Can anyone help me set up audio in my house?

[Chillinoutmaxin]

I purchased a 15 year old house and it's set up with speakers in the garage and backyard. I know it's an older system, not wireless or anything, but I'd like to use it for playing music. Problem being, all that the sellers left were wires and speakers. So I have no idea how to get from that to playing music. Attached are two photos of what I found in the house. There are also what appear to be speaker wires coming out of some places in the floor. Can anyone tell me what these things are and what I should plug into them? Thanks!

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

The first picture appears just to be speaker terminals. If you were to pull the wallplate off-the-wall, try to find out where those wires lead too. They must have run to receiver or amplifier at one point. Let me know. The second pic seems to be line level, Meaning the RCA out of a receiver. Again find out where these wall outlets lead to. The Other end had to be going to some type of home receiver or amplifier.

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

If you want to continue to use the wall plates, There has to be a source on the other end. If the previous owners did not leave anything, After we figure out what you have, we can figure out what you need to do to get sound.

 

[markw]

He's right. They appear to be terminals to which you would connect speakers.

You first need to find out what speakers you've got (impedance) and where the speaker wires lead to Hopefully, they all lead to the same place,

I have no idea what that second picture does. I looks like a bunch of inputs and. again, you need to find out where they lead.

 

[everettT]

You need a tool like this and an ftype to rca adapter to tone out the lines.

 

[Chillinoutmaxin]

Thank you! You're both right. That top photo is above the kitchen cabinets and I remember there being speakers up there when we looked at the house.

The bottom picture is in the living room. Is it possible she had a reciever plugged into that thing? It the only thing that I can find in the house. Could the speaker wires all lead there?

everettT - I'm googling to try to figure that out.

Here is the garage speaker and you can see how it goes up to the attic. I went in the attic to see where it goes and it goes through the wall into the little attic that i've never been in.

 

[Chillinoutmaxin]

I do believe it's working because she played music through it when she showed the house. I should have taken photos but I didnt realize it'd be this hard to figure out!

 

[Latent]

I would unscrew both of those face plates and check the wire type. If they both use the same wire type then it is possible they are actually connected together and for some strange reason they used RCA plugs to connect to the amplifier's speaker output terminals. For lower power applications this will work fine but it is not the right way to do it as RCA is meant for low voltage signal and there is a risk that you could connect a higher voltage source to a low voltage and damage it.

If the cable type is different in the back of the two plates then you will have to hunt for the other ends of both parts. I would look in all your cupboards and basement to find anything. The other end may not be terminated in plates the same but may just be wires hanging out somewhere.

 

[lovinthehd]

Have you tried contacting the previous owner and asking what gear and how connected?

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

Exactly, Find out what each wall plate leads too

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

Even a better idea, call the previous owners, and see if they can shed some light on how this was done

 

[KenM10759]

Or pull all speakers and plates and start from scratch. In places where speakers are currently located that you may want to have some, use the old wires to pull new ones and replace the speakers with something from this century. Repair the walls where you don't want speakers.

 

[Chillinoutmaxin]

Yes, I probably should call the owner. It's not the happiest situation for them so i'll try to do it on my own if possible. I'll call her if I fail though.

Dont make fun of me for not knowing but if i take those plates off, can I get electrocuted?

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

No you will not electrocute yourself.

 

[KenM10759]

There's no power to them, but even if there was it's nothing close to the 120v of regular house wiring.

You should be safe though I might check with a mutlitester for voltage just in case there was a bonehead Rube Goldberg involved in the original wiring job.

 

[Chillinoutmaxin]

Okay, so I took the plates off and did not get electrocuted I found that the one in the living room has wires that are each marked with red lines. The speaker one above the cabinets has the same wires and one is marked with three red lines. I'm assuming the wires are labeled on both ends with the same amount of red lines. Could that be true? Any ideas?

 

[everettT]

You need to start with the speaker terminals first, tone them out to identify each location, the start with the rest. That is a rather poor wiring job for a 15 year old house. The two locations you mentioned should be the speaker locations, as for the other the others will take some work, look for covered wall plates on the walls and ceiling . What is your overall goal?

 

[Chillinoutmaxin]

This is coming out in the floor in the living room.

 

[Chillinoutmaxin]

EverettT, the overall goal is to be able to play music outside. There are two speakers outside in the back and two speakers in the garage. I know she had speakers in the kitchen but she took them with her. What I mostly don't understand is what to buy to play the music and where or how to plug it in. I have never bought a reciever or anything like that.

 

[everettT]

It's starting to look all like speaker wire. You need to tone out each wire and label. Then depending on your needs we can recommend gear.