Depending on the setup of the room and furniture, you can get RF rear speakers (maybe front ones as well). But they still need to be plugged into the wall, so it only really works if you have outlets nearby.

If you have carpeting in that room, it would be simpler to just rip it up and lay the speaker wire underneath it.

If you have a drop-down ceiling, you could just get smaller speakers and hang them there.

Depending on what floor the AV room is on, and as well which way (and what kind) of I-Beams you have, that could make ceiling mounted speakers easier or harder.

Man I am so glad I was able to access the parents house and wire the damn thing while it was still in progress, I'll have to see if i can get them to send me pictures so I can scan them and put them up.

I do have free power outlets nearby and I have been looking into this option but I've heard the wireless speakers lose some frequency range to them and I'd rather not have that happen. Plus, I'd want to know how much more energy this uses as opposed to having it all power by my receiver.



Hardwood.



I don't want to replace my speakers, they are nice big bookshelf ones.



I know, I wish I could have done a lot of this stuff before the drywall was up as well but
no such luck.

So you do have a drop-down ceiling?

Not sure exactly what a drop-down ceiling is but it's pretty standard issue... just drywall I think. I'm not even sure what the attic is like above it actually so maybe I'll have to crawl up there soon to see.

Well yer better off now than before, all depends on what kind of crzy insulation you got going on up there, because now you can start from up there, your drywall should just end and the insulation begin, don't fall through.

Basically it's just finding some way of hanging the speakers from the ceiling, since it's drywall, i'd suggest using one of these:

or something in this list
http://www.standsandmounts.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=227
And hang the speakers from the ceiling, if it would look alright. You could get fancy and recess the speakers and put cloth covers on it, painted to match whatever colour the ceiling is, depends on how fancy schmancy you want it to be.

Depends on what kind of insulation is in your wall...You may just have to get a plastic cable cover or some dowling and plywood to make a channel for the cables to come down from the ceiling and paint it the same colour as the wall. May not be too big of an issue since usually there is a big old TV in the way to cover up most of it.


If you're lucky you can run wires through your ventilation system.

I have no idea hw your room is set up and all of this may be totally useless.


Something like that could be an option, if there are no doors in the way and you have big floor speakers, and your house is all dreamy.

Disclaimer, I am not a certified carpainter, nor do I work for any companies I have listed/shown products from. Wear some kind of breathing thingy when going into your attic, unless you are a smoker, then yer dead anyways heh.

All of my installs have been in closed-wall situations.It isn't always fun, and plenty can go wrong, but you can buy a fish line from places like princess auto or any home supply stores really.
The low voltage mounts I tend to use have little nibs on one side that you press against the drywall to make 4 small marks, then you use a drywall saw to cut that box shape open and give you access. Usually something like a living room will be hard to run wires up the wall, but down the wall to the basement should be pretty easy (although you do need to know approx. where the wire is going to be and pre-drill a hold in the base studding of the wall) then fish up through and pull wires down.
Insulation can be a problem, but if there is a vapor barrier (outside walls almost always have it) you can slide along the plastic with the fish line just fine.
It can be messy and time consuming, and a lot can go wrong, but if its what you want it will be worth the effort.

Before I go any further I'd just like to apologize to Topsecret again for hyjacking this thread. As a fellow new home owner though I'm sure he understands.

Thanks for all the info too Steve-O and Sampson. The room is actually quite a challenge to wire for because of how it's built - hardwood floors, back wall is an outer wall, 1 archway and 2 other entrances into the room, off-white colored ceiling, so wire along there would be visible and ugly etc.

So I guess my plan is see what some electricians would charge, or get a wireless setup for the rears... wireless would save me from having to buy more speaker wire too... hmmm...

Nope it's all good mate. I'm reading everything and taking it in.

Understand 100%

Of you wire in between your walls I would like to observe how it goes if you are kind enough as in the future I wouldn't mind doing some of this as well.

For sure, if it ends up happening I'll definitely invite you over. I'll be watching too after all since it won't be me doing it from the sounds of things.

I just leveled up my "handyness" skill this weekend actually installing a programmable thermostat, but even then it was just replacing an existing manual one so it wasn't that big of a deal really. I'm kind of wimpy when it comes to my place though so I'll probably end up getting the wireless setup or tracking the cable better on the floor.

Proggie Thermos are gonna be one of my first prior to winter upgrades

At $40 a pop I would just replace the ones you really need to be on a timer. For me that's basically just my bathroom first thing in the morning. All the other rooms I can set when I get home and turn down before bed.

Oh, and I researched wireless rear speaker options last night and man, there's not much selection in products. Basically all I have found locally is a Rocketfish setup which looks semi-decent, but not great... it's also 2+ year old tech that could have been refined more since then but hasn't. I think I'll be hardwiring, whether it's through the wall or on the floor.

A pain in the behind to hardwire but the better solution if its done neatly.

Sure..would be nice to not have wires anywheres but something out all that RF floating around in poorly filtered quality that just doesn't sit right with me.

Take a good look at the room and situate it for the easiest way for setup. If you absolutely have to run wires outside the walls there are some solutions to explore.

My buddy has a set of the wireless rears and they are FANTASTIC! I have no complaints about them at all. They beat the hell out of cabling, the only thing is you will need a rear plug.

I personally am going to be doign what you are with hiding all the cables. I'll be setting up a room with surround sound and will be installing something similar to these.



I'll be building my shelving into the wall (DVD players, etc) and wall mounting the TV with cables running down through behidn it. I'm thinking about having the TV sit inside the wall, however if I ever want to replace/upgrade there is always that one issue with size.

I'm a year and a half away from this myself. But it is a goal to do.

and the MB AV forums live on haha.

Power for my rear speakers isn't an issue since I have 4, if not 6, sockets on my back wall and only 1 is being used. Is your friend using wireless speakers or does he have a kit that sends the wireless signal over to them? I was reading up on the Rocketfish kit and the main issues I see are:

1) CD Quality Audio - Sure CD Quality is good but I'm going for a Dolby Digital HD / DTS HD setup here so it would be nice not to lose that quality on the rears.
2) Sound Lag - Potentially a huge issue but I'm fairly certain it could be counter balanced through receiver settings - ie. set the rears at 0.0m away and over compensate on the distance of the wired speakers to make up for their lack of this lag.
3) Powering on and off - I don't want these suckers running 24/7 when I use them 2/... a couple times a week lets say and it looks like both the sender and receiver have to be turned on/off independently AND the switch is fairly awkwardly located. Digging behind the component shelf, and potentially behind my couch, each time I want surround makes it sound like more of a hassle than routing wires through the wall in the first place.

Anyways, as for the setup you're planning, it looks good but I personally wouldn't want speakers embedded in my walls. The mid's and low's produced by surround speakers come just as much from the housing as they do from the actual speakers themselves. In fact, I don't even like having my bookshelf speakers closer than 1-foot away from a wall because that can also interfere with their sound.