New construction wiring issue

[Wedgedonovan2]

I recently built a family room addition on my house and had ceiling speakers and a subwoofer wired (Geek Squad) before the room was drywalled. I already have my television and I just ordered my receiver (Yamaha RX-V663). I decided to check my wiring with my old audio receiver. My right front and right rear speakers work fine, but the left front and left rear work. the wiring is the CL3 with 3 wires (red, black, green, white). I tried all combinations of wires to the left speakers, but I still get nothing. I pulled down one of the speakers and checked to see if it was connect and it was.Is it possible that this is because an old Audio receiver (1988) won't work with those speakers, or is it more likely that the wiring has been compromised. Geek Squad terminated the wires in the wrong location when they initially did the work, so they had to come back, splice them and then have them terminate in the correct location.
Should I try the speakers again when my receiver comes in or should I try to rewire the house right away? Is there a way that I can check the wires to see if they are carrying a charge?

If I have to run wires again can you suggest how I can do it without compromising my new drywall? All help and feedback will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Exit]

One thing that might work in your favor is that Yamaha receivers use YAPO and mine has a wiring check feature that will tell you if you have something wired out of phase (i.e. the wires switched to one of your speakers). You still have to hookup the correct pair of wires to each speaker though. You can use a Volt-Ohm meter set to Ohm scale and test for a complete circuit through pairs of wire at the receiver end. If you get a 4-8 ohm reading across a pair, then you have identified a pair going to the same speaker. If you can't identify the speaker wire pairs, then there may be a break in the wire, probably at the splices/terminations, that may have to be corrected.

 

[MDS]

If you've done the trial and error method of trying every combination of wires and there is no sound then one of the wires could be compromised - maybe a break caused by a staple or something. But it's also possible that you are just using the wrong pair, like the left wire to the right speaker or vice versa.

Other than the Ohm meter approach you could also invest $40 for a tone and probe kit like the LanTracker (available at Home Depot). It isn't super sensitive but works very well for speaker wire. I used it to trace out all my wiring because none of it was labeled.

Also, by convention you would use the black and red wires for one speaker and the green and white for the other. But it's just wire and doesn't matter as long as you are consistent on both ends.

 

[Wedgedonovan2]

Thanks

Thanks to both of you for your replies. I can get a Volt-Ohm meter from my wife's work for a reasonable price so I will give that a try. I checked the rear left speaker to see that it was connected and it was (green-negative, white-positive). If I don't find resistance with that combination should I try to connect the black and red wires and check them with the meter? Can I just connect them before attaching to the speaker?

 

[MDS]

I would try to verify that the wire itself is good before attaching a speaker to it. I'm not sure how to do that with an ohm meter but with a tone and probe generator it would be simple, you'd just connect the tone generator to one end of the wire and then touch the probe to the other end. If it makes a warble sound that wire is good and you've found which end at the receiver side goes with which end at the speaker side.

You could use a 9 volt battery to test it too. If the wire is connected to a speaker and you touch the other ends to the battery the speaker cone should move.

 

[Wedgedonovan2]

You could use a 9 volt battery to test it too. If the wire is connected to a speaker and you touch the other ends to the battery the speaker cone should move.[/QUOTE]

I'll try the battery method first. Does it matter if I touch the negative or positive pole?

 

[Wedgedonovan2]

You could use a 9 volt battery to test it too. If the wire is connected to a speaker and you touch the other ends to the battery the speaker cone should move.

I'll try the battery method first. Does it matter if I touch the negative or positive pole?[/QUOTE]

 

[mtrycrafts]

You could use a 9 volt battery to test it too. If the wire is connected to a speaker and you touch the other ends to the battery the speaker cone should move.

I'll try the battery method first. Does it matter if I touch the negative or positive pole?[/QUOTE]

No, but I would use a 1.5V AA batter and, just a very brief contact will do to hear a click pop.