Running speaker cables in walls and what to do with the ends...

[deedeeaitch]

Afternoon all!

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere (and if it has please just point me to the right thread) but I'm about to embark on wiring up my lounge for 5.1.

It's all stud walls so should (hopefully) be relatively straight-forward to run the cables behind the plasterboard. My question is how to "finish" the ends of the cables that come out of the walls? I've seen that you can buy speaker wall plates which I'm sure will look nice and tidy, but buying lots of plates and interconnects will up the price quite a bit...

What have other people done? Do you just fill the hole and leave the wire hanging out of the wall (and if so what precautions do you take to stop it being pulled out and taking the plaster with it )?

On a more general note, are there any threads that give details (with pics if at all possible) of how to run cables behind walls? I understand the general principle but a few pics might help to clarify it a bit.

Sorry if I'm asking stupid questions, it's just I've been reading a lot of these DIY threads and getting all excited, but I don't want to turn the lounge in our new flat into a DIY disaster!

Cheers,
Dan

[Pisto_Grih]

What I plan to do is use some of those little plastic gromets that sky/cable installers use to put in the drill holes in walls. I'm assuming you must be able to buy them, and hopefully in different sizes, if not, I will probably just leave them hanging.

[deedeeaitch]

That's a good suggestion. I'm guessing a dab of superglue to secure the cables into the holes might be a good plan too, to stop them being yanked....

[mossym]

instead of costly faceplates. build your own. you can source the binding posts from companies like farnell, then just pick up some blank faceplates from b&q or similar.

to eb really cheap but look okay, buy the blank faceplates, drill a big hole in the middle of them (proper pipe cutting bits for a drill are handy here) and feed the cables through, then fasten the faceplate tot eh wall, it will cover any ugly holes

[EVH]

What about using something like this?

Failing that, buy some blank faceplates and drill out some holes

[skin69]

well have joined atlast! Am in the middle of chasing my cables (and loads of other stuff arrr) and was thinking about the cable ends! so have found these on ebay was thinking they could work, any good for ya?

60mm Cable Port Wire Tidy Office Desk Grommet, Pak o 4 on eBay, also, Cable Clips Tidies, Cables Connectors, Computing (end time 19-Nov-08 09:47:35 GMT)

[Mark Grant]

If a lot of cables are exiting the wall the easy way is a single gang brush strip wallplate as pictured above.

I use these on the installations I do for customers and also sell them on my website. (I am not allowed to mention our price or post link - forum rules)


For 1 cable such as a speaker cable the easiest way is to buy a TV coax socket such as this:

TV Coaxial Aerial Socket - White
( look for ones that dont say 'TV' on them)

remove the coax socket from the back and throw it away and you have a nice neat hole in a plastic plate.

You could drill your own blank plate, but that leaves sharp edges and some blank plates are brittle and hard to drill.


Fit a back box in the wall like this:

1 Gang 35mm Dry Lining / Plaster Board Box

Easy and cheap

Mark.

[aggallim]

I have plaster walls and ran my cables to where I wanted them in a 20mm channel. My KEF2005.3's cover the points where the speakers are located but where they come out behind the amp i just got a brushed steel brush letter box cover from screwfix:

Brush Letter Plates Silver Effect 335 x 75mm - Screwfix.com, Where the Trade Buys