In article ,
Charles A. Sherwood wrote:
sat. cable. I was thinking of running some speaker cables incase I ever
want a surround sound setup. I do not know anything about them, how
many wires do I need to run for the speakers? Is there 4 or 5 speakers?
I was planning on using 16ga. speaker wire, but do not know what type

Surround sound 5.1
-two front speakers
-two rear speakers
-center channel speaker on top of TV
-sub woofer in the corner

Surround sound 6.1 adds one more rear speaker.

I use generic speaker cable from MSC. Probably 14 ga.
My speakers just have clip type jacks on the back. Nothing fancy.
put in speaker wire and cover with blank plates.
Figure out the connectors when you install speakers.

But put unique labels on each wire at each end, to simplify
identification when the time to put them into service comes around.

Certainly, I would not even *consider* using RCA plugs and jacks
for serious speaker connections.

And I probably would put in an array of quality binding posts
for the task -- which can be used either to terminate normal wires, or
to accept dual banana plugs (just make sure that you have the binding
posts spaced 3/4" so the dual banana plugs will fit. The better quality
binding posts are available with replacement insulators to hold that
spacing, and some even with triangular patterns for three-way
connections as well.

My personal favorite for binding posts are those made by
Greyhill (I hope that they are still in business). General Radio made
some good ones as well, and another style whose manufacturer I never
knew. Those latter ones were the ones used by Power Designs on their
power supplies, and they had a fat hex knob on each.

Good Luck,
DoN.

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