Speaker wiring in dot and dab plasterboard wall

[Scott Prudence]

Hi All,

Been trawling the forums a bit on here but can't find a specific answer to what I'm looking for. Basically my man cave is upstairs with a loft space above it. I have a TV mounted to the wall and I'm now looking to wall mount my speakers to get a bit more space on my desk. The wall in question is the one between mine and my neighbour's house, so it's block work with dot and dab plasterboard.

I'm looking to run the speaker cable in the wall up into the loft space, along and back down to the bottom of the same wall where I will install a speaker faceplate. The problem I've found is that with dot and dab, the top of the wall into the loft space is sealed with plasterboard adhesive. Is it OK if I drill a narrow channel (enough for speaker cable to get through) into the adhesive or is this not really recommended? If it is OK then is it as simple as getting a really long drill bit and drilling down from the loft space?

Ideally then I can also wall mount my rear speakers onto a partition wall (where I can run the cables up into the loft space and drop down to the faceplate).

Appreciate any help, thanks.

 

[Lucid]

An 8mm or 10mm long spade bit will do. Make sure you run a tester over though for any hidden cables or pipes.

Incidentally, the 'rear' speakers aren't really rear speakers at all. Well, not unless it's a 7.1 system. The sounds they make are mixed for speakers mounted on the side walls relative to the listening position rather than behind it.

 

[Sam Gangee]

I'm now looking to wall mount my speakers .... The wall in question is the one between mine and my neighbour's house

Just a thought: the resultant sound transmission could annoy your neighbour.

 

[Lucid]

If it's large speakers then yes, probably; but less so with small satellite speakers due to the limited frequency range. Besides, there'll be more energy going in to the room from the centre channel and front pair than from the surround speakers because of the way sound is mixed and how Dolby ProLogic/DPL II works on stereo sources.

The biggest culpret for carrying sound is the bass. That travels through the structure of a building whereas the higher frequencies get absorbed and/or blocked by the building structure. If it's a sub/sat system then the satellite speakers will be producing very little bass. Depending on the design they'll tail off quite a bit below 250Hz. The sub will contribute a small part of the bottom end of the female adult speech range and as much as 1/3 to 1/2 of the male adult speech range.