How to setup and wire the surround speakers?

Renegade

Renegade

Moderator
Juggernaut
As some of you might be aware, I got the Onkyo 3400 recently. Now I am wondering how to setup the rear speakers in the room.

First should I wall mount it or get a stand? I saw this on ebay and it seems to fit my needs - Home Theatre Speaker Stands for 2.1,5.1& 7.1 Systems Height Adjustable 2 Nos. | eBay
Is the price correct for this or is it expensive?

Now the second part of my problem is running the wires around the room to reach these surround speakers. Which wire should I use and how do you suggest that I do it? I saw one nice article where the person had used the flat ribbon wires which have adhesive on one side and don't look horrible. Though I doubt I will find something similar and cheap here.
 
:P

Is there a problem in wall mounting the satellites? If your room does permit it, I’d suggest you do that instead of opting for stands. Some of the so called stands advertised and sold online are flimsy, with a base that keeps wobbling on the floor due to the floor’s unevenness and the pads will come off later. Stands need to be of a solid build to bear the weight of the sats and not vibrate when operating. If there is a provision to wall mount them, please do so. Mount them in such a way that they are positioned at the user’s ear level. Else the treble and mids will wear off and you may not hear the notes properly. This is more of trial and error so before you drill the screws on the wall, place the sat. and play a movie (switch to the Dolby D/DTS mode within the AVR as applicable) and hear the notes. The vocals and ambient sounds must be clear when you are seated at the sofa. However, you can always have stands custom made though, like Ali from Sound Foundations. He can fine tune based on your requirements as well. This will be expensive however!

Routing the cables can be done quite easily. For the rear sats, you can hide the cables beneath the sofa and carpet which will run towards the AVR. I assume Onkyo must have bundled long cables for the rear sats, haven’t they? Something like 3~5 m. Or if you are extremely particular that the cables need to be hidden, you can get those plastic cable enclosures from a local electrical shop (cheap and like 40~50 Rs. per m) and screw them to the wall and maybe paint them with the wall’s shade to hide them. Lay them as close to the ground as possible to camo it and avoid people noticing it. Run the cables through these enclosures to the AVR unit.
 
Its usually suggested to use a higher gauge wire, if the distance between the amp amp-speaker is gonna be long.
As far stand is concerned just search for a shop nearby and get a floor stander or wall mount as per your needs.
I can get a solid floor stand for 550 here in chennai(1piece).


To setup hdmi on your laptop, first get to know if your laptop can output Audio signal via the HDMI slot, which I highly doubt.
 
ramdante said:
To setup hdmi on your laptop, first get to know if your laptop can output Audio signal via the HDMI slot, which I highly doubt.
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The laptop is 4 years old but it outputs sound just fine on the HDMI port while connected to the TV directly. And will look around for some proper stands locally.

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Gannu said:
Routing the cables can be done quite easily. For the rear sats, you can hide the cables beneath the sofa and carpet which will run towards the AVR. I assume Onkyo must have bundled long cables for the rear sats, haven’t they? Something like 3~5 m. Or if you are extremely particular that the cables need to be hidden, you can get those plastic cable enclosures from a local electrical shop (cheap and like 40~50 Rs. per m) and screw them to the wall and maybe paint them with the wall’s shade to hide them. Lay them as close to the ground as possible to camo it and avoid people noticing it. Run the cables through these enclosures to the AVR unit.
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Would prefer the flexibility of a stand but will explore what you suggested. As for the cable, I do not intend to use a carpet which will run from the TV unit to the rear wall. I was thinking something similar to what you suggested, to run some sort of flat cables along the wall and paste it with a duct tape. Will see if I need to paint over it. The problem is I will have to run the wire around and over a balcony door so the stock wires will not be enough.
 
Stands have the risk of getting knocked down accidentally. Wall mount would be preferable.

Do not fall for the marketing and end up buying expensive cables. There is outright loot going in the name of audio cables. Any OFC cable would do. Ensure proper soldering to the plugs. I am assuming banana plugs would be used.

I also had to run the cables a few meters over French windows. Do you live in your own house or rented premises. Duct tapes when removed would inevitably peel off the paint underneath - result would be ugly. No landlord would condone that (neither would The Home-Minister!). I used plastic cable sheaths. You can do the running yourself. All you need is motivation, patience, time & a solid chair (in that order), or call an electrician. Would take ~3 hours. Effort would be worth it! As you won't need to do this again. Unless you remodel & shift.
 
Do not stick duct tapes! That will make the work look shabby. And once you intend to remove the tape, it will leave a sticky residue on the cables. Trust me when I say this, I've explored all the possible options here and found that concealing them within conduits is the best option. Which isn't possible at this stage so the next best option is that flat conduit which can be run close to the ground. By flat conduits, I meant this one:

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When choosing stands, consider taking a satellite to the shop and screw it to find out if it is sturdy enough. If the dealer permits it, take a stand home and do a demo with some explosion sequences. Black Hawk Down has some good sequences for this and for the surround effects.

As for the carpet idea, I meant if you already have one at home. There's no point of buying one for hiding the cables. :P
 
Use cable clamps. You get all kinds of clamps. The TV technician who fixes the satellite TV uses them. I have made use of them for my rear speakers. They are mounted on the wall.

See this

http://www.richco-inc.com/products/cable-management.html

Yo have to test the position of the speakers especially the rear ones. Do you have a DVD for testing it?

Again about the wires. You should use only high quality audio wires. The wires to be chosen would depend on the distance involved.

Please see this

http://www.audioaffair.co.uk/blog/audio/10-tips-on-speaker-placement/

Do a couple of days research on the net.
 
Oh god! Why did I buy a 5.1 system :S

Though the good news is that there seems to be a very narrow and shallow recess where the wall meets the floor so I can probably shove the wire in there and run it around. Can cover it with tape or something without spoiling the wall much. :P

Will need 30m of wire in all for both the speakers.
 
There should not be a noticeable prob with SQ.
@Renegade: Also ensure that the speaker setup is done before you start watching any videos. The varied distances mean varied levels with the speakers. Probably your Onkyo would have included an auto calibrator with a mic. Follow the instructions and you would be OK.

You won't be doing this every day. Just wait till you play the first DVD/BD/HDRip. All your efforts will feel definitely worth the while :D
 
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I connected the remaining 2 speakers today but the Dolby sign doesnt light up. Tried to watch Star Movies HD and also tried a movie from pendrive which is TrueHD. Still nothing.

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@Jambumali - The Onkyo guy will come for a demo this saturday so will heopefully set things up properly. As of now I have hardly been able to enjoy the real experience.

And no, it doesnt come with a mic.
 
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Then take up offer of sarang (assuming both are from Pune)! Calibration basically involves adjusting the levels from each speaker around a preferred seating position so that the sound level will feel the same. This will prevent "domination" of one speaker over another. You would need a sound meter and nothing else.

Sound meter: if you don't have a specialized one, you can manage this if you have any Android phone. There is an app called Smart Tools. This has sound level measurement. Or, use this - from the same dev, but free version.

Actually you can ask/insist the Onkyo demo guy to do it. That is the least he can do, after all you bought it from them. Call him & ask about this before he visits your place (tomorrow being Friday, will give him ample time to bring in a meter).
 
sarang said:
Saar PM the phone number and address saar. Free calibration service saar, charges just a caffee saar!
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I will be honored :D Let me utilize these specialized services once I have setup everything the way I like.

Jambumali said:
Actually you can ask/insist the Onkyo demo guy to do it. That is the least he can do, after all you bought it from them. Call him & ask about this before he visits your place (tomorrow being Friday, will give him ample time to bring in a meter).
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I hope they remember to send someone today :lol:
 
:P

No I remember it very well. Here is the update so far
1. Placed an order for a cheap and functional 3 shelf rack to house the AVR, the power extension and the PS3.
2. Will be ordering these speaker stand online or will buy locally from an authorized dealer - HTX-26 Satellite Speaker Stands | India. Don't want to give up on the flexibility of a stand by drilling holes in the walls.
3. Haven't yet gone out to look for a 30m wire.
4. Will call Onkyo guys and ask for a demo as they seem to have forgot.
 
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