Home A/V setup question - pre-wired speakers

[bankerBilo]

Hi,

I recently moved into a house with pre-wired speakers. I am a total newbie and really confused about how the previous owner's setup looked like.

In the media room's closet, there are 10 speaker wires (2 bundles of 5 wires each) with banana plugs coming out of the wall (I am assuming these are connected to the 5 ceiling speakers in the media room. In addition to these speaker wires with banana plugs, there is a wall plate with 18 speaker bindings (9 pairs of black + red) and a subwoofer binding, as well as 3 cat5 ports and two TV antenna bindings. I must also add there is an additional 4 speaker bindings (2 pairs of black and red) in the same wall plate as the speaker wires with banana plugs coming out. Attached is a picture:

In the living room, there are 10 speaker wires (2 bundles of 5 wires each) with banana plugs coming out of the wall. Plus, there is a wall plate with 14 speaker bindings (7 pairs) plus a subwoofer binding, 2 TV antenna bindings and 3 cat5 ports.

Now to the number of speakers in the house.

5 in the media room + 2 in the outside patio adjacent to the media room

5 in the living room + 2 in the balcony

1 in the guest bathroom

2 in the guest bedroom.

Oh, and 2 in the garage The previous owner must have really liked to listen to music everywhere.

The master bed and bath were wired as well but their speaker wires are bare and there is no wall plate in the master bedroom. There are however, bunch of extra wires besides the 7 speaker wires (5in bedroom 2 in bathroom) that I don't know what to do with.

If I want to hookup a sound system to this setup, what would I need? 3 different receivers? Why are there both "wires with banana plugs plus" and a wall plate? What are the cat5 ports for? I would like to have multi-zone system but I am guessing it is not possible with the wiring.

Can you guys tell me my options, and what would you do to set up an A/V system if you were in my shoes?

Thanks!

 

[KenM10759]

Are all the speakers you mentioned in ceilings with no wall mounted ones or corresponding ports in the walls? Sad if that's the case, unless you're also a fan of a PA system type of Muzak everywhere.

Have you opened up any of the ceiling speakers to see what make & model they are?

You could get a receiver hooked up with one pair of speaker wires output from it to "wring out" the wiring. It wouldn't take long to hook up one pair of posts on the terminal plates at a time, go find which speaker is putting out sound, then mark the plate. That's something the installer should have done. At least then you'll know what you have and what you do or do not wish to feed.

 

[bankerBilo]

No haven't opened up the ceiling speakers. There are 3 in wall speakers in the master bedroom and 2 in wall larger sized polkaudio brand speakers in the media room. The master bedroom has the speaker wires coming out of a wall, bare with no plate and its speakers are Bose brand. the rest of the in ceiling speakers -- no idea.

The media room has both cables and terminal plates but the number of pairs are greater than the number of speakers in the media room.

The rest of the speakers are on the ceiling.

The living room has cables and wall plate like the picture from the media closet.

I will buy a receiver this week and try to identify where each speaker in the house is terminating.

Thanks!