrave, just to try it out.