I've decided I am going to wire the house with CAT5. I ended up with the 3 foot deep jut-out (could be for a hutch if it was used as a dining room), and I'm going to build a bench there with a flip top. I'll put some shelves about this too...
I'm going to have the modem and hub under this bench - it'll be easily accessible. I'm running CAT5 to 2 corners of the office from this hub, then up to each of the 3 bedrooms upstairs. I'll hold off on going into the basement just yet - not finishing it for awhile anyway.
Just reading the last MacAddict though, and it's got a section on networking. I thought I could just run ethernet from the modem to the hub, then have ethernet coming from the ports on the hub to each room...
But this issue says that you need to connect each room's cable to a wall-mounted patch panel, then plug ethernet patch cords between this panel and your hub. WTF? Hadn't heard of these patch panels before... something ELSE to buy I guess. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
I'm sure I'll be glad I did this now though. Should be cool to have a high speed network. I'm thinking of getting a cheap old Mac with alot of hard drive space and using it as my server. Then I can back up my main Macs to this hard drive, access music from it, whatever. Can't wait.
If you plan on powering speakers in both the living room and deck with your Mac, you will need an amplifier. You can uses either a dedicated amplifier, or a more common alternative would be to use a receiver/amplifer that combines both a tuner and an amplifier. Powering the speakers directly with your iMac might work if you only intend to use it for light background elevator music, but I strongly recommend you get a decent receiver/amplifier.
First you need to run the audio signal from your Mac to your receiver/amplifier, you'll do this using the 1/8 inch jack on the Mac for headphone output. Get an adaptor that converts the 1/8 inch jack into left and right RCA plugs (male), and plug it into your receiver/amplifier's auxillary input. Adaptors like this can be found at Radio Shack.
Now you just need to run the speaker wire from your amplifier out to your livingroom and deck. I suggest that you run individual sets of speaker wire for each room, and then make sure you have an amplifier that has two different speaker set outputs, usually labeled "A" and "B" (most good receivers/amplifiers have this feature). Use a single output set for each room. By doing this, you'll be able to choose which set of speakers are on, or turn both on at the same time. Also, it is important to keep the wire length the same for each speaker in a set for optimal sound.
The final question is, what sort of receiver/amplifier do you need? I suggest you get a receiver, since a tuner is nice to have. Since you won't be playing sound from a TV or DVD player, you probably don't need any sort of surround sound, although most receivers come with it anyways. As far as wattage, this depends on a variety of factors, including what type of music you like, how loud you listen to music, and what sort of speakers you'll be using.
As a general rule, if you listen to rock and bombastic orchestral pieces, you'll need more wattage (heavy bass reproduction need lots of power). For the livingroom, you won't need much power, but for the deck, you may want lots of volume, depending on the size of your yard and the size of your parties. I suggest going to a stereo shop and talking to the sales-bitch there about it, he'll be able to set you up.
Finally, be sure to test this setup prior to enclosing the walls! My primary concern would be to make sure you aren't getting any random noise or interference on the speakers, if so, then this is probably caused by using speaker wire that isn't shielded. In MOST cases you won't need shielded speaker wire, but if you test it after plastering all the walls up, then Murphy's law will dictate that you need to use shielded speaker wire. If you have noise or interference, you can see if it's due to the speaker wires by listening with the wire in both straight and coiled configurations. If the noise is caused by the speaker wires picking up interference, coiling them up should eliminate most of it.
Thank you very much for all the detailed posts, guys. Great stuff.
I decided on running CAT5 throughout the house. I figured it would be expensive, but it'll be done, and I'll appreciate it in years to come.
Man was I ever wrong.
Talked to the electrician about adding CAT5 to the house. I wanted to run it basically everywhere I had a phone line already going, and go to double face plates with phone and ethernet. It'll be all going to the basement by the electrical panel, where I'll hook it up to the patch panel myself afterwards. I'm probably not hooking everything up right away anyways.
So the CAT5 is running from 2 jacks in the main bedroom upstairs, 1 run from each of the 2 kid's bedrooms upstairs, and 2 runs from the office on the main floor. Cost to run the CAT5 to these 6 outlets, including labor? $155 CDN. Must be because they're already there doing the other electrical work, but geeeeez... that is WAY cheaper than I was thinking. That's for the cable, face plates, male ends in the electrical room, and installation.
I had never priced any of this stuff before, but after seeing 14ft CAT5 cables going for $21 at the Apple Store, I started to wonder...
So anyway, it's taken care of for $150. Now on to the stereo setup...
Comments
I've decided I am going to wire the house with CAT5. I ended up with the 3 foot deep jut-out (could be for a hutch if it was used as a dining room), and I'm going to build a bench there with a flip top. I'll put some shelves about this too...
I'm going to have the modem and hub under this bench - it'll be easily accessible. I'm running CAT5 to 2 corners of the office from this hub, then up to each of the 3 bedrooms upstairs. I'll hold off on going into the basement just yet - not finishing it for awhile anyway.
Just reading the last MacAddict though, and it's got a section on networking. I thought I could just run ethernet from the modem to the hub, then have ethernet coming from the ports on the hub to each room...
But this issue says that you need to connect each room's cable to a wall-mounted patch panel, then plug ethernet patch cords between this panel and your hub. WTF? Hadn't heard of these patch panels before... something ELSE to buy I guess. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
I'm sure I'll be glad I did this now though. Should be cool to have a high speed network. I'm thinking of getting a cheap old Mac with alot of hard drive space and using it as my server. Then I can back up my main Macs to this hard drive, access music from it, whatever. Can't wait.
If you plan on powering speakers in both the living room and deck with your Mac, you will need an amplifier. You can uses either a dedicated amplifier, or a more common alternative would be to use a receiver/amplifer that combines both a tuner and an amplifier. Powering the speakers directly with your iMac might work if you only intend to use it for light background elevator music, but I strongly recommend you get a decent receiver/amplifier.
First you need to run the audio signal from your Mac to your receiver/amplifier, you'll do this using the 1/8 inch jack on the Mac for headphone output. Get an adaptor that converts the 1/8 inch jack into left and right RCA plugs (male), and plug it into your receiver/amplifier's auxillary input. Adaptors like this can be found at Radio Shack.
Now you just need to run the speaker wire from your amplifier out to your livingroom and deck. I suggest that you run individual sets of speaker wire for each room, and then make sure you have an amplifier that has two different speaker set outputs, usually labeled "A" and "B" (most good receivers/amplifiers have this feature). Use a single output set for each room. By doing this, you'll be able to choose which set of speakers are on, or turn both on at the same time. Also, it is important to keep the wire length the same for each speaker in a set for optimal sound.
The final question is, what sort of receiver/amplifier do you need? I suggest you get a receiver, since a tuner is nice to have. Since you won't be playing sound from a TV or DVD player, you probably don't need any sort of surround sound, although most receivers come with it anyways. As far as wattage, this depends on a variety of factors, including what type of music you like, how loud you listen to music, and what sort of speakers you'll be using.
As a general rule, if you listen to rock and bombastic orchestral pieces, you'll need more wattage (heavy bass reproduction need lots of power). For the livingroom, you won't need much power, but for the deck, you may want lots of volume, depending on the size of your yard and the size of your parties. I suggest going to a stereo shop and talking to the sales-bitch there about it, he'll be able to set you up.
Finally, be sure to test this setup prior to enclosing the walls! My primary concern would be to make sure you aren't getting any random noise or interference on the speakers, if so, then this is probably caused by using speaker wire that isn't shielded. In MOST cases you won't need shielded speaker wire, but if you test it after plastering all the walls up, then Murphy's law will dictate that you need to use shielded speaker wire. If you have noise or interference, you can see if it's due to the speaker wires by listening with the wire in both straight and coiled configurations. If the noise is caused by the speaker wires picking up interference, coiling them up should eliminate most of it.
Good luck!
I decided on running CAT5 throughout the house. I figured it would be expensive, but it'll be done, and I'll appreciate it in years to come.
Man was I ever wrong.
Talked to the electrician about adding CAT5 to the house. I wanted to run it basically everywhere I had a phone line already going, and go to double face plates with phone and ethernet. It'll be all going to the basement by the electrical panel, where I'll hook it up to the patch panel myself afterwards. I'm probably not hooking everything up right away anyways.
So the CAT5 is running from 2 jacks in the main bedroom upstairs, 1 run from each of the 2 kid's bedrooms upstairs, and 2 runs from the office on the main floor. Cost to run the CAT5 to these 6 outlets, including labor? $155 CDN. Must be because they're already there doing the other electrical work, but geeeeez... that is WAY cheaper than I was thinking. That's for the cable, face plates, male ends in the electrical room, and installation.
I had never priced any of this stuff before, but after seeing 14ft CAT5 cables going for $21 at the Apple Store, I started to wonder...
So anyway, it's taken care of for $150. Now on to the stereo setup...