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Through ceiling, really.

I've set up my new "office" in a 2nd floor room with accessible (insulated, blown-in) attic space above. At some point I'd like to set up my 5.1 computer speaker system, with the surround speakers attached to the ceiling. Getting speaker wires through the office wall to the attic is no problem. Wondering the best way to get speaker wires through the ceiling to the speakers though, in as minimally invasive and as minimally obvious a manner as possible.

If I didn't care about "minimally invasive" I'd just get some in-wall speakers and cut holes in the ceiling, but I'd prefer not to have to deal with that. Is it as simple as just drilling a small hole and poking the cable through? Hoping for something a little more "finished" looking, like maybe some kind of small grommet.

Huesmann
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6 Answers6

19

A small hole is totally adequate for this purpose.

If you drill neatly then a grommit is not needed. A ~3mm hole might be sufficient, just measure your wire first. A small beauty plate may help to cover any tearout in the plaster.

You might choose to fit some binder posts in a plate, or a pair of RCA plugs in the ceiling for convenience and neatness, though its another joint in your wire and generally unneeded. Smaller plates may be more suitable too.

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You can also arrange your rear speakers such that they sit in front of the holes, or if you choose to use mounting brackets then they can straddle the hole and hide the wire as it comes down any internal channel. Although these brackets need to mount into something structural in the ceiling, not just into the drywall/cladding.

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Criggie
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Simplest standard approach would be to locate a "low voltage ring" (looks like a junction box, size-wise, but has no box) directly above your speaker locations so it's mostly hidden, and then you can have a nice finished plate for the pass-through (or terminals, if you want.)

Drilling a hole and caulking once it's done is also perfectly acceptable.

Ecnerwal
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There are wall plates available with RCA jacks, 1/4" phono jacks, etc. (just listed as examples). As mentioned by @crip659, they do not require junction boxes.

Some have plaster ears, the tabs on corner shown in this AC outlet to allow mounting the outlet itself flush with the wall (or ceiling) surface, to be covered by a plate. Others may have metal tabs or cross-bars that fit through a cutout in plasterboard, and "sandwich" the plasterboard between the tabs on the inside and the outlet, outside.

As for drilling a hole from the wall into the attic, the easiest way is to use a long drill bit (e.g., this 18" bit or this 24" bit), or even a 72" bit), drilling carefully from the wall up into the ceiling. Carefully includes checking your between studs, that there are no wires or pipes in the way, and being cautious to drill close to vertically, so as not to go through the opposite wall.

It is also possible to drill from attic down to the wall, if there is sufficient space in the attic.

In either case, stiff wire must be pushed down from the attic and "fished" out at the opening for a wall plate.

DrMoishe Pippik
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All of the speakers in my house just have a very small hole through the ceiling or wall with the wire coming through and attached directly to the back of the speaker and mounting the speaker over the hole. I just used a small Phillips screwdriver to make the hole through the drywall. If a few cases where I later on wanted to move one or two of them, a small dab of spackle was all that was needed.

JACK
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Assuming those speakers are passive (that is, don't have a mains plug and the amplifier built in), then you're going to have a relatively long cable run. It's worth using thicker than normal cable for this.

On the plus side though, this is a permanent install. So if you use Criggie's idea of binding posts at each end, you can use regular mains solid-core wire. Contrary to what you may hear from hi-fi nuts, speaker cable only affects the sound if it's too thin. Myths about special oxygen-free cable are just that. (I say this as an electronics engineer with some experience of getting very small signals from place to place very accurately!) A nice thick bit of copper will see you right - and coincidentally that's exactly what mains wiring looks like.

Graham
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However you make the hole, make sure to air seal (e.g. with caulk or expanding foam) around the penetration. If you make a small hole just to pass the wire through, you can seal directly around the wire. If you make a larger hole for a low voltage ring, you can make a little box out of rigid foam, and seal around the edges of that.

You want to minimize the air leaking from your conditioned living space into your attic. Especially if you live in a colder climate. See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw-b6up7kjE

Tim Sparkles
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