What is a general home theater wiring specification for a "wired for surround home" ?

Question

HI

I am living in a house which is "wired for surround sound" I know that the family room and the game room is "self-sufficiently" wired from wall console to 4 surround locations. I am not sure how the 2-speaker connections in 4 rooms end up in a "whole house" 4 channel console in my washer room.

Is there a typical "wiring diagram" for a "wired for surround sound" home ?

I am going to dig through the wires and connections but wanted to check if anyone knew anything...

Answer 1

Generally only 1 media/theater room is wired for 5.1 surround sound.

The other rooms get stereo speakers which you hook to the zone-2 outputs of your receiver. This way you can have music throughout the house. (Kind of silly to pipe L/R speakers from a movie to rooms w/o a television).

Answer 2

generally u will want to put the "center" channel over ur tv centered if possibole...thats where the most of ur speaking will come from.....then ur left and right front speakers will go to the left and right of the tv.....this is where ur sound will come from that u see on the tv....then u will want ur "surround" speakers to go to the left and right BEHIND u.....this is where u will get the background sound from....then stuff u dont see on tv but u hear it....try to aim the speakers so that the sound coming from them will clash about center of ur room.....this will give u the best "Surround" sound possible...hope this helps ya man....good luck

Answer 3

There are wires in the walls and you jsut have to plug stuff in.

Answer 4

I would suggest you use the existing wires for an intercom or an alarm system, and have the 'Home Theater Room' in your house professionally wired for real surround sound. Ask the installer to upgrade the wires for large monitors (speakers). This will be a much larger diameter wire. Tell the installer to install 'banana plug' style speaker jacks for your floor mounted and/or wall mounted speakers.  If you want the wiring to be kind of future-resistant, have two sets of jacks in the front and rear, and a front and rear center channel jack installed.  

   Now we have 5.1. Later we may have 6.1, 7.1, 10.2, etc. If you want the room completely uncluttered from wires, have a couple of sub-woofer jacks installed also.