Noob Question

[Astorms]

Hey guys,

I am totally new to all this, sort of. I just bought a house that has 5.1 in-ceiling speakers in the bonus room, and in ceiling speakers throughout the kitchen, main bathroom and master bedroom. All of the speakers throughout the house have volume dials in the walls to control volume separately (i suppose)

The wires that go to these speakers all have a white, black, green and red. I would assume that white/black are for one speaker and red/green are for the second speaker in the room. Is this correct?

Any suggestions on how to hook these extra speakers to a denon avr-688?

Thanks everyone,

Adam

 

[MDS]

The wires that go to these speakers all have a white, black, green and red. I would assume that white/black are for one speaker and red/green are for the second speaker in the room. Is this correct?

Yes, and it doesn't really matter which ones you use for positive and negative as long as you are consistent on both ends. The convention is that red and black are for one speaker and white and green are for the other.

Any suggestions on how to hook these extra speakers to a denon avr-688?

You can run all of the other speakers off the Zone 2 output if you are ok with them all playing the same source and the volume controls are impedance matching volume controls.

 

[Astorms]

thanks for the info.

The in-ceiling speakers are already in, so without taking a speaker out, i will have to "assume" that black is negative, white positive, red positive, green negative.

The Zone 2 output is two audio jacks. I suppose there are also zone 2 speaker connections. Do the audio outputs in the zone 2 require me to hook up a splitter?

How would i know the volume controls are impedence matching?

 

[itschris]

You dont have to buy expensive cables... just quality ones. If you do a search, you'll fine a ton of documented research debunking the high end cable myth. Now this comes from a guy who has some Monstor, Audioquest, and Kmber cable.... all purchased years ago when you had very few options for quality interconnects.

Through the recommendations of this site, I gave Blue Jean cable a try when I setup my new home theater system. They are by far one of the best companies around for cables. They make solid, very high quality quality cables witout all the fluff. Their HDMI cables are second to none. I bought all my speaker wire from them as well and made my own speaker cables which was a lot of fun actually. Seriously, you don't have to spend a fortune for high quality products. Take advantage of the what so many others have learned the hard way... including myself.

 

[MDS]

The in-ceiling speakers are already in, so without taking a speaker out, i will have to "assume" that black is negative, white positive, red positive, green negative.

I would take the volume control out of the wall and look at the back of it to see how it is wired. I don't know how to tell if the volume control is impedance matching other than getting the name and model number marked on it and looking it up.

The Zone 2 output is two audio jacks. I suppose there are also zone 2 speaker connections. Do the audio outputs in the zone 2 require me to hook up a splitter?

The zone 2 line outs would be used if you want to use an external amp instead of the receiver to power the speakers. The receiver can drive zone 2 speakers if you connect them to the surround back speaker terminals and then set the option for zone 2 in the menu.

 

[Astorms]

Awesome advice guys!

I'm running Monster everything. I used to be a manager at best buy years ago and got a steal on component cables and shielded speaker wire, power bar/surge protector.

The zone 2 can only run 2 speakers, right? If i want to run two other sets of speakers (master bedroom and master bath) what do i need to do?

From what i understand, the master vol on the a/v receiver also determines how much volume comes out of the zone 2 speakers, correct? i.e. the higher the master volume is turned up, the higher the zone 2 speakers can go? Is that about the right theory?

And how much better is HDMI than a good set of component cables? In simple terms?

There's so much tinkering a guy can do with these receivers, its incredible!

Adam

 

[MDS]

The zone 2 can only run 2 speakers, right? If i want to run two other sets of speakers (master bedroom and master bath) what do i need to do?

You can use the zone 2 line outs to an external amp that has speaker terminals for more than one pair of speakers OR you can wire all the other speakers together (all the positives together and all the negatives together) and connect to the zone 2 speaker terminals on the receiver. The second option requires impedance matching volume controls because the receiver cannot handle 3 pairs of speakers wired in parallel (impedance would be too low). Note that places like SmartHome and PartsExpress sell speaker wall plates for that purpose - you connect each wire individually but internally they are wired in parallel).

With either option, all 3 pair of speakers would play the same source (which can be different from the main source) but you can turn any one of them off at the volume control.

From what i understand, the master vol on the a/v receiver also determines how much volume comes out of the zone 2 speakers, correct? i.e. the higher the master volume is turned up, the higher the zone 2 speakers can go? Is that about the right theory?

Not usually. Zone 2 volume is separate and typically you put the remote in 'zone 2 mode' and then adjust the volume for zone 2. For example, on Onkyo receivers with zone 2, the zone 2 volume is adjusted with the channel level buttons (the ones you use when calibrating using the test tones) and not the main volume up/down buttons.

 

[Astorms]

Ok, i figured out the zone 2 volume. Pretty neat.

So...I can wire all 3 sets of speakers, in paralell, to the single zone 2 posts?

Is it normal for the zone 2 speakers to be not as loud as the main 5.1 speakers?