I'm fixing to buy a new house(already completely constructed) and it has a perfect room for a dedicated theater. The last 8 years I've been set up in my condo living room. I'll have side surrounds and back surrounds and will run cabling in wall. My surrounds are M&K and will be wall mounted with their tilt and swivel brackets. They will not be hidden in columns. So what is the best way to finish this setup and wiring? Do most use a wall plate and then use a short patch cable? Or what is the cleanest or most recommended method when you have visible, wall mounted surround speakers? Thanks.

I'm sure I'll have many more questions when I'm in the new house.
room is 17'9"W x 21'9"L x 10'H
Equipment will be:
TBD front projector?
TBD screen & size??
M&K S150 LCR
M&K SS200 Pro tripole side surrounds
M&K Surround550 back surrounds
SVS Ultra/2 and twin16-46 passive tubes for woofage(Samson 1000 amp)
EAD 8800 pre/pro
Oppo 970 and TBD Blu-Ray player(something that decodes all and has 7.1 analogs)
Bryston 4BST and 4 Marantz MA6100 monoblocks for amplification(will need a mono for the center)

I can't speak for the "most" part of the question you pose but I have always followed the rule that less is better. In other words, as few connections or connectors between source and destination works best. In a previous room I did with wall mounts I simply ran a single gang box with a wall plate with a small hole in the center and pulled the wires direct to the speaker from the receiver location. No intermediate connections. It also keeps the cost down. Gang box and plate for less than a buck at your local DIY store.

I'm fixing to buy a new house(already completely constructed) and it has a perfect room for a dedicated theater. The last 8 years I've been set up in my condo living room. I'll have side surrounds and back surrounds and will run cabling in wall. My surrounds are M&K and will be wall mounted with their tilt and swivel brackets. They will not be hidden in columns. So what is the best way to finish this setup and wiring? Do most use a wall plate and then use a short patch cable? Or what is the cleanest or most recommended method when you have visible, wall mounted surround speakers? Thanks.

I'm sure I'll have many more questions when I'm in the new house.
room is 17'9"W x 21'9"L x 10'H
Equipment will be:
TBD front projector?
TBD screen & size??
M&K S150 LCR
M&K SS200 Pro tripole side surrounds
M&K Surround550 back surrounds
SVS Ultra/2 and twin16-46 passive tubes for woofage(Samson 1000 amp)
EAD 8800 pre/pro
Oppo 970 and TBD Blu-Ray player(something that decodes all and has 7.1 analogs)
Bryston 4BST and 4 Marantz MA6100 monoblocks for amplification(will need a mono for the center)

Too bad you couldn't have asked this question BEFORE the walls were done!! :)
I put all my speaker wires in conduits (http://tomdufresne.com/v-web/gallery/album08).

REASONING: 1) Should I ever need to replace, no worries. 2) they are completely hidden 3) everything is centrally located and easy to wire to the receiver and finally 4) It was so FUN to pull all those wires!
Best,
Chinaclipper

What part of Austin are you in? I'm behind the HEB in Bee Cave.

I'm going for the straight wire approach, fishing the bare wire after walls are up. My front speakers are all behind the screen and I have attic access behind there, so no issue. My surrounds will all be high enough in the walls (~5 ft) that I can pretty easily fish the wires down from the attic above, run them out a old-work junction box. I'll probably solder on banana plugs just for the heck of it.

I'll also fill the junction boxes with something (putty?) to try to keep the noise leakage to a minimum.