In college, and I split the cost of a surround sound setup. Jon purchased the receiver and I purchased a set of speakers to complete the 5.1 setup. After I graduated I lost the use of Jon’s receiver, so I bought my own, which I used for the first few years living in Boston. After my retreat to New Jersey and subsequent return, Corinna and I decided that the living room in her old condo was simply too small, and the walls too fragile, to mount all the speakers to. So my glorious surround sound setup collected dust for several years.
Having moved into a new, larger, house and having bought a ridiculously large television, it only seemed to make sense to have a nice sound system.. Unfortunately, there were a few problems with this plan:
There are condos above and below us, so there was no access from above or below.
Corinna and I had no interest in unsightly wires running around the living room.
I don’t trust wireless speaker setups, and besides, I already have 5 perfectly good speakers.
We didn’t want to rip the walls down solely to run speaker wire.
Given all that, I assumed that others would likely have this problem, so I began searching around for a solution. After some research I settled on Flatwire. Basically, you glue Flatwire to the wall, tape over it with joint tape, then feather joint compound over the whole kit and caboodle to conceal it. I was somewhat skeptical, but after reading some good words I decided to take a bit of a leap of faith and shell out a few hundred bucks on the gear. I got 100’ of flat speaker wire, 8 wall boxes, the spray adhesive and extra-wide joint tape.
We found pages and pages of illustrated installation instructions on the company’s site, and they were a little intimidating.. Fortunately, Corinna and I sat down and carefully read them, making sure we understood each step before any installation started. Once we invested this time it became clear that this installation really wasn’t as complicated as it seemed at first. The instructions are just very detailed.. After understanding all the steps, all it takes is some solid patience…
We used a chalk line to snap out all 4 routes around the living room.. What became apparent quickly was that while it may seem that keeping the wires level would be really important, in a 100 year old home which isn’t terribly level anywhere else, what really mattered was keeping the lines a consistent distance from the ceiling. We took time to make sure we had enough space along the entire runs to account for any sags in the ceiling. Once we were confident in all of the chalk lines, we began the first run. It seemed logical to start with the shortest run, which was the front right speaker. We measured the length of the run, and then measured out and cut the appropriate length of wire. The instructions advised us to test this length of cable before proceeding, so we connected two of the wall boxes to either end and hooked up the stereo and a speaker. Everything worked great, so we disassembled the whole setup and began gluing the wire to the walls. First, we mounted the first wall box to the wall and connected the wire to that box as a kind of anchor while we glued. The glue is really, really sticky, and didn’t necessarily spray straight out of the nozzle, so it took a little practice to shoot straight.. Fortunately, any misfiring would be covered up by the spackle anyway, so I wasn’t too worried. After getting this first run glued to the wall we mounted the second wall box and connected the other end of the wire to it. After reconnecting the speaker and stereo to this first run, we successfully tested this first run. The instructions advised testing each run 3 times: Before gluing, after gluing, and after spackling. This would have taken us forever, so after this first run we only tested after gluing (and obviously after painting).
After this first run, we glued the remaining 3 runs to the wall and mounted all of the wall boxes, testing all of them successfully. With each run we became faster and faster as we became more familiar with the process. We started this process around 11am and finished gluing and testing around 4pm, just in time to jump in the shower quickly and catch The Police at Fenway. The next day Corinna began taping and feathering the wires.. This took her a few days, mostly because of the amount of spackle needed to really hide the wire combined with drying time. She may correct me, but I believe it took three passes to really smooth it out. After getting the paint on the walls Thursday night I mounted the speakers Friday and we took the system for a test-drive.
While I’m no audiophile, I do appreciate good sound, and as far as I can tell, the Flatwire doesn’t color or distort the audio in any perceivable way. The stereo sounds wonderful and bass and treble response seem identical to the traditional speaker wire I replaced. To be honest, I can’t really find any flaws in the system. It’s expensive, and it requires spackling finesse which may be beyond some (including myself), but if you are in a similar bind to me, it seems like a perfect solution.
A few weeks ago, Corinna stripped all the wallpaper, which the previous owner had painted over, from the living room walls. Since then, we put the Flatwire for the 4 surround sound speakers onto the wall and she feathered over them and patched the walls where necessary, finally finishing with a yellow that is pretty similar to the color of our previous living room. She did such an awesome job!
For some reason after months of not really attending any shows regularly a bunch happened to occur all at once. Of course, things were kicked off this Saturday past when
and myself all had the extreme pleasure of seeing The Police at Fenway Park. I was really excited about this show, but in the back of my head there was always this nagging fear that it would be a bunch of old guys who couldn’t quite play anymore pretending they were young again. Beyond that, I generally avoid arena shows in favor of small clubs. The odds of me seeing this band at a club are virtually nil, so I decided to make an exception to my rules…
As soon as they took the stage and kicked into Message in a Bottle, however, any fears were put right to bed. They rocked so hard, it was such a great show, it has instantly jumped into the top 5 shows I have ever witnessed. Their set list was great (I could have done without “Walking in Your Footsteps”, but you can’t please everyone), and hit just about every song I wanted to hear. By the encore, I was thinking they were going to skip my favorite song, “Next to You”, but after the main encore they snuck back out on stage and kicked into it as their last song. When they broke into it I probably jumped 3 feet out of pure excitement and adrenaline. I actually for a split second considered trying to scalp tickets for Sunday’s show, but realized I’m not made of money. =)
Last night I went out to Cambridge to see Negativland at the Middle East as part of their It’s All In Your Head FM tour.. It was also a great show, but in a completely different way. The band was basically doing a live radio show from the stage, and if you’ve ever heard their Over the Edge radio show before, you know it can been a pretty crazy melange of samples, music, noise, and scripted weirdness. They even handed out blindfolds at the ticket counter to enhance the “Radio Viewing” experience. It was really enjoyable seeing these guys work, although by the 3rd hour of the show (as it approached midnight) I was getting pretty sleepy…
Tonight I’m returning to the Middle East and meeting up with a bunch of friends to see DJ Z-Trip. His stuff can be real hit-or-miss for me, but his technical ability is simply astounding, so he at least possesses the chops to knock it out of the park. I saw him a few years ago when he toured and it was a pretty enjoyable show, so hopefully he’ll pull it off again tonight.
Had a little get together for some various college friends this weekend in Hopatcong… I’ve done this for the past few years, and everyone seems to enjoy it, especially when the weather is as gorgeous as it was this weekend past. We just chilled out on the Party Barge, Regency Edition, swam, ate, and drank. This party is always complicated because the boat really is the limiting factor, as it only seats 14 including the driver. We were pretty much at capacity this year, which means I might seriously have to look into renting a second boat next year… Which should make invitations less complicated but increase the planning required.
were among the attendees, and they came with a bit of a cold. Unfortunately, I seem to have picked up that cold, and it is really kicking my ass (but I’m still glad they were able to come to the party)… I’ve been out of work for the past two days, but I’m starting to come around… I’m sure tomorrow I’ll be fighting off the congestion, and I probably won’t walk to work, but I’m starting to get a little stir-crazy in the house.
The couple buying the condo below us closed today, so it is our first evening with neighbors in two months. I’ve gotten so used to having the run of the place, it will take a little getting used to. They seem cool as hell, though, so I’m not anticipating any troubles…
Quickly on the hotel terminal. Spain is awesome… Pamplona and the wedding were out of hand. San sebastien was awesome.. up to Bayonne, France tomorrow perhaps, then through some more of basque country, or something… Someone ´s waiting for this terminal, so bye.
Flatwire Photoset
Originally uploaded by seangraham
![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
