Sounds like a win!
Cabling an audio system can be as simple as you need it to be, but there are many weeds on that trail. Avoid the thorns and if it works, you're done, mostly.
The part I'm still trying to figure out is extending speaker wire so I can get speakers in the kitchen. I got an old Onkyo receiver cheap from a coworker who was moving, and my cd player recently died so I got a new one. I'm not organized enough to make big discs of mp3's so my alternative is a multi disc changer. The speakers from the old CD player are still good but they're bare wire ends and short wires. The receiver also came with a set of 5 speakers and subwoofer, and a couple rolls of speaker wire.
I got all of those wired except the two back ones because there's no good place to run the wires in the current room configuration. But the receiver also allows for B speakers, and I want to run extender wires round the corner into the kitchen and put the old CD player speakers there. I just twisted the wires together with my fingers but the connection is flaky and I still need to buy some electrical tape. Soldering is kind of beyond me yet.
Also with the wire running round the corner, the kitchen pocket door can't close, so I want to cut it and put in some kind of extender that can be unplugged from itself when the door needs to close. Theoretically I could drill through the wall behind the kitchen cabinets, but the fridge and oven are also wired through that wall so I'm not confident about doing that.
Not sure what a pocket door is, but I might consider altering one corner of the door with a little wire sized gap (just big enough to allow that skinny wire to rest safely) rather than making a speaker cable connect/disconnect near the door.
Also tape works wonders, but a more semi permanent, superfast solution to connecting cables together is wire nuts. You twist the cables together and screw this little cone of insulation plastic onto the wires. Still might want tape to clean up the install a bit, but no more questions about a dodgy connection. Any store selling electrical stuff more complicated than an extension cord will have them in a number of sizes.
Drilling through walls can turn into an advanced endeavor. Great and "sanitary" solution if you know what you're doing. Not something I would suggest to someone struggling with the early learning processes.
it's all easy once you know how.
Another thing that can work for your back speakers is to slightly loosen the wall trim and gently stuff the cabling under and tap the trim back in when you're done. Also cables can just hide nicely in the bottom corners of a carpeted room, but you will need long cables to run around the room getting to your speaker locations. Not ideal, but easier to do if you are renting and have to leave things the way they were when you go.
Use what you have, but you might need to buy some additional lengths of cable for the back speakers to make installation easier.
Good Luck!
