Under the floor speaker cabling layout and open space audio questions

[MCH]

Hi,
We are in the process of defining how our new house will be. There will not be a room dedicated to home cinema and audio in general is not a priority. However, of course, i don't want to miss the chance to leave at least leave some infrastructure to facilitate having the best audio possible in the future.
A very crude layout is in the picture below with a regular stereo pair of speakers.

My questions are probably very stupid but these are things i never had to think about and i honestly have no idea:
I am thinking on, maybe, building a very simple home theater system, lets say 5.1, with speakers besides/behind the couch, or something like that. At this point i have no idea if it will be active or passive speakers, but i want to leave all options possible. What i am sure i don't want is cables on the floor. As you can see in the picture, there won't be any wall close enough to route the cables. I think the best would be to leave some conduits to route the cables under the floor.
- what is the best thing to do? can a mains electricity cable and a line signal cable share the same conduit in case i go for actives or do i risk having issues with that and better route the mains supply from a different point/different conduit?

Other questions is about having music in the kitchen/dining area. As you can see, all is an open space and it is not very big. What is the best option here?
- is it better having some small ceiling speakers in the area around where the dining table is from a system independent from the one in the living room and just use one or the other depending on where we are?
- Is it feasible to have small ceiling speakers that play simultaneously with the main speakers in the living room?
- the space is not big enough, better keep it simple and just crank up the volume of the main speakers in the living room?

Thank you for any suggestions.

 

[DVDdoug]

can a mains electricity cable and a line signal cable share the same conduit

I'm pretty sure that's a violation of the electrical code.

Speaker wires don't have to be in conduit and in most jurisdictions power wiring doesn't either.

If you are building a new house, you can install conduit and optionally pull wires through later, but it's equally easy to run wires that you may want to use later.

AVRs have speaker output (for passive speakers). That's certainly the most common, most economical, and most common solution. And the sound is normally "fine". (The subwoofer output on an AVR is line-level for an active sub.)

In your situation, I'd consider ceiling speakers for the rear surrounds. IMO - the "sound quality" of the rear isn't as important as the front. (My rear speakers are hanging out of the way, from the wall behind my couch. (The wires are in under the floor and in the wall.)

- is it better having some small ceiling speakers in the area around where the dining table is from a system independent from the one in the living room and just use one or the other depending on where we are?

That's up to you.

- Is it feasible to have small ceiling speakers that play simultaneously with the main speakers in the living room?

Yes, but you may need a separate amplifier. You probably want a separate amplifier so you can easily control the volume separately, and you probably don't want/need surround in the dining room,

 

[MCH]

I'm pretty sure that's a violation of the electrical code.

Oh I had not considered that, will talk to the electrician, thanks.

Speaker wires don't have to be in conduit and in most jurisdictions power wiring doesn't either.

If you are building a new house, you can install conduit and optionally pull wires through later, but it's equally easy to run wires that you may want to use later.

AVRs have speaker output (for passive speakers). That's certainly the most common, most economical, and most common solution. And the sound is normally "fine". (The subwoofer output on an AVR is line-level for an active sub.)

In your situation, I'd consider ceiling speakers for the rear surrounds. IMO - the "sound quality" of the rear isn't as important as the front. (My rear speakers are hanging out of the way, from the wall behind my couch. (The wires are in under the floor and in the wall.)

Yes, rear ceiling seems the most clean solution, definitely.

Yes, but you may need a separate amplifier. You probably want a separate amplifier so you can easily control the volume separately, and you probably don't want/need surround in the dining room,

I was thinking more on a wiim type multi room system w actives. Volume control would be independent of the living room system. My doubt is how well is it going to work in an open space, that is not actually a different room.

Thanks for chiming in!