I'm buying a condo this month and replacing the carpeting. I will be having berber carpeting installed. I thought I'd lay down satellite speaker wire underneath the carpeting so I don't have to mess with having exposed wiring running along baseboards or having to staple it along frames. Does this sound like a good idea? If so, should I buy a specific type of wire: flat or rounded? Also, does it matter if the wiring lays underneath the carpeting itself, or should I have it put under the padding first? Appreciate any feedback.

Flat or nearly flat cable is available. Going under the carpet would be good so long as you don't need to change something later on.

The baseboards would at least give you future access.

Reason why I don't want to run it along baseboards is that there are sliding glass doors across from where my HT will be. No baseboards available there, and there is no molding framing the sliders. I'd have to go inside the sliders frame, and I don't think that would look too good. If worse comes to worse in the future, and I wanted to relocate something, I'd just snip the exposed wiring and start over. Thanks for the reply.

If I had the option, I'd lay wiring for 7.1 at a minimum. You'll be glad you did.

Agreed.

Thanks for the advice. I hate to show my rookie status here, but I'm not familiar with 7.1. How are the speakers positioned for that?

Same thing as 6.1, except there are two center rear speakers instead of one.

Actually a true 7.1 system has no rear center but two side surrounds.

http://www.dolby.com/Consumer/HomeEntertainment/Setup/

Wow! Thank you for such an impressive link. I have bookmarked that site. Very, very helpful.

Glad I could help!