Home Theatre

[liquid]

Some of you guys on here are good with Electronics, so I thought I'd ask some advise. I'm setting up a Home Theater, and am running into some wierd problems. I have my TV, Receiver/Amp, and DVD player all on the same cabinet. The wires for the 5 speakers, plus a sub and the video cables are all behind the cabinet against the wall. About a 4" deep space between the cabinet and the wall.

The wierd thing is that when I turn everything on to watch a movie or listen to music... the sound is somewhat fuzzy, and it fluctuates alot in volume. On top of that, it cuts in and out. My brother was saying it may be intereference between all the speaker wires in the back.... is that a possibility?

[Kor]

Re: Home Theatre

Some of you guys on here are good with Electronics, so I thought I'd ask some advise. I'm setting up a Home Theater, and am running into some wierd problems. I have my TV, Receiver/Amp, and DVD player all on the same cabinet. The wires for the 5 speakers, plus a sub and the video cables are all behind the cabinet against the wall. About a 4" deep space between the cabinet and the wall.

The wierd thing is that when I turn everything on to watch a movie or listen to music... the sound is somewhat fuzzy, and it fluctuates alot in volume. On top of that, it cuts in and out. My brother was saying it may be intereference between all the speaker wires in the back.... is that a possibility?

Interference is definitely a HUGE problem in home theatre setups. This is a consequence of cheap cables some of the time, always buy shielded! You should always run your cables well apart from other cables that might interfere.

That being said, sounds like some pretty severe problems... the worst I have ever encountered in many home theatre setups is medium-to-loud buzzing/hiss in the audio due to interference.

Are you 100% sure you have everything connected properly?

I highly recommend using TOSLink optical cables for as much of your audio as you can, and Component video for as much of your video as you can.

[Stonewall]

Re: Home Theatre

Are any of those wires sitting beside an ac outlet or cord?

[liquid]

Re: Home Theatre

Kris - What exactly are optical cables? (dumb question I know)

Brent - The ac outlet is right where all the speaker wires are running. About an inch away.

I have a really solid amp (Denon), but the speakers and the speaker wires are not very good (cheap). I just have the stock thin wires.

[Flanders]

Re: Home Theatre

optical cables are literally a fiber optic cable! Your receiver hopefully has a few optical inputs, and your devices will require optical outputs, of course. They work great!

[Khyron]

Re: Home Theatre

Keep the electrical away from the speaker/video wires as much as possible. And while the monster cables are overpriced snake oil, using cheap unshielded cables is bad as well.

I used 12g home security wire for my speakers I think - whatever code requires for in-ceiling wiring.

You might also have bad power - again, those 500+ dollar line conditioners are usually overpriced but a good surge/power bar can help.

What kind of video cables are you using? Svideo/Component/etc?

Khyron

[liquid]

Re: Home Theatre

Right now just component. I have no real way of keeping the wires away from the ac outlet, as that's right behind the cabinet. It seems that when I move the cabinet about 3 or 4 more inches away from the wall, the sounds is alot cleaner and doesn't fluctuate. If I just get more insulated cables, should this fix the problem.

[Stonewall]

Re: Home Theatre

If moving the wires away fixes it then the problem is 60 hz induced from the AC cords. The only real fix is to move the wires away atleast 4 inches or so. You can try shielded wire but I don't hink it is going to help it much. There might be some cheap fixes that I am sure you can google up though.

[Flanders]

Re: Home Theatre

If moving the wires away fixes it then the problem is 60 hz induced from the AC cords. The only real fix is to move the wires away atleast 4 inches or so. You can try shielded wire but I don't hink it is going to help it much. There might be some cheap fixes that I am sure you can google up though.

optical! optical! optical!

[liquid]

Re: Home Theatre

How much are optical wires?

[Stonewall]

Re: Home Theatre

optical! optical! optical!

Ok but would you implement optical speaker wire? There is nothign in the lower to mid range that has the amp built into the speaker to optical is only good for your low level signals. I would use optical for any devices that you have that support it, really I don't think they are priced all that bad just measure the sizes you need so you don't waste to much money.

[Kor]

Re: Home Theatre

Ok but would you implement optical speaker wire? There is nothign in the lower to mid range that has the amp built into the speaker to optical is only good for your low level signals. I would use optical for any devices that you have that support it, really I don't think they are priced all that bad just measure the sizes you need so you don't waste to much money.

Also with optical cables you generally want to buy the cheapest possible cable, the benefits (if any) from a more expensive cable are negligable.

Yes, for speaker wire you can't use optical cable, so get shielded. If you are running your speaker cables < 8-10m or so you should use a fairly heavy gauge sheilded wire. You can also get braided wire.

[liquid]

Re: Home Theatre

I'll give that a shot guys.... thanks for the advice.

[Stonewall]

Re: Home Theatre

Yes, for speaker wire you can't use optical cable, so get shielded. If you are running your speaker cables < 8-10m or so you should use a fairly heavy gauge sheilded wire. You can also get braided wire.

I agree use atleast 12ga and if you are bi-amping your speakers get the twisted seperate wires. There is a differnce in wire sizes that helps when bi-amping as electrons travel at different spots in the wire at different freq but I won't get in to that too much.