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O2 ARC Indoor / Outdoor Loudspeaker Installation Guide
like the white, buy the black or vice versa. Contact us if you need a new grill cover because yours is plugged up with paint. Unfortu-
nately for you, they are not free.
Placement
Spend some time considering placement prior to installing the speakers. Once they are installed, they are more or less permanent, so
their location should be selected carefully. When possible, mount the speakers so that they radiate over the widest possible area where
people are. If you care about the best stereo effect, position the speakers so that they are equidistant from the most likely listening
area. That way, that guitar part on Led Zep’s Whole Lotta Love will make you think you saut’ed the wrong mushrooms. Oh, and find a
nice piece of wood to screw the bracket into, usually called a stud, not the Pool guy kind, the wood kind.
Wiring
How you wire is an important subject. If you are just wiring for 2 speakers from the Zone 2 on your home theater receiver it’s a fairly
simple wiring task. Be sure to always leave yourself some extra length on the ends for working room. Be sure you caulk those holes
you might drill through to the exterior with a non-hardening caulking compound. All this will make your life easier and your house last
longer. If you are running wire in new construction, don’t nail the wire down in place unless building codes require it – use wire guides
- you may want to pull additional cables later, if you must, use large staples to “guide” the wire. At this point you once again may con-
sider hiring a professional installer and go bowling with some old friends instead.
Multi-zone audio, where you will use multiple pairs of speakers in different areas, is a completely different wiring situation and the
methods for doing so are too numerous to cover here. Consider what device you will amplify them with, if you will have local controls
you need to wire to, if you need to pull control cables like CAT6, or will the speaker wires home run to the head-end? On. And on. And
on. Home runs to a single location are the safest but controlling the volume remotely in a room will then require a wireless command
and control system and a multi-channel amplifier that can get pricy. If all this sounds foreign to you, stop everything now and consult a
professional to learn more about your options and at least consider having them wire your house for the command and control system
you plan to use leaving you to hang the speakers if it makes you feel better.
Getting Wired.
Proper loudspeaker wiring methods and type and quality of wire are essential to good sound. At a minimum, 6 AWG 2-conductor
speaker wire is recommended for runs up to 50 feet or less, 4AWG for longer runs. When permanently installing wire inside walls, be
sure to use wire that is rated for in-wall use and has special jacketing for fire prevention. In the U.S., the U.L. standard is CL-2, CL-3
and CM wire, and in Canada the CSA standard is FT4 wire. If you bury the wire in the ground make sure the wire is rated for direct
burial or use conduit. The wire should be run in accordance with National Electrical Code best practices to meet any applicable local
or national building codes. Be forewarned, MDU and high-rise developments have additional requirements and restrictions. For best
