+27000

You guys and your crimps and loops and arrows I tell ya.

I prefer a 2 conductor wire ran to each speaker.

Of course, I have done "D) All the above" at one time or another. Sometimes it depends on what wire you have in stock, what wire you have close to you during rough-in, what the boss said to do, what seemed like a good idea at the time, etc.

I have had to check the direction of the wire many times, and I always looked at the printed lettering on the jacket to see which direction it was ran. But so many times my helper would give me the WTF? look when I asked him to look at the head end and tell me whether the writing was "coming from" or "going towards" the speaker. As if he did not know which direction he reads. Then I would get the WTF? look while looking at him giving me the WTF? look and it ended up a WTF? look stare-off which almost always ended with me getting off the ladder and doing it myself because he could not even.

I knew one installer who, when cutting into a loop of 16/4 at speaker location A, would just connect both sets of whatever pair he chose for that speaker. Then at the end of line, at speaker B, he would just make sure they were not shorted. :) Sure beats the leg work of figuring it out. Ha!

Oh screw it, since y'all can't decide on 14/4 with a loop at the first speaker. Or 14/4 to the first, then 14/2 to the second. Or 14/2 to the speakers separately. Then allow me to say it...


Hire an electrician, they'll run solid wire.

KOT

14/4 looped and a piece of white tape with an arrow showing direction has been our standard for years. Takes far less time to split out 5-6 inches and I get to stock one cable type.

That IS ridiculous. That chart says 14 gauge, 8 ohm load, 80 feet; 2 ohm load, 20 feet.

Ernie, I realize electrical inspectors have authority but here in Canada (Ontario) they can't dictate much in regards to low voltage other than it running in the same holes as line voltage. I can run the wires however I want in any direction, put loops and bends and not a single staple or strap holding the wires and there is nothing they can say to me other than I do a shoddy job of pulling wire.

The only time an inspector can say anything about my work is when the building inspector walks through and I didn't use FT4 rated wire or drilled too large/many holes through a supporting header/beam or didn't use vapor bags where required.

*Disclaimer* I would never do any of the above mentioned wiring techniques although have seen it done may times without anyone saying anything except it looks awful. Like majority of us on here, we take pride in our work whether it be at the prewire or finish. When someone is paying us to do the work we make sure we have straight lines and don't just run the wires wherever we want because we can.

Why do you bother looping it. Why is a straight run not good enough. Run it near speaker 1. Then continue speaker 2. Maybe pull a tad extra and leave it loose not pulled real tight. Terminate speaker 2. Back at speaker one score 6 inches. Cut far end and 6" should be enough to make it to the terminals. I don't see why that wouldn't work fine and avoid the confusion of loop direction.

Once you do it you'll know why.
Do what works best for you.
I do a loop ad I leave plenty of it. I'm not looking to pinch pennies, not looking to run 14/4 and then 14/2 to second speaker. That's another box of wire I'd need to carry in and out.
I leave a large loop so I'm not working looking up straining my neck speaker after speaker, working with my hands up in a hole. I can work on top of ladder with speaker if large loop.
Easy, fast.
I'm by myself so I need to be efficient. I also learned a way to beat the wire direction when I didn't run the wiring myself because, simply, it seems it's too freaking hard for a lot of bozos to mark a wire properly.

At first speaker loop, cut wire fully, strip both sides of red/black and twist reds together and insert to speaker, do the same for blacks, now there's no directional issue. Then terminate the second speaker.

Now I know for sure when I fire the system up I'm not dragging out the ladder again to remove and rewire any speakers.
Done. Move on.

I don't know how it is in CA where Ernie is, but on the right coast our inspectors are the direct prophets of God. They can make up any requirement they want that's stricter than the code book, on the spot and it's law. Now, you can appeal their ruling and take it to the state board, and can probably win. But if you plan to do other work in that inspector's jurisdiction, appealing is suicide.

But that said, as long as we don't do something stupid, most inspectors ignore low voltage because they don't understand it.

Maybe I am not fully understanding your process here but isn't that creating a potential for a short with the red/black at the next speaker? Or are you capping those off down there?

Sure they can be capped, most times I just put a small piece of electrical tape on each end but they're not shorting out unless they're stripped and touching each other.

"I leave a large loop so I'm not working looking up straining my neck speaker after speaker, working with my hands up in a hole. I can work on top of ladder with speaker if large loop."


Ahhh yes duh... brilliant. Ya looking up working overhead blows. At ladder height much better.

I just meat snip the pair you're using for that speaker. Not all 4 pairs.

Sorry - please ignore...
Missed that someone had already made the same comment.

This is true:


The inspector is the Authority Having Jurisdiction. We think of ourselves as adults with the concomitant authority that implies, so some of us have problems with people who simply have authority over us without having to do anything other than just be there.

The inspector is your friend if you make him your friend, and can be your worst enemy if you make him your enemy. There are some who are just plain jerks, but if we can handle the customers we run into, we can handle the inspectors, too!