Hi all

What is the best way to get audio cables from one room to another without letting sound leak through? I'm building a studio with two rooms and have absolutely no clue...

Thnx in advance!

Jan

Jan,

> What is the best way to get audio cables from one room to another without letting sound leak through? <

Stagger the holes in the walls so they're separated by at least one stud, then pass the wires through holes in the studs. That is, the hole on one side of the wall will be a few feet away from the hole on the other side. Then caulk the openings in the walls completely before you attach the wall plates with the audio connectors.

If you need me to clarify this let me know.

--Ethan

great stuff. I had read before about separating holes(access points) in walls by 4 ft and now I understand why they used this distance. That would be passing through 2 studs basically which as you described would help cut off the noise through the studs with caulking. I'm really glad to know that this is a viable option for running cables because this, along with the heating & air ducts, are worrying me to death with regards to noise loss.

Thanks for the info Ethan.

Hi Ethan

The problem is that the rooms are separated by two massive concrete walls, so I'm not using studs. I can drill holes in the walls and caulk them after I put the cables through, but how can I foresee the option to add other cables at a later time without having to drill again and without reducing the transmission loss of the walls?

Thnx again!

Jan

Jan,

> the rooms are separated by two massive concrete walls ... how can I foresee the option to add other cables at a later time <

I have no idea!

--Ethan

I've got a similar situation. My CR and studio are seperated by a concrete wall, with inner walls (room within a room) inside. What I did was to install cable runs inside of the wood frame walls. These runs are built out of wood studs (2 X 6's), and lined with semi-rigid fiberglass that is covered with cloth. I have a few right angle bends in the runs, and the runs are several feet in length. They do NOT go through the interior wall studs, but I have a lot of room between them and the interior concrete walls, so my method may not be practical for you unless you want to build the runs between the existing studs. At each end there is a hole through the concrete walls, which the cables run through. Where the cables exit the walls, they are covered with metal plates, which I have rubber gaskets behind to help seal them off. Bleed has never been a problem for me. You can seal the ends with caulk or expanding foam if you want, but if you need to add more wire later, you'll have to tear that out first and then reseal the ends after you're done.

You can use a fishtape to get new wire through the walls / runs, but IMO a better solution is to install way more wire than you need in advance. Make sure each end is properly labeled. That way, if you need something at a later date, you already have the wire ran, and all you have to do is get out your soldering iron and solder the ends on, or pre-solder more ends than you need and just connect things as needed.

There could be several types of things you might need to have routed through your walls, so give it some thought in advance... speaker lines so you can have an amp head in the CR and the cabinet out in the studio, headphone lines (2 conductor with shield), mic lines (ditto), 1/4" unbalanced instrument level cables (although long runs of that can result in sonic compromises if it isn't buffered), etc. etc.