Can anyone help me set up audio in my house?

[Chillinoutmaxin]

I know this is all really hard to figure out with photos and not actually being here. I sure appreciate all of this help!

 

[Chillinoutmaxin]

What exactly is toning out a wire going to do? Does it tell where the wire starts and ends?

 

[everettT]

If that's all you want, something like this will work

 

[everettT]

What exactly is toning out a wire going to do? Does it tell where the wire starts and ends?

If you look at the link where I first mentioned it is a tool. Toning is where you attach a receiver to a line and use a remote unit to detect signals so you can identify which line is which.until you know where everything is, can't do much

 

[Chillinoutmaxin]

Okay, yes I looked at the tool but having never seen one i was a little confused. I did google it though. Thank you!

 

[Chillinoutmaxin]

EverettT - I looked at that reciever. What do i need in addition to a reciever?

 

[Chillinoutmaxin]

I see that there are recievers and amplifiers. Will I be buying both?

 

[everettT]

I see that there are recievers and amplifiers. Will I be buying both?

The unit I linked is designed to run 2 zones, on the cheap, so it should provide both sets of speakers the option the same music source or different, which seems to be your main question. As for the other connections : ask away

 

[Chillinoutmaxin]

I just can't find anything else in the house. What I see right now:

2 speakers outside
2 speakers in the garage
2 speakers wires in teh kitchen, per the plate in the wall
2 wires in the living room per the wires coming out of the floor

8 port silver thingy in the living room wall with wires inside marked with red lines (what is it?)

 

[everettT]

I just can't find anything else in the house. What I see right now:

2 speakers outside
2 speakers in the garage
2 speakers wires in teh kitchen, per the plate in the wall
2 wires in the living room per the wires coming out of the floor

8 port silver thingy in the living room wall with wires inside marked with red lines (what is it?)

Well unless you're willing to invest some time, maybe you should pay someone to do it. I've linked the tool needed to isolate the wires , we haven't even got that far so kinda hard to predict the next move. Until you know what your working with it's very hard to help

 

[Chillinoutmaxin]

Thanks. I appreaciate your help. I dont think at this point i'm willing to buy a reciever and a $50 tool just for this project. I was hoping that the place to plug in the receiver would be more obvious.

 

[everettT]

Thanks. I appreaciate your help. I dont think at this point i'm willing to buy a reciever and a $50 tool just for this project. I was hoping that the place to plug in the receiver would be more obvious.

I get what you are saying, but until you know what is what , it's hard. You can always use a old stereo receiver to test, but with the rca Jack's it's not gonna work. Again start with the speaker level wall plate, then go from there. If it seems overwhelming, start fresh, new from the get go

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

Good job man, pulling everything apart. Wish I could be there to help u out.. That looks like a mess!

 

[Chillinoutmaxin]

Yeah, for sure. I'll see what I can borrow from people.

Why would the speaker wires go into that silver plate on the wall?

John - Thanks. Yeah it would have been much easier if she had just left the old reciever. I can't imagine why she'd even want it.

 

[Latent]

You don't need a fancy test tool really. I would recomend getting a cheap multimeter from a local electronics or electrical shop. Cheapest one you can find should be fine. Now on your new multimeter find the continuity buzzer setting. In this mode when you touch the test leads together you get a beep telling you the line is connected.

Now test all 8 rca round plugs to make sure you get no test tone when the probes are across the two wires. Then go to one of the speaker terminals on the other rooms and connect a short bit of wire between one red and black terminal. Go back and test all 8 rca connectors and one will go beep and you should get a very low reading on your multimeter telling you the wire is good with a low resistance. Repeat 8 times to confirm all wires and their locations.

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

Without knowing exactly what they were doing, it's hard to say why they would've used the RCA jacks in the wall. You almost should just pull everything out of the wall and start over. Use the old wire to pull new wire, and more importantly label.

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

Yeah you're probably right. She probably won't even use the old receiver Lol

 

[Latent]

Without knowing exactly what they were doing, it's hard to say why they would've used the RCA jacks in the wall. You almost should just pull everything out of the wall and start over. Use the old wire to pull new wire, and more importantly label.

My guess is that they wanted 8 speaker terminated in one panel. Speaker binding posts max out at 4 pairs of connectors in one panel.

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

Your probably right

 

[Latent]

If these rca connectors are confirmed to go to the speaker connector plates then you will need adapters to allow you to connect an amplifier speaker terminals to these rca plugs.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01BHVTEFW/ref=mp_s_a_1_7?qid=1465690885&sr=8-7&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=rca+to+speaker&dpPl=1&dpID=41y3rj0IXmL&ref=plSrch

There is something you can use that allows you to connect some simple speaker wire to the rca plugs. They will accept up to around 16awg speaker wire I think. So buy some of this as well and cut short lengths to connect between the amplifier or similar unit you will need and the rca plugs. Then you just need some more of this same wire between the speaker terminals and the speakers and you should be all set.

There are many options for amplifiers to power the speakers but here are a few things to think about. First is what is your source device going to be? CD player or iPOD or bluetooth or airplay or pandora or chromecast audio. And do you want one source only going to all/some rooms or different sources to different rooms?

How many rooms do you want to activate right now and do you need to power more than one room at a time. This decides how many amp channels you will need and if you can get away with just two and a speaker selector box instead.

Do you want stereo or mono sound in each room as stereo may not work in all locations and works best with two nicely separated speakers with the right listening angle.

How will you control the sound source and power the units off and on remotely when you may not be near the amps and source devices when you want to do this. There are several solutions to this with either rf or phone based remote control and some of the solutions come with remote control optioms built in.