I'm finishing my basement and I have a few questions for the experts here on the AVS forum. I'm at the point where I need to run my speaker cable. I'm planning on putting my TV in the corner of the room seen in picture 2839 with the two double-gang boxes. Where is the best location to place my two rear surround speakers? They'll probaly be ceiling mounted, although the left one may be mounted on the side of the center beam. Any guidelines, i.e. distances, heights, etc?

My system is currently 5.1, but should I run cable for a rear center channel? Probably should, right? Any other future proofing I should do that you can think of while I'm at it?

The exterior walls have styrofoam sheeting on them, and I'm planning on putting r-11 kraft-faced insulation on top of it. That sound good? Also, I was thinking of putting Owens Corning "QuietZone" Noise Control Batts in the above joists. I'll be using the CeilingLink system w/ 2x2 panels for the finished ceiling. Anyone do anything differently? Thanks in advance!! -Jon

The best advice that I have heard is to run as much cable as you can. Center rear, left rear, right rear, extra subwoffer, etc. It might be overkill, but I'm ok with overkill.

What is that floor?

What is that floor?

Looks like a nice dricore install to me. Did mine the same way.

Tom

Thanks for the replies guys. Yeah, it's DriCore. It's a little pricey, but great stuff. $5.66 per 2x2 panel or something like that. Beats having to build a subfloor w/ insulation, etc. Their brochure says it's much cheaper than building a subfloor the right way (plastic sheeting, foam insulation, 2x4's, plywood). Plus saves you lots of headroom. One heads-up though, guy at Lowes told me DriCore got bought-out by "SubFlor". I had to buy the DriCore leveling kits at HomeDepot. DriCore was cheaper at Lowes though.

I'm finishing my basement and I have a few questions for the experts here on the AVS forum. I'm at the point where I need to run my speaker cable. I'm planning on putting my TV in the corner of the room seen in picture 2839 with the two double-gang boxes. Where is the best location to place my two rear surround speakers? They'll probaly be ceiling mounted, although the left one may be mounted on the side of the center beam. Any guidelines, i.e. distances, heights, etc?

Have you though about havening all your equipment centrally located, maybe an equipment closet?

Also as already said, the more cables you run before the basement is finished the better off you'll be.

Run cat5, coax, speaker wire, ect....

For speaker locations, work with the wife, where she wants the couch ect... plan your speaker locations around your seating.

I spent months planning and re-doing all my wiring, I also ran conduit so that I could later pull wire if ever needed for future expansion.

How elaborate do you want to go?

There are plenty of guides about speaker locations, hell just go directly to dolby's website, they've got info after info after info of speaker setups.

if you have to mount them high up, make sure they're both identical on both sides so that it doesn't screw up the speaker imaging, then once everything is done and finally to the point of hooking things up, you'll want to properly calibrate them so they sound how they should, most receivers will have a calibration tool or adjustments.


My system is currently 5.1, but should I run cable for a rear center channel? Probably should, right? Any other future proofing I should do that you can think of while I'm at it?

Can't hurt to run more wire. If you do run wire, and hide them behind the drywall until future use, make sure you accurately mark them or document where they are at in the wall.

again conduit is your best friend. You can easily run the flexi-tube which runs all the way up to 2" and can run those all over for future expansion.

that or I ran 4" conduit to three different locations in my basement, one in the corner, one in the front of the room and one for the projector location. So if your thinking of maybe doing a projection setup you can run power and conduit for future use.


The exterior walls have styrofoam sheeting on them, and I'm planning on putting r-11 kraft-faced insulation on top of it. That sound good? Also, I was thinking of putting Owens Corning "QuietZone" Noise Control Batts in the above joists. I'll be using the CeilingLink system w/ 2x2 panels for the finished ceiling. Anyone do anything differently? Thanks in advance!! -Jon

you doing the insulation for sound proofing?

QuietZone is great for high frequencies, but if your trying to do this to deaden the bassy noise/vibrations through out the home from the sub, no amount of insulation or quietzone will prevent that noise from going through the home.

For bass / low frequencies you need to add MASS, the more mass (IE dual layers of sheet rock)you add the better it'll be, also decoupled walls (ie two layers of sheet rock with green glue or RSIC clips/hat channel), ect....

So again what are your plans, or wants or reasoning for the insulation?

- Josh