living room stuff - audio/video #2.

At long last. Well, almost three years after moving in. I finally wired the surround speakers in the living room. It took a few hours. No swearing involved. It actually went quite well, and very systematically. Measured from the east wall to where the outlet behind the stereo equipment was, then went up in the attic and did the same thing. Drilled into the header and wallah - I could see the light I shone into the hole I had cut for where the low-voltage Leviton structured wiring outlet plate would go. Hallelujiah! Then I had to break out my fishing tape (the actual speaker wire was too flimsy and I couldn't successfully grab it from that hole behind the stereo) and drop it down the inside of the wall. I grabbed it, secured the speaker wires to it, went back up into the attic and, well - went fishing. For wire. Up it came and I tossed it across the attic to the opposite wall.

Then it was just the fun matter of crawling on top of the insulation into the far corners to run the wire. Back in the living room, up on a ladder, I cut the holes, secured two more Leviton plates and the mounting brackets and that was pretty much it.

Oh, and cleanup. And now I have surround sound.

Well, about that. I was looking into DACs because my LG only has optical audio out and, well, since I have had my receiver since I was in high school it ... does not have optical ins. A DAC was about sixty bucks. Then I checked good ol' craigslist to see what a used but slightly more modern receiver might cost. Much to my surprise (or not), I found a really nice Pioneer (my old one was also Pioneer) for one-fifty. It had three digital ins (two optical and one coaxial) and one optical digital out.

So after work the next day I hit up the guy's house and took it off his hands. The next day, I spent wiring it and the components all up. Dolby Digital, 5.1, 7.1 etc. etc.

So I ordered some cables from Amazon after, uh, of course checking Best Buy just to confirm that yep - still true - Best Buy charges approximately 1500% more than any online retailer for cables. I can wait a couple of days, and then the TV will have a digital audio out (yea! so all the movies I stream I will be able to watch in 5.1 surround), my CDR will be all digital in/out along with the DVD and Xbox as well. Not sure if I'll really hear a difference but really, the plugs were about eight bucks each.

Tonight I get to set up the surround. It comes with a small microphone which I am supposed to clip to myself sitting where I normally sit after I tell it my speaker configuration so it can adjust the output of all of them. I also might just put my SPL meter to the test for good measure.

Ah, audio. Good times.