Confusions about the Prewiring Setup

[Dasen Luo]

I had an active thread last summer about this, but because I am commuting between two distant states, I have not had a chance to attend to the prewiring problem that I posted about since last summer and the thread ended henceforth without a solution. I want to pick up what I left off last summer and see whether I can continue to learn how to solve the problem.

As I described in my previous posts, I was particularly confused by the setup of the wires coming out of the holes designated for the surround-back-left and surround-back-right speakers. Two wires are found in the hole for the surround-back-right speaker and each wire can be connected to a speaker. Both speakers play when the counterpart wires at the other end are connected to the surround-back-left and -right jacks of the receiver. However, none of the wires at the other end can make the speaker play when the speaker is connected to the wire coming out of the hole for the surround-back-right speaker.

I am also baffled about the wires coming out the holes designated for the surround-left and surround-right speakers, as none of the wires at the receiver end appear to be directly connected to these two wires. The wires for the front speakers and the subwoofer all work properly. At this point, however, I would rather do one thing at a time, and clarify my confusion about the surround-back wires first.

I texted the contractor who initially setup the prewiring for me a few days ago and asked whether he could help clarify the confusion for me as one of his customers. Following are the text message exchanges between us.

I first described the problem about the surround-back wires that had confused me, hoping that he could clarify the problem for me
Contractor: “Did you function the wires?”
I: “Thanks for your prompt reply, but how do I function wires?”
Contractor: “Wire nut the wires together.”
I: “Do you mean that I need to connect certain wires together? Which wires do I need to “nut” together?”
I got no more answer from the contractor.
Any idea what the contractor could have meant by his messages?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Kevin S]

Do you have a dedicated set of poss and neg wires at 4 locations?If your contractor wired it correctly,you should have 2 sets of +/- wires at surround back and 2 sets of +/- for surround left and right one set for each speaker.If you have a continuity tester,unhook all wires from your AVR and wire nut together one set at a time and leave the other end clear/separated and check if they are connected at that specific location.Also,make sure once you get it figured out that all wires are connected correctly at your AVR,SB L/R,surround L/R and do a test tone with your room correction mic,either Audyssey or YPAO or whatever type of receiver you have.