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I am putting new carpet down and want to run my rear 5.1 speaker wire under the carpet. I know that I will want to replace it once a year (I am weird like that), so I thought I'd get a few of these:

Corduct 15 ft Cord Protector

The idea is that I could keep the wire as short as possible. It should be easy to replace the wire, too. My idea is to take some very long string, tie something metalic to it that will fit through the channel in the cord protector, then take a magnet to the metal object and drag the string through to the other side. I would then tie my speaker wire to the end of the string and pull it through.

Does this sound like a workable approach? The above-linked cord protector looks reasonably thin, so I don't think it'd be too noticeable if stepped on through the new thick padding and thick carpet I will soon be getting.

BMitch
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oscilatingcretin
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4 Answers4

10

Even with just 18awg speaker wire (no conduit) run underneath the thickest carpet, it will be noticeable when you step on almost right away, and within a few weeks you'll clearly see the outline of exactly where the cord runs. It's much better to run the wires through walls, ceiling, or under the floor, or an easy way, is behind the baseboard (you need to take the baseboard off anyways to put down carpet).

Also I don't really get why you'd replace the wire once a year. Do it right the first time, and put wire in that will last for a few years. However, if it's due to some audiophile sound quality thing where you theorize that you can hear a 0.000000000000001% drop in quality because the wire is "old", I'm going to drive down there and smack you (see my recent response to a speaker wire question here).

Community
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gregmac
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You'll end up with two lumps in the carpet that can't be easily removed. You'll also have holes in your carpet at each side for the wire. So unless you're going for the college dorm look, I'd recommend against this. If you do it anyway, the only way to get the wire through this is to attach it to the existing wire and use that to pull it through. I doubt the magnet idea would ever work, and trying to push the wire through would just fold on itself since it's not rigid enough.

As for the way I would do it, the easy way is to pick up a box of nail clips and tack the wire down around the baseboard. With these, you can pull the nail slightly and spin the clip 180 degrees to easily add or remove a wire behind it. After enough time and especially enough furniture, you tend to forget they are even there. You can also have a nicer look with some wall mounted conduit.

The excessive option is to open up the floor or below ceiling and run flexible conduit through the floor, preferably with the ends in the wall behind a modular plate with the appropriate connectors installed. If you happen to already have a wall and/or ceiling exposed, running conduit would be a great idea, I only consider it excessive if you're pulling down an existing wall to install it.

BMitch
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2

Run a router with a straight cutting bit down the back of of you baseboards.

Evil Elf
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If the goal truly is to easily swap/change your speaker wires, and you don't want to run proper conduit in the walls/under the floor, how about the pragmatic college solution: Get a rug.

Lay the carpet, set up your system, run your wires to your speakers, then measure the size of rug that would cover most of the speaker wires. Done!

DA01
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