To wire or not wire the house...

[DrFangorn]

I'm building a new home out on the west coast here in Canada. I'd love to wire the house for sound, but I really don't like how quickly the technology stuck inside the walls becomes obsolete. I have looked at systems like Nuvo and Prodigy, but I'm seriously contemplating not doing any prewiring and just going with room focused sound from a Bose (or equivalent) in-room sound system.

*Edit* The house is being prewired for gigabit ethernet with an easily accessible head end. There are two recreation rooms that will accommodate a home theatre system in each, ie. 40-50inch television with amplifier and 5.1 sound systems. Its the aspect of wiring the rest of the house for sound that I'm concerned about at this point.

I'd appreciate any thoughts from the community, could you share your build experiences and/or experiences with either option? The house is now framed on the interior, the HVAC, plumbing and rough electrical are having their way with the house, and the gyprock is going up in four weeks - I suppose that if I want to do this without having to punch holes in the walls in the future, now is the time to really do this!

Thanks very much.

 

[Jawo]

I would do it as the cable costs aren't that expensive, and it's so much easier to wire before the sheetrock goes up. If you decide you don't want it, you can always hide the cables. Room by room wireless systems will be much more expensive, and everyone in this forum will bash Bose until the cows come home.

 

[kalrith]

If I were building a house, I would route some ethernet cables throughout the house to set up my gigabit network. If I were doing an A/V closet, then I'd route all my cables to that. If I were doing an entertainment center in the livingroom, then I'd probably just install a low and high box for routing cables and a surge-protected outlet behind where I'd wall-mount the TV. If I had a projector, then I'd route a few HDMI cables to it (in case one goes bad). I'd also route some good in-wall speaker wire for surrounds that I would hang on the wall.

That's what I would do, but your needs are probably different than mine. What are you trying to accomplish. Do you want whole-house music run by one receiver? Do you want to install in-wall and in-ceiling speakers (I wouldn't, because I don't think the sound quality is nearly as good as bookshelf speakers)?

List out your needs, and you might even be able to answer the questions yourself. If you have no idea what you want to do, then you really need to figure that out first before running a bunch of cables that you might never use.

And one last thing: friends don't let friends buy Bose . Seriously do some research before spending way too much money on brands like Bose speakers and Monster cables. If you do want to spend that much, then you can get MUCH better systems for the same price. Or you could get an equivalent system for much less money.

Edit: And I agree with Jawo that the cable costs are very low, and installation costs should be very low with no sheetrock up. Just figure out what you want first.

 

[Rio Rebel]

I have never yet seen a "should I prewire?" question where the answer was not a clear "yes".

You can go back later, you can use wireless audio, you can do a lot of things...but never at the same price/performance ratio as prewired runs. Do it.

 

[Rio Rebel]

And the comment above - "don't buy Bose"....LISTEN TO IT.

 

[kalrith]

"Its the aspect of wiring the rest of the house for sound that I'm concerned about at this point."

What do you want to wire the rest of the house for? If it's a huge house with multiple floors, you might want to put in some sort of PA system. If you're going to buy a receiver that can accommodate a separate location, then I'd figure out where you want that second location (patio, hallways, kitchen, etc.) and wire for it.

 

[kornphlake]

Speaker wire isn't going to change any time soon, so there's no harm in running speaker wires in the walls. I'd pull signal wires in wall too, but run them in a conduit possibly so it will be easier to pull new interconnects in the future as technology changes. A spare empty conduit might be a good idea too.

 

[Rio Rebel]

Speaker wire isn't going to change any time soon, so there's no harm in running speaker wires in the walls. I'd pull signal wires in wall too, but run them in a conduit possibly so it will be easier to pull new interconnects in the future as technology changes. A spare empty conduit might be a good idea too.

Conduits are good advice, if you can. Imagine the people who ran a long hdmi behind drywall, just to later get a 3D projector and discover they needed to run a new hdmi cable.

Cat6 ethernet cable is a good all-purpose run, you can use it for hdmi-> cat6-> hdmi if necessary. But one day they'll come out with something needing yet another cable, so conduits are really good when you can run them.

Running a suspended ceiling in my theater room was the best decision I have ever made in my house.

 

[sdifox]

I am assuming you have the room uses planned out, so wiring should be pretty straight forward if done before dry walls go up.

You could just run 6 runs of Cat 6-E to each room, that should be enough wiring for your various uses.

 

[BassBomb]

In Canada too, our house was getting built and we put down plenty of CAT5 across the second floor, first floor and basement to fit our needs

We did this before the builders threw up the drywall. We also ran wires for speaker and some for pot lights electrical (for future installation) which we eventually did.

Was very worth it

 

[DrFangorn]

Thanks for your comments, folks. Just had a chat with our designer, who is our eyes on the ground out on the Island. We are going to have a good conversation about the prewiring this weekend.

My real struggle is with whether an integrated system (eg. Nuvo, Prodigy, etc.) is a "must do." As much as I like technology and gadgetry, I am unsure of sinking so much cash into hardware that will need to be swapped out in the future.

I am in complete agreement with all of the posts about running Cat, copper, and a few conduits to vital locations before the drywall goes up - have that down pat with the designer. The house is being built on a 4" crawl, which hopefully will make future retrofits relatively easy (I hope). I have an audio cabinet located on the blueprints, and now we'll have a good conversation on "what" is going to go into the cabinet and where any potential passive speakers are going to go.

Anyone with an "integrated" home out there who can provide an opinion on whether they thought such a system was worth it?

 

[dieselpower]

a friend said to me recently, i don't know why i should install a system in my new house, i feel like i'm buying a pool table, I got the space for it, i can afford it, i like playing pool, but i know if i put a table in my basement i'll use it for the first week and then never touch it again.

the mistake people often make here is buying on price, not quality. a crappy pool table is hard to play on therefore not much fun. and $800 HTiB sounds like crap and you won't want to listen to it, your ears know what music is supposed to sound like, and $800 makes noise, not music.
the industry takes advantage of people who "can't tell the difference" between a high priced (no highs, no lows, it must be bose) system and low priced crap....because there is no difference. just because it's in a big box store doesn't mean it is good stuff...just the opposite, these stores liquidate the industry junk for a long buck.

quality cutting edge products come from boutiques, specialty and store front system integrators. and they can, but don't have to cost a fortune. these smaller stores don't have boards and shareholders and a stock price to support. they have a wife and kids that go to the same school as yours, so they are willing to deal with a customer who wants to enjoy some quality goods.

good sound will make you less stressed, your kids smarter, your wife more relaxed, your house a home and your dog bark less. 30 years ago when i started selling stereos people would spend (everyday) 2500$ on a receiver turntable and two big floor standers. another 1000 on a CD the year they came out. That's like spending 10 to 12 grand of today's money to do one room.
these systems sounded great, you were the envy of EVERYONE. people enjoyed music and enjoyed life. Hell people financed these systems to be the guy with the best system.

WIRE your house. use FT4 16awg, it's indicated for use up to 90 feet with a quality amp.wire for stereo pairs, use sound enclosures for the speakers, they reduce room to room sound transmission by -10dB, maintain the home's vapour barrier, ease the installation and make the speakers sound better. use lots of CAT5 and 6, everything can be transferred on it, from analogue audio to HDMI, and when the next video transfer format comes out it will transfer on CAT too. everything coming down the pike is digital, and needs a UTP wire.

Nuvo is a great choice for multiroom amp, it wires using a standard format (be wary of any system that wires in a different way, when these "proprietary" systems fail, you would not be able to change to a "normal" system that wires like NUVO.
you need to deliver signals to your source location, and then transfer to video displays. central racking video for distribution is still spendy for the quality you want, consider different source locations around the house to keep the cost under control.
wire for cameras. wire for security. while i don't like a lot of motion sensors for intrusion detection, as they are the culprits of most falses...they are great for occupancy sensors for a future automation system.
wireless is a convenient addition to a properly wired home, not a replacement, don't get sucked in thinking you can watch netflix while your daughter uploads itunes, and jimmy is surfing homework stuff and your wife is facebooking. if you do, you will be retrofitting wires.

good luck on you project, and congrats on your brand new home!

 

[alkemyst]

Conduits are good advice, if you can. Imagine the people who ran a long hdmi behind drywall, just to later get a 3D projector and discover they needed to run a new hdmi cable.

Cat6 ethernet cable is a good all-purpose run, you can use it for hdmi-> cat6-> hdmi if necessary. But one day they'll come out with something needing yet another cable, so conduits are really good when you can run them.

Running a suspended ceiling in my theater room was the best decision I have ever made in my house.

QFT...new construction try to get conduit for your low voltage needs. As tech changes you can adapt easy. It's pricey though and many don't stay in any home more than 5-7 years historically.