I am constructing my new house. The "professtional" guy from Home Theater store would charge me $500 for cable purchase and $1000 for installation of the wires.
At the same time, a guy from the security system firm was here to estimate and stated that he is able to install the home theater wiring by charging about 1 hour rate of the labor if we are able to purchase the cable ourselves.
Anyone can tell me what wouold be the differnces to have these two kinds of professional installing the home theater wiring.
2006-08-05 04:40:59 · 8 answers · asked by shyerenyehmd 1 in Consumer Electronics ➔ Home Theater
Well, it depends on how big the room is, and a few other factors. Are you wiring for just the speakers? Will all of your components be in one place or will they be far apart? I'm not sure what all the cables are that he wants $500 for, but if they are good cables then that's not bad. As far as the $1000, then I guess that also depends on if you have your walls up yet, and again - how big the room is.
2006-08-05 04:48:28 · answer #1 · answered by dru 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Installation of Home Theater cables is different than security cabling. Security cabling is usually a CAT5e or similar type cable. It is easier to pull and smaller holes on floor joists are required. HIFi cables are much thickeer and less flexible, and you don't want someone yanking them through small holes and bending them around corners, especially coaxile cables. If you over bend a coaxile cable, it will compromise the signal flow at the distorted point. I would see if your security system guy has installed HiFi cable before, and if he or she has, it might be okay. I am sure you are encountering a huge markup from the home theater installation guy, but they most likely gave you advise on what to buy, and there is a cost related to that. Also, they may warrantee the installation is something goes wrong, or is something is not connected properly. If you split the service, forget about any warantee. A $1500 cable project is not really that large, and it might be simple, letting you forget about warrantee's. How many cables are being installed, and what type of cables? If they are mostly speaker wires, you can let the security guy do it. If you have remote locations for DVD players and other components, and are running a number of line level audio and video cables, HDMi or DVI cables, you might want to think about it a bit.
2006-08-07 04:24:50 · answer #2 · answered by Gary I 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What you spend on cables is up to you. Go cheap and have problems then so be it. Spend a lot and hear no difference, your money. $500 for just speaker wires is a bit steep. If it's $500 for all cables on a very large system then it's fine.
I would be skeptical of a security guy running speaker wires. For a well placed and ran speaker set up 1 hour sounds way to short. Security guys usually aren't to particular about what they run there wires next to or how close they are to electrical wiring. Home audio (and phone, TV, Ethernet, etc) should never share a hole with electrical and should be ran at least 3 inches away were unavoidable(for very short distances) and ideally be ran 3 feet or more away for parallel runs. Intersections with electrical should be at 90's.
Proper placement of speakers is worth a little extra cash for a good installer, $1k for just running wires a bit steep. If it's $1K for design, wire run, and finish install, especially if it's a large system, then it's a good deal. Labor varies by location but $40 to $70 per hour is typical depending on local codes and labor market. Feel free to ask me any questions
2006-08-05 07:19:21 · answer #3 · answered by hogie0101 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Here is the trick... Most Big Box Home theater stores (Circuit City, Best Buy) Will all most always subcontract to some one very similar to that guy from the security company. I sell good speaker wire for about $2.00 a foot. (14 awg) that is about normal. Then to install... no drywall $65/hr at about 3hrs... dry wall up hours are hard to estimate with out seeing it. There is a lot more to planning a home theater then just the speakers. The audio video equipment needs a home location too (shelving or what I like custom midle atlantic rack).Then the video wires have to be run to either the projector location or tv location. I am in the Kansas City area. If you have more questions feel free to email me at MCHomeTheater@yahoo.com
2006-08-05 05:35:07 · answer #4 · answered by mchometheater 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Really should be no difference if the security guy knows what he is doing.Make sure he does though. Ask if they have any prior home theater installation experience. The price difference could be that the security guy will run both the security wire and the home theater wire at the same time, thus eliminating one wire run from the home theater guy. Also make sure you get the correct wire for your home theater installation, there are building codes for wires that are run in wall installations.
2006-08-05 04:52:51 · answer #5 · answered by coco2591 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well there alot of question to be answered running wire is okay but you have to know where the Speaker's are going to be and are going to be angled and test for sound if just the wire then doesn't matter. but i was build a new home i would also run a empty PVC tube down the middle of the house for future use like run other cables you might need in the future
2006-08-05 06:03:40 · answer #6 · answered by ketteringmusic 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The cost. The wireing part is still wired the same no matter who wires it. Some persons that do this or are real paticular will make a lot more out of a small project than is required.
2006-08-09 00:52:18 · answer #7 · answered by Jack lee 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would just run the HDMI cable to the receiver. Then use one of the HDMI cables to go from the receiver output to the TV. I think you just need to buy 3-4 HDMI cables so you will be able to connect all 4 things. Happy wiring!
2016-03-27 00:05:00 · answer #8 · answered by Nikki 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋