Possible to run surround sound speakers over cat 5?
Flipa...@gmail.com
We purchased a surround sound system, and I'm throwing around the idea
of using Cat5 through the attic to wire the rear speakers to the back
of the living room, using about 35 feet of cable. The rear speakers
are 155 Watts each, and I wasn't sure if this was even possible. And
if so, would it be possible to use two pairs for positive and two for
negative, allowing me to run one cat5 cable for both speakers? I'll
run it to a single wall mount where both speakers will tie into.
Just curious...
Alex
Tim Perry
<Flipa...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1193269648.6...@i13g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
use CL2 or CL3, stranded 14 AWG double insulated.
save the cat5 for the computer.
George Gleason
while tim is technically correct
I doubt you will find much diffrence in a home system with such a low
wattage POTENTIAL
speakers are not light bulbs
your 155 watt speakers hooked to 300 watts of amp
the wire will carry under 20 watts 98% of the time
unless your watching hard core hiphop at deafening volumes
if you want cl2 just ask and pay the postage, I have miles of it
18 guage, left over from the hotel and resturants I wire
george
george
Arny Krueger
>
> We purchased a surround sound system, and I'm throwing around the idea
> of using Cat5 through the attic to wire the rear speakers to the back
> of the living room, using about 35 feet of cable.
CAT-5 wire usually has 24 gauge conductors. I think that Radio Shack still
sells 24 gauge speaker wire. Wire is pretty much wire, so either 24 gauge
wire will work about the same.
Thing is that 24 gauge wire has 27.3 ohms per 1,000 feet or 2.7 ohms per 100
feet. Your application was 35 feet of cable or 70 feet of wire. Your 24
gauge speaker wire is like putting just about a 2 ohm resistance with each
speaker, which will cause an audible loss of volume and worsening of
frequency response with typical 4 or 8 ohm speakers.
Radio Shack's 24 gauge speaker wire was never a good idea, and neither is
CAT-5 as speaker wire.
Of course there are 4 pairs of 24 gauge in CAT 5, and if you hook them all
up in parallel, it's almost close to being like 18 gauge.
If you're buying the CAT-5 with your money, it is no doubt better and
cheaper to just buy some 18 or 16 gauge speaker wire (i.e., 2-conductor zip
cable, sold for extension cords and the like) or better yet, 12 or 14 gauge.
If you are using up odds and sods of CAT-5 that is left over from a network
installation and have time to kill, run about 4 pieces of CAT-5 in paralell,
and you will come pretty close to having decent speaker wire. Thing is,
you'll spend a lot more time terminating the ends, so buying the right wire
to start with can still make a lot of sense.
> The rear speakers are 155 Watts each, and I wasn't sure if this was even
> possible.
George Gleason nailed it - he said that the average power would be more like
10-15 watts because it is music, not AC power. I don't know if you will
heat that itty-bitty wire enough to soften the insulation, but probably not.
> And if so, would it be possible to use two pairs for positive and two
> for
> negative, allowing me to run one cat5 cable for both speakers? I'll
> run it to a single wall mount where both speakers will tie into.
If you plug your ears and hold your nose, you can find a lot of bad ideas to
be acceptable! ;-)