IN Wall Speaker Help

[Unregistered]

Hello. Would love to get some help from some folks in here if possible. I am going to try to be as descriptive as possible so please don't hesitate to ask me any clarifying questions.

Summary: I have a prewired set in my home and the builder is simply no help. I have a basic 5.1 setup. I had speaker wire prewired so that I can have a left and right rear channels and I also have some speaker wire going outside for two speakers. All wires go to one source of which I was going to run out of one receiver.

The Source Location: I have one source that shows two sets of cables both of which are colored in blue. Each cable contains 2 pairs of wires (black/red and green/white) for a totel of 8 individual wires.

The Two Rear Covered Outlets:
Left: The left colored cable is colored purple (hmmm doesn't match source...but figured out why). This cable contains a black/red speaker wire pair
Right: Is colored blue (just like one of the source colored cables) and it contains a black/red speaker wire pair.

The Volume Control Nob Outlet: This has six (6) individual cables and I will try to explain each the best I can.
1. This one is colored purple and contains a green/white speaker wire and is for my Left outside speaker.
2. This one is colored purple and contains a red/black speaker wire and is for the Left outlet mentioned above.
3 and 4. These are colored blue and contains a red/black and green white speaker wire and is obvoiusly going to my source.
5. This one is colored purple and contains a green/white speaker wire and is for my Right outside speaker.
6. The final one is colored blue and contains a red/black speaker wire and is obviously going to my right outlet metnioned above.

The problem: Quite simply I can't figure out how I can bypass maybe the whole nob deal and just connect the speakers to enjoy my home theatre. Later down the line I can install the outside speaker set. Do I need to get a volume control and if so what kind? Is there a website that has a good tutorial on this? My second dilemna is this. Just to test the speaker wire, I connect a speaker to cable # 3 & 4 - black/red each time to see if I got sound and there was no sound. What is the deal? These are clearly the speaker wires from the source right?

I hope this gives you enough information. Thanks ahead for all your help. I am really stuck here. BTW the company that installed the wires said that they can't take a liability for setting this up for me. They said they would hook up my outdoor speaker but because the receiver didn't come from them the can't guarantee sound. Oh and on top of that they estimate just to come out and setup the labor charge is going to be at a minimum $200 bucks. They also said based on how I explained this setup to them over the phone that I am not going to be able to get home theatre sound and that I should have told the builder that I specifically wanted the home theatre package. What the? Please help!

Again Thanks.
- StevenR

 

[Unregistered]

OK I just finished talking w/ the stereo company who installed the prewire speaker for me and this is what they said. The guy didn't sound too sure so I would like to get your guys take on this.

1. He said that I will not get any sound whatsover even if I connect these with a wire nut becuase I need an impedence matching volume control. He said not to even expect a crackling noise.

2. He also said that because of this I will not be able to enjoy 5.1 audio sound. I asked why if the receiver is the one that controls the output to each channel and he said he wasn't sure but that the volume control would limit the sound output from the source and thus might not allow me to enjoy decoded sound but rather I would get a stereo effect? What the?????I never heard this. Can someone please confirm? I didn't realize stereo speaker setup was this difficult.

Can someone please confirm this info? Thanks again!

- Steven

 

[Unregistered]

Is there anyone here who can help or point me in the right direction? Is it possible the builder wired this as a parallel versus series?

Anyone?

 

[Unregistered]

Look,

You only want one volume control, the one on your receiver.

Two, check the wires yourself, figure out which is which and hook it up!

That should cover it.

 

[RLA]

Hi
I have seen builder installed Pre Wire so I know the hell you are going through They have no clue!!!
To make a cheap effective wire Identifier all you need is an old speaker
any one will do CAR, Clock Radio ect... and a AA or AAA battery
simply hook the speaker to one end on the speaker wire and then
start at the other end going through each pair of speaker leads holding one wire to the negative side of the battery and tapping the other lead on the positive when you hear tapping on the speaker you have Identified the speaker cable mark the cable and your done Dont use a good speaker for this
Cheers

 

[Unregistered]

Thanks for the suggestion RLA. I performed this test to identify the wires and low and behold none of them worked. I tested the spaker intself and the wires to the speaker and it wasn't the battery because I did get a pop sound. I called the wiring company and...get this...the guy told me that it wouldn't work because I need to install a impedence matching volume control. This is such BS. I think I am getting the run around. Someone in another group said that sometimes these companies will do something to the wires so that they are called out to set up the system and make $. The suggestion was that maybe I should try to zap each speaker wire with a battery to remove the potential "trap". Have you heard anything like this before?

Thanks so much for you thoughtful reply.

 

[RLA]

Hi
I would think that if you paid the builder for the option of pre-wire in your home or it was included as part of the build it would not be legal for a builder to put a trap on these wires or make them unusable they are yours It may be that the pre wire is run to a pre determined location where a VC
(Volume Control) was to be installed the wire run was then cut in half to accommodate the future VC and is buried unterminated in the wall where the VC was to be installed If this is what happened and you can find the location of where the future VC was to be installed you may be able to join the wires and use the runs The only other problem I see is if you plan to use the existing contractor installed wire Is the wire located in the proper locations for Home Theater use? Many home owners with pre-installed wire
have had to abandon there pre-wire and start new because of poor planning
or lack of knowledge by the contractor or wrong type and size of wire for the length of run