Considering adding a surround system in your entertainment room? Be sure to avoid these common home audio wiring mistakes.
Adding a surround system can transform any room into a first class entertainment area and can help create the perfect room for entertaining your family and friends. However, to achieve the best possible sound and look, it’s important that homeowners are aware of common mistakes that people make when adding a new wiring system. From Realtor.com, here are the top mistakes homeowners make, and things you need to avoid.
Don’t run audio wires too close to other electrical components or cables. The flexible plastic ‘casing’ that goes around the wires protects them from radio frequency interference and noise, but the environment has to be right. For instance, if you run your audio wires too close to electrical components, like a computer, or other voltage-carrying wires, like lamp cords, phone lines, extension cords, then you’ll likely experience interference with your audio wires. Also, avoid running audio wires too closely to compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Make sure cables are well insulated and shielded. If you have to run audio wires close to electrical components or other cords, course, sometimes it is impossible to prevent running audio cables near other electrical components or electrical cords, so if you must, make sure that you use cables that feature very high quality insulation and shielding materials.
Don’t use a busy circuit for your home theater. Your home audio system can be negatively affected by voltage spikes and drops, which happen when motors, compressors and other types of appliance equipment turn on and off. It’s important to take care of your media equipment, so make sure that the circuit that powers your media equipment is only used to power your media equipment.
Make sure you choose the right cable length. The longer the cable, the lower quality sound you’ll get. Cables that are too long can cause distortions in high frequencies and looping or folding up the excess cable can cause all kinds of nightmares because of the magnetic fields being produced. Choose a cable that is just long enough and always keep the cable as straight as possible.
Know how to make the right connections. Sloppy connections, poorly attached conductors, and over-stripped shielding can cause all sorts of problems for you because it can ruin the cable’s integrity. Make sure you have the right tools for the job so that you can avoid unnecessary problems.
Don’t accidentally reverse the polarity of the wires. One of the most common mistakes homeowners make when installing audio wires is simply wiring the speakers wrong. Connect the right wires to the right ports so that you don’t end up with a terrible, flat sound from your speakers.
If you follow these home audio installation tips from Realtor.com, your project should run smoothly and you’ll be able to get back to enjoying music and movies quickly. To read the original article from Realtor.com, click here.
Discover The Bay Area 