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Where to buy in wall speaker terminals

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Old 19-09-2004, 4:26 PM   #1
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Where to buy in wall speaker terminals

I'm finally (after a year of saving and thinking about it) in the process of burying speaker cables in my plasterboard walls / behind the skirting and basically I'm not sure how to actually terminate the cables. The bast way I can think of is some kind of wall box (I have seen some examples in the forums) but I can't find anywhere that actually sells them. I plan to use 3 KEF 'eggs' as the rear speakers in a 6.1 set-up so will need something with 3 pairs of terminals on it. Any ideas ? Is this even a good thing to do or am I going to be degrading the sound quality ? Just seems like having the cables come straight out of the wall will look messy.

Many thanks in advance.

Ian.
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Old 19-09-2004, 7:42 PM   #2
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hi mate,ive just done the same thing while redecorating although I just had cables straight out of wall behind the speaker brackets. Im not to sure about the quality but have always been of the opinion to have as few a conections in the system as possible as there is less chance of interference. If you look at Keene electronics (sorry dont have a link but if you just google Keene youll find it) they have them in there and there not very expensive.Ive bought loads from them and am happy to recomend them

hope that helps
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Old 19-09-2004, 7:43 PM   #3
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sorry forgot to add Keene will make the plates to your spec if they dont stock them anyway
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Old 19-09-2004, 8:54 PM   #4
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if they are for the behind speaker positions i would not use plates, large and unsightly, but gromets are available for a neater look.
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Old 19-09-2004, 10:28 PM   #5
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There is a guy that sells his own hand made plates on ebay.
I use these in my cinema throughout and they look great (even though they are hidden behind the speakers of course!)
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Old 20-09-2004, 8:12 AM   #6
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KEF Eggs come with their own wall bracket and this bracket has a hole in it for the cable to feed through to the binding posts. I have just wall mounted 5 of them and by far the neatest way is to have the cable coming straight out of the wall - through the hole in the bracket and to the posts. That may not suit any speaker upgrade you do in the future though.......?
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Old 20-09-2004, 10:32 AM   #7
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Smile

Wall plate speaker terminals:

The electronics catalogues (online as well) sell these wall plates as well - i bought some from CPC (formerly Farnell) and they are fine. Or you could do it yourself - these same suppliers do all sorts of binding posts and sockets. Match an existing blanking (ie, light switch & elec socket blanks) plate with a usable rear surface (some have bracing that gets in the way) to match you're present wall plates shape and finish if you wish.

Plasterboard:

Some people have no problems with the wiring sliding down the back of the plasterboard, but generally its the plasterboard side of things thats more of a mess and a hassle (depending on your walls contruction - dot dab, stub part, etc). If the cable gets stuck part way down towards the skirting, chances are its hit a horizontal stud and will need bedding through the plaster surface to get past it.

Plastering:

Be prepared to practice you're plastering, and if you haven't had that fun before - dont use the tube stuff on this scale (unles you only have a vey small area to fill), prepare the surface with watered down uPVA (1 in10 if i remember right), this allows sanding to a flat edge later on, otherwise it might keep cracking away at the outside edge as you sand, leaving a broken edge. Then use fastset or a similiar product for easy sanding and a nice finish. Not that i've had plenty of practice after just spending 12 months gutting and re-finishing a flat built in the 1800's or anything... ;-)

I've still got all this to do on my new build house - joy...

Mark.
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Old 21-09-2004, 11:36 PM   #8
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Thatks for the info. guys, I think I'm going to give the wall plates a miss and just have the cables come out the wall with some kind of grommet (any suggestions).

Cheers Ian.
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Old 25-09-2004, 1:12 PM   #9
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I got some from letsautomate
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Old 30-09-2004, 10:14 PM   #10
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http://www.hificables.co.uk/Products...c-7ce8fcb4ee14

I'm gonna use these ones
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Old 30-09-2004, 10:35 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by moviemike
The plates available on eBay are of the same standard aas those and around a third of the price.
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Old 01-10-2004, 8:15 PM   #12
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I can't find them on ebay
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Old 02-10-2004, 5:55 PM   #13
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wall sockets ebay
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Old 02-10-2004, 7:40 PM   #14
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cheers for the link - I've just asked if he'll do a 5 channel faceplate
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Old 05-10-2004, 1:48 PM   #15
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Ha! moviemike, I just asked him that too... and then read your post. Oops!
Did he get back to you?
I am in the process of channelling the walls for my cables. Am going to have the wires coming out of the walls at the speaker ends (my little Orb satellites won't hide a wall panel and it will help keep the sound quality up)
I will have a 5 speaker panel at the amp end though to keep it all organised back there and so if I sell/ rent my flat out the next occupants will have a clue which wire is which.
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Old 08-10-2004, 8:38 PM   #16
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Nah, not got back to me yet (Boo!). I've checked out a couple of places and they all seem to retail for about £40. I'm gonna just have a load of wires coming out of the wall at the amp end for now.
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Old 08-10-2004, 10:56 PM   #17
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Well he replied to me, he is asking the people he gets them from if they can do it so maybe our combined queries convinced him there is a demand. Lets face it if they are the same price points as his other ones and everyone else is £40 he should clean up. I will keep you posted.
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Old 11-10-2004, 10:05 PM   #18
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The QED wall sockets from hificables look really nice. A bit better looking quality than some others (hard to see detail from photo's tho - enlarge pic doesn't seem to work).

The white ebay ones are the plates from farnell/CPC (i've got some of these - exactly the same) - so save yourself the money and buy them from the source www.cpc.co.uk.

Cheers, Mark.
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Old 11-10-2004, 10:16 PM   #19
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QED WM11 i think the are use hamilton SYSTEM 45 which allows for different finishes, white, brass, chrome etc i can put you in touch with some where with stock and probably a decent price guys
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