What is a minimally intrusive way to move a wire that is in a wall 3.5" to the left?

Question

I need to move a speaker that's mounted on a wall about 3.5" to the left.

Here's what the actual mounted speaker looks like:

The wire comes out inside the bracket that attaches to the wall, and feeds up into the speaker, so there's no room for wall plates or anything like that.

This is an interior wall, though there is insulation (for soundproofing) in it. I have access to the other side, though it is also finished wall (really I already have to patch this side..). This is in the middle of the stud bay; there is a stud about 5" to the right of the existing wire.

Does anyone have any tricks to doing this in a minimally intrusive way?

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UPDATE: Done, Thanks. (Well, aside from another coat of polyfilla, and some touch-up paint). The hole is drilled on almost a 45 degree angle towards the old hole, and I jiggled (technical term) the drill bit around inside so it's larger on the inside, more like a cone.

The tape on the end of the wire has nothing to do with how I pulled it: it's a precaution to avoid shorting out my amp in case it is turned on. Good practice to do anytime you have bare speaker wires that are connected. (Better practice is of course to disconnect the other end, but I digress.)

Thanks all

Answer 1

As you're working within the sam bay, I'd use xpda's recommendation of a coathanger or similar, but I'd not actually try to run it back out the old hole.

Instead, I would:

1. Drill a hole in the new location, larger than the wire you're pulling, elongated slightly in the direction of the old hole.
2. Straighten out a coathanger or similar (it's easiest to trim it right where it spirals into the hook), then bend a hook at the very end.
3. Attach something to the end of the wire so the hook won't slip off. (you can also tape string onto the end if you think it might slip, but getting the string so it won't pull free is a pain ... you want to tape it down leaving the end of the string free, then pull the free over back and take it down again).
4. From the new hole, use the coat hanger to go into the wall, staying as close to the drywall as you can (ie, don't go into the insulation), and hook the wire.
5. Once you hook the speaker wire, you may have to push it into the wall so the hook can grab it cleanly
6. Pull the coathanger and wire back to the new hole.

To keep from making too large of a hole, you can undermine the back of the drywall a little bit if you have to ... this will let you run the coathanger hook as close as possible to the wall so it doesn't go into the insulation.

Answer 2

You could always pick up a 1-Gang low voltage old work bracket like this...

Cut the hole to install it, which should give you enough space to grab the wire from the previous hole. Then finish it off with a wall plate like this.

This is sort of an ugly wall plate (used for example only), they make nicer looking ones but I couldn't find one with a quick search. They used to have some that also had a way to mount the speaker built in, but I'm not sure if they still make those.

One of these snap-in types might look better.

Answer 3

A way that might result in a slightly smaller hole would be to run a coathanger wire in the new hole and out the old, then tape the end of the speaker wire to the end of the coathangar, and pull it through that way. You'll probably want to tie a string onto the speaker wire if you do this in case the tape comes off. This way you won't have to pull a hook through the new hole, just a single wire taped to the speaker wire.