About a year ago I finished my home theatre in the basement. When this happened, I left my wife stranded with an old bookshelf stereo and some ‘lame’ speakers in the kitchen for her to listen to. For her birthday I told her I would make sure she had good music back in the kitchen and living room and make it better than ever! What this meant was getting her good speakers, allow flexibility between rooms and also giving volume control in this added zone.
Years before I had run speakers to the kitchen, but they ran off of the master volume control, not convenient if you got a phone call, or needed to listen to something else.
Project Stats: Kitchen Speaker Run
Time: 3 hours, but I took my time.
Cost: Low (but I had most of the items already)
Difficulty: Hard
Value for cost: High
Tools Needed: Wire Snake, Utility Knife, Torpedo Level, Tape Measure, Volume Controller, Low Voltage Mounting Bracket, High Quality Speaker Wire, Cordless Drill, Stud Sensor
The first step is to understand how all of this works and understand how the signals travel. I’ve made a small flow chart to show how this works.
Click for full size.
As you can see this is just like setting up regular speakers, but there is an addition of the volume controller. Check out the gallery for details on how I installed everything!
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- This is where it all starts, the back of the receiver. Before I finished my basement, I created a conduit to the basement for projects like this. From here I ran my two speaker cables down into the basement.
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- To make sure I didn’t make a simple mistake, I tied a big, loose knot in the cable so it would not fall through
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- To help run cables, I tape the ends onto a snake, and make a smooth edge to help guide through tough spaces.
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- Right below the receiver in the basement, this little chase has helped me plenty of times!
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- Here was the old speaker wire run, sharing the fridge water line.
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- Using the old location, I measured out to the wall where the volume control was going to make sure I got it right the first time.
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- I did the same in the basement, making sure I didn’t hit anything important.
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- Running the cable required me to pass through some blocking, notice how I lightly tack the cables to help them stay in place.
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- I was able to find the exact right spot to drill down.
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- It is really close to the joist, but I can fit the wires through!
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- They just fit!
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- Wires pulled up, I always bring all available wire up, whenever possible.
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- The hardware store didn’t have a low voltave box, so I had to use a standard NEMA box. However the volume controller was too large for it…
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- Simple fix by cutting the back out of the box.
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- Now this will fit the oversized volume controller
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- To find the exact location of the controller I made sure I wouldn’t cut into any studs and then have to do repair work on the walls.
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- Measure, measure, measure. A small mistake here will cause you a lot of extra work
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- Measure on both sides!
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- Now that I know where i want things to go, I drill the pilot hole for the cables.
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- Using the box as a template, you can trace the lines, make sure it is level! Mine is leve, but it was hard to take the picture and keep it level!
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- With the box traced out you know where to cut.
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- Instead of a drywall knife, I use a razor, pushing in to make clean cuts.
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- Nice clean cut reduces extra cleanup and repair later.
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- A wire snake is the savior of this project. I ran this wire from the small side up as it was easier to grab the snake end this way.
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- Tape the wire securely to the snake so it does not get caught.
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- It is as easy as it looks!
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- Since the switch goes here I cut the wires, leaving some slack.
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- I was really impressed with this controller, and may use more in the rest of my wiring project. It is a BIG unit however.
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- Putting the mud ring in is east, just screw it in, the flaps come up and clamp against the drywall making it secure.
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- Connect the right cables to the right locations, sorry no pictures
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- I drilled another pilot hole up in the closet, and over through the cabinets, repeating the fishing process.
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- Running to the cabinets
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- From the cabinets to the speakers
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- The wires are barely visible here.
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- The controller finished, I mounted it at switch heighe (48in).
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- The full setup, notice that the wiring is invisible, and the volume control is easily accessible.
By working with a wire snake and choosing your runs and drilling points properly you can acheive a professional quality job with little effort. To hire someone to do this would most likely cost you several hundred dollars. Out of pocket for this project was under $30, not counting speakers, or stereo equipment.
Now everything works and the ability to adjust the volume is great! I highly recommend a project like this to enhance your house. Continuing this throughout your entire house is an easy project that can raise the value a lot.
I would also let you know ahead of time and issues I saw with your product and offer suggestions to improve them.
