The object of pre-wiring is to get as much wire into the walls as is possible before the walls go up.

When should you pull the whole house audio wiring? Preferably, after all or almost all the AC wiring is complete, and after as much construction is complete as is possible. The reasons are simple:

"If you put the audio wiring in before the AC wiring is complete, odds are that the electrician will route the AC wiring too closely to your wires, causes interference.

"Secondly, if there is still a lot of framing going on, you might not be able to place wires everywhere you need to, and there's a bigger chance that someone could damage the wiring.

You can proceed without all the equipment details worked out, but you must have these three things figured out:

1. Where the head end will be. This is where all the wiring will terminate and where the equipment will be installed. The head end could be located in an out-of-the-way location such as the basement or sometimes, even in a closet.

2. Which rooms or areas you will likely want music or TV/movie viewing?

3. Whether the speakers for each area will be built-in to walls and ceilings or freestanding.

If you know these three things then you can pre-wire your whole house entertainment system.

Better still, if you know in advance what type of control (volume only, volume and source (keypad) or touchscreen control each area will have the proper wires can be run before the walls go up. Control wire will have to be run to these areas if you want more than just volume control.

Before wires are pulled, consider areas where the cables will be concentrated. Plan out where these trunk lines area are and how they will be routed. There may be areas where 1" PVC piping will assist in passing trunks through walls and floors. This most often occurs above and below the head end location. Use more than one pipe if necessary.