how to connect my in-built wall speakers?

[vhl71]

I'm new here..
My house has inbuilt wall speakers throught the house with individual knob control for each room (by the builder)
He has give a bunch of wires stikcing out in the living room. Two red wires twisted together, two black, 2 green and 2 white ..

I've never hooked up this..So how do I connect this to my AVR - Harman kardon DPR2005 . What wire goes to what? I thought its left and right..But how do i connect them? whats white/green?

Anywhere i can find a diagram?

 

[annunaki]

What each of them are for completely depends upon the person who wired the system. When I wire a system with 4 conductor wire, the red and black are for the right channel, red being positive black being negative. The white and green are for the left channel, white for positive, green for negative. I have no clue who wired the system or what their technique may have been. Try to find out who did the wiring and how it was done.

If that does not work, I would suggest a a DMM, a 1.5 volt AA battery, and an extra set of eyes.

 

[vhl71]

thanks for your email. I couldn't track the contractor who did the wiring for my builder.

In any event, any idea as to why there are 2 wires each twisted together (2 red, 2black, 2 white and 2 green). I'll try as you suggested..Still wondering why there are 2 each??

I'm new yere..So what is a DMM?

 

[MDS]

You have two sets of 4 conductor wire. Each speaker needs two wires, positive and negative, so you have enough wire for 4 speakers. Most likely each set goes to a separate room. You can wire it anyway you want but it's best to follow the convention described by Annunaki.

The other ends of the wires probably go to the volume controls. Take one out of the wall and look at which color wire goes to each of the inputs of the volume control and then wire them the same way to the receiver. So if they followed the convention and the red wire is connected to the positive terminal of the right speaker, then connect the red wire to the positive terminal of the right speaker on the receiver and likewise for all the others.

 

[vhl71]

thanks for your reply..that makes sense

But i have more than 4 speakers throughout the house. About 8.
Last night i connected the way you've described with no luck.But again my old kenwood speaker wires are so tiny and the wires that come out of the wall are much thicker. I bought some good speaker wires now and hopefully this will help??
I assume because of the thin wire gauge, it didnt work yesterday??

 

[MDS]

If the wire is too thin (small gauge) it will change the sound a little bit but it wouldn't cause things to not work at all.

You may need to trace the wires to see where they go and that's why the Digital Multi-Meter (DMM) was suggested.

If there are 8 speakers, their wires may not all go to the living room. 2 16/4 wires is not enough for 8 speakers unless each volume control is wired to more than one pair of speakers and it is an impedance matching volume control.

 

[vhl71]

figured out what the issue was. For multi room setup the input can only be anolog not digital. As soon as I change this setup in my AVR, it worked fine..
thanks a lot ...you guys are good!!