In-wall Speaker Wire
Posted by: NickSeattle on 18 February 2013
I use a NAP-V175 for center and surround channels, and am preparing to move. In the new house, surface wire to the surrounds is not an option. I am told NACA5 is not suitable/not legal in-wall. Is there an ideal alternative product for this application. I'd rather not "pay extra" and have the man put the NACA5 in the wall against the Building Code.
Does any kind of conduit get around the issue?
Thank you.
Nick
Hi Nick.
I buried 2 x 10m of 79 strand twin figure 8 cable for the rear speakers after being told that 79 was the closest to thing to NACA5 but flexible enough to be buried in the wall without the channel having to be too deep. It sounds fine into a pair of wall mounted n-Sats driven off a 175 and only cost uk .59p per metre. Not had any stability problems with the amps with the wire either if you're worried about the specs.
Search online for TLC-Direct UK and the product is called CASPEAK79 on their site.
I'd post a direct link but it's not allowed on here.
Cheers,
Rack.
I think NACA5 is a bit overkill for rear effects, esp driven off the amp stage of a 175. If you're running a 200 into some full range rears, then maybe not but i'm guessing Nick is planning on wall mounting something smaller...could be wrong there but he'll have to confirm.
Thank you, Rack and Connon.
Both are worth consideration. My current surrounds being KEF Q-10's, I thing the more modest solution makes sense, for me. I might use the conduit elsewhere.
Cheers!
Nick
When I had my home cinema set-up I was advised by Naim to use Chord Leyline for the surround speakers, and I believe that many professional installers use it. Sounded excellent to me.
Peter
Thank you, Peter. Good looking product for my purposes.
Nick
I hide the speaker cable in my study in that stick-on plastic ducting, painted the same colour as the walls. Avoided the need for a plasterer etc!
Surprised NACA5's not legal - on what basis?
Chord's new Sarsen is a fine (and sensibly priced) cable, but it's just a twisted pair - no shielding or anything, hence my query about legality...
Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.
This puzzled me, as well. I have no idea which country the OP is in, but perhaps the following link (?USA based) will explain it :
http://www.bluejeanscable.com/...les/inwallrating.htm
I have no idea what CL rating NAC5 is.
For any electrical cable, the composition of the material used for the insulation affects the manner in which it combusts. It is expected that applications in which cable is run through an in-wall conduit will produce less toxic fumes than cable which is not protected (merely run through holes in the wall studs)–both factors (composition and application) affect the cable's in-wall rating (which must be certified by an independent testing lab, for a fee).
Unless your setup utilizes (nominally) full-range material (e.g., DVD-Audio or multichannel Blu-ray) in the rear / surround channels, chances are it is bandwidth-limited at point of production anyway, making the relative safety and stability of your amplifier more important than any effect upon sound quality. Older NAPV175 units benefit from a few extra twists per unit length to maintain stability (by adding additional inductance); this can easily be done by using a drill to wind the conductors more closely together. The rear / surround loudspeaker cables need not be exotic, IMHO.
I use a pair of n-Sats as surrounds with S-400s as fronts on a trusty n-Vi that has served the kids well (!) for years; the surround wires are an inexpensive 14-4 (fourteen gauge-four conductor) installation wire that I found at Fry's.