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Can you run speaker wires in parallel to each others?

post #1 of 5
2/7/10 at 3:54pm
Thread Starter 
According to my reading is best to avoid running speakers wires in parallel and close to electrical wiring. I belive, one option is to cross low voltage signal and speaker wires at 90 degrees to electrical wiring at at least 16" apart..

I was wondering if :

Would be ok running speakers wire in parallel to other speakers wires inside pvc electrical conduit or smurf tubes inside the walls/ceilings? or would create any issues (noise)?

Also, can you run Cat 6 or HDMI cable in parallel with speakers wires or each other? If so, would be best to run the cables and wires in parallel at a specific distance from each other?

Thank you
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post #2 of 5
2/8/10 at 6:17pm
I think if I remember the research I did CAT6 cable is shielded to prevent interference from electromagnetic sources.
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post #3 of 5
2/8/10 at 6:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by avtck View Post

According to my reading is best to avoid running speakers wires in parallel and close to electrical wiring. I belive, one option is to cross low voltage signal and speaker wires at 90 degrees to electrical wiring at at least 16" apart..

This is overstated. It is extremely unlikely (not impossible, just extremely unlikely) to induce noise that would be audible on an amplified speaker wire.

The concern is more legitimate with line-level audio, video, phone, etc.

Quote:


I was wondering if :

Would be ok running speakers wire in parallel to other speakers wires inside pvc electrical conduit or smurf tubes inside the walls/ceilings? or would create any issues (noise)?

No problem. It's done all the time.

Quote:


Also, can you run Cat 6 or HDMI cable in parallel with speakers wires or each other? If so, would be best to run the cables and wires in parallel at a specific distance from each other?

Thank you

It is definitely a good idea to keep speaker wires away from other much lower-voltage signals like audio, HDMI, ethernet, phone, etc.

You should treat speaker wire more like you would high-voltage line, you want to keep all the rest of your signals away from it if possible, don't run them all together for long distances, etc.
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post #4 of 5
2/8/10 at 6:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hk Chuck View Post

I think if I remember the research I did CAT6 cable is shielded to prevent interference from electromagnetic sources.

Usually not. In most any residential application, unshielded cat5/6 cabling is used. Shielded cat5/6 cable is available, but much more expensive, and rarely needed or used in a regular residential environment. Resistance to noise comes from the fact that the line is balanced, so there is common-mode noise rejection, hence the lack of need for shielding. For unbalanced lines like cable TV, audio, video, etc that's usually run over coax with heavy shielding, or heavily shielded twisted pair (for audio) because the shield is all that provides noise rejection.
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post #5 of 5
2/9/10 at 4:38pm
I'll second both of Chris's posts.

One thing when running in-wall cables. Don't be too neat. With Romex type power cable and zip cord type loud speaker cable a twist or 3 per foot will reduce interference from nearby parallel cables. This is not to say that the crosstalk will be a problem. But, it's free and it's good engineering practice.
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