Expert: Wayne Tapia - 5/15/2009

Question
Hello Wayne
I am building a rec room in my basement. I understand that I should run my stereo speaker wires to stay at least 2 feet away from electric line voltage wires to avoid hum. Unfortunately there are two places where my speaker wires have to cross within 2 to 3 inches of line voltsge wires. Would it be an idea to run the wires through a 2 to 3 foot length of copper tubing in these areas... will that "protect" the speaker wires from hum interference? Do you have any other suggestions?

Thank-you in advance

Carl

Answer
Hi Carl

Actually, you should be fine. Speaker cables are much less susceptible to noise caused by power lines than, say, your standard interconnects. Those are the ones you want to keep away from power lines as much as you can. The hum problems arise when you run line level cables parallel with power lines. The amount of voltage / current that it would take to effect a speaker level signal at 2-3 inches away is well beyond your standard house wiring.

The tubing probably won't be needed, but if you feel more comfortable doing that, it won't harm anything either. It's actually better to use a galvanized steel tube that's connected to ground.