# In-ceiling speakers in not yet drywalled basement



## lelechim (Jun 8, 2019)

I bought my house unfinished and the seller had installed the electrical wiring and housing in the basement for recessed lights. There is not yet any drywall, but it will need to be put up since per code, there cannot be any exposed wires. Since I would like to have a television downstairs and use my basement as an exercise room, I wonder if I could install some in-ceiling speakers. There are all these videos I see on YouTube showing how to install them, but all seem to be on a pre-wired house, which I don't have since it's an old house. While it obviously would be much easier to wire a room for speakers before putting up drywall rather than after, there are a few things I'm not sure of.

1. Since I'm working with low voltage wires, will I still need an electrical permit?
2. If using a wall keypad to control the volume, could I also use a remote control? If so, what extra setup would be necessary?
3. As for controlling the volume through the wall, is a keypad the only option, or could I use a rotary knob?
4. Could the speakers be hooked up to a television? I plan to have a large television mounted on a wall for following along to exercise videos. I'd like to conceal the wires in the wall but that's another topic.
5. If so, can they be easily changed to hook up to something else, such as a smartphone that plays music?
6. When running the wires within the walls, how much distance should there be between the low voltage wire and any existing electrical wires?
7. Would my basement even be a good part of the house to have such speakers? It's not a wet basement but it can get humid and smell funny when it rains if I don't have my dehumidifier running.

I was reading this article on Family Handyman but I'm having trouble wrapping my head around it. For one thing, the article is about wiring a whole house, whereas I want just one room. It talks about a "distribution hub" which confuses me. The speaker wires seem straightforward enough in that they're just connected from the speakers to the keypad, but then there are so many other kinds of connections.

I was thinking of getting the Legrand On-Q 1000 6.5" in-ceiling speakers. They're on clearance at my local Lowe's for only $36 a pair, and they have great ratings on Amazon.


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## Dave Sal (Dec 20, 2012)

For an economical speaker there are a number of products from Monoprice for a few dollars more than the Amazon product. Excellent reviews as well. The Amazon speaker mentions a flexible plastic frame. Not good for a speaker when structural rigidity is required. 

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=4103


I installed in-wall speakers (Definitive Technology UIW55) in my bathroom about 12 years ago. Since I had the tub surround down to the studs I was able to run speaker wire into the walls on either side of the tub, and then down behind the tub into the lower level laundry room where it connects to a modest Sony 2 channel receiver. I decided that I wanted to use my iPod to listen to music wirelessly so I bought a Blu-tooth audio receiver (Amazon Basics model) and connected it to the Sony receiver. Lastly, I picked up a Blu-tooth wireless power plug that allows me to turn on the system remotely from the iPod.


1. I doubt you'd need a permit for dealing with speaker wires but all it takes is a phone call to your building department to make sure. 

2. Not familiar with wall keypads but I can control the volume using my iPod. You don't say what your source component will be that powers the speakers. A stereo receiver maybe?

3. see above

4. If you use a receiver as your source, you should be able to connect it to the TV as long as the two are close enough. If not, consider running RCA cables in the wall from the TV to the receiver.

5. use a Blu-tooth receiver connected to a stereo receiver to get music from your smartphone. 

6. I would keep the speaker wires at least a foot away from electrical lines. 

7. If your basement is really damp, consider getting outdoor rated speakers. In reality though, unless you have water dripping from your ceiling you'll probably be OK with regular speakers.

Lastly, you should check out AVSForum for lots of good info on home audio A/V distribution. 

https://www.avsforum.com/forum/36-home-v-distribution/


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