Help! Moved into new home with built in speakers

S

Sesame12345

Audiophyte
Greetings everyone!

I consider myself to be a complete newbie when it comes to home audio. We recently purchased and home and moved in and during the buying process we discovered there were speakers that were built into the walls - three in the basement and another in the upstairs family/dining room. I think we found the speaker wires in a closet in the basement (see attached photo). There appears to be five sets of these wires (one bronze and one silver per set). The previous owners never touched this before. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to start to try to use these speakers? What type of equipment would we need? Thanks in advance!!



IMG_20210213_183019_28.jpg
IMG_20210213_183127_28.jpg
 
M

MDK210

Junior Audioholic
They were probably running a receiver with dual zones. Get a receiver, attach the wires and see what happens!
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
FWIW the different color wires are so you can keep track of polarity when hooking up amp and speakers. They're probably just regular old copper with one side tinned.

How do you want to use the speakers? For tv/movies or just music or both? Do you see adding more speakers say with the three in-walls (and tell us how they're positioned) to make a surround system?
 
S

Sesame12345

Audiophyte
I'm thinking of using the speakers in the basement only for music for the kids. Probably won't be running a tv or any other media through there. There are 5 speakers apparently but I don't anticipate using the one routed to the dining room. I'm thinking of trying a simple receiver like the Yamaha R-S202BL for the four speakers in the basement. Not planning on adding anything more or doing anything fancy!
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
A multich receiver is a better bet generally than a two channel if you're running multiple speakers due potential for impedance issues; a receiver might do okay depending on the speaker specifics and listening levels. Going to the used market would be what I'd do, usually a good choice of older avrs (audio video receivers) with multiple channels of amps since you don't need much on the video side and sounds like your audio needs might be minimal....what would be the source of music?
 
S

Sesame12345

Audiophyte
Thanks for the input! I might have to end up doing more research as I'm all new to this and don't have sense of multich vs two channel and impedance issues. For now I would just be bluetoothing in some music via my phone.
 
P

ParleyW

Audioholic
Greetings everyone!

I consider myself to be a complete newbie when it comes to home audio. We recently purchased and home and moved in and during the buying process we discovered there were speakers that were built into the walls - three in the basement and another in the upstairs family/dining room. I think we found the speaker wires in a closet in the basement (see attached photo). There appears to be five sets of these wires (one bronze and one silver per set). The previous owners never touched this before. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to start to try to use these speakers? What type of equipment would we need? Thanks in advance!!



View attachment 44798View attachment 44799
Go find a cheap used receiver, use a nine volt battery to find out what’s what, then run them in five channel stereo.
 
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