Home theater in-wall speaker wire??

Question

If bought a Harman Kardon 6.1 surround system and I got wiring through the walls but the wires run in the same pipe as the A/C wires, I've read many articles, ones say there shouldn't be any problem as the speaker cables carry strong signals a thus are not affected by the interference from A/C wire but others say they are affected and in order to avoid interference they must be placed at least 16 inches from each other. I'm really confused, I would like to know what can I do, is there going to be any problem, should I run new ducts through the wall or can it be fixed just with switching to shielded wire??

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I'm curious why your speaker wires are running inside pipes in your walls, that's strange for a residence. Generally you want your speaker wires to cross any AC lines perpendicularly to reduce any interference, but the best judge of whether there is a problem is your ears. It won't hurt your new system to try out the speakers, so long as you are sure you are plugging in the speaker wires and not an AC live wire (but you'd probably figure that out long before you got it near your stereo!). Take a listen, if there is a noticible hiss or distortion you'll probably want to re-run the wires inside the wall away from any AC lines, you can tell this by looking for any outlets or switches nearby.

Answer 2

Depending on where you live, it might be against local codes, most states it is illegal for "low voltage (phone, TV, Ethernet, speaker, etc)" to share holes or piping with "high voltage (AC at 110v or higher)" It might be a national code, i can't remember.

There is always interference, at 3", 16", 36", etc.. the question is can you hear it? Any interference would drop with the square of the distance. With speakers, probably not, but it's always a good idea NOT to run Low Voltage parallel to AC lines, all intersections should be at 90 degrees. If you do the further apart the better, better to be safe than sorry. Where i used to work we went for 3 feet where possible and never closer than 3" for very very short sections where framing forced it.

sheilded wire is always better but it's still not perfect, that's why there are various levels of sheilding.

It is interesting though that your wiring is in pipes, kinda different, (unless it's surface mounted in metal conduit)

Answer 3

its not going to affect u unless u have extremly sensertive speakers, and the air con wiring is probly low voltage anyway so it wouldnt affect it. even if its mains voltage (im guessing ur a yank so that'll be 110v and your at 60hz ) even if ur speakers are rearly sensertive ud only hear a slight buz, but u get a slight buzz from any equipment at high volume.