Home Theater Wiring: Points to Keep it Safe and Correct

The quality and the method of your home theater wiring will not only ensure the safety level, but also improves the video and sound quality of the entire system. Sadly, many people go for cheap wiring for their home theater which will be the cause of their regret later. Apart from that, many customers tend to be confused with the so many options available to them.

Therefore, you must be extra careful while planning and installing the wiring for your home theater to avoid the replacements and poor AV quality.

The principal of home theater wiring revolves around this phrase:

“Make it Right. Keep it Safe. Do it Once.”

Here, we’ve shared some wiring tips for the home theater which you must consider.

Speaker Wiring for Home Theater:

When you’re planning speaker’s wiring, you must keep few things in your mind to get the best sound out while keeping the safety at the same time.

There may be many homeowners who don’t know about the impact of wiring on the speaker performance. The inappropriate speaker wires can kill the sounds you’re expecting from your speakers.  

Consider the Right Speaker Gauge:

Speaker cable gauge sounds Greek to many home theaters owners. Well, a wire gauge determine the thickness of a wire.

Picking the ideal wire thickness for your home theater wiring is important as speakers' performance is heavily depending on it.

According to the experts, 16 gauge wire is safe for most of the electronic applications. But choose the one with 14 gauge or 12 gauge if you’ve over 50 feet wire for surround speakers. Make sure the wire fits in the connections you want to use. AWG and SWG are the two standards normally used for the thickness of wire. In this blog, we’ve used AWG wire gauges.

Make sure that the speaker wire supports the power efficiency of your sound system. Keep this formula in mind: the lower the speaker gauge number, the larger and thicker the wire will be.

 

Home Theater Wiring for Single Room:

Thicker wire is suitable for the single room installations as it lowers the overall resistance. It is great to take out the finest details or musical pieces from the sound.

Home Theater Wiring for Multiple Rooms:

When it comes to wiring installation for multiple rooms, thinking about the long wires is natural. You must go to the 16 gauge wire if the wire length is less than 50 feet while 14 gauge wire is ideal for the distance between 50 to 100 feet. Consider 12 gauge or 10 gauge if the wire length is between 100 and 150 feet.

 

Check out the Connections Points:

·         Keep the correct polarity with the terminals like + and –

·         Choose  binding terminals for pin, spade and banana plug connections

·         Prefer the wires that come pre-cut from the manufacturers

·         For pre-terminated speaker wire, choose the compatible connector accordingly.

 

Miscellaneous Tips:

·         Don’t keep home theater cables running close to the other connections to avoid interference issues.

·         Use direct speaker wire without any splicing

·         Leave extra length at the end of each cable

·         Keep wires organized, and labeled them.