Is it the Receiver?

[Wino]

I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this thread, but I'll go ahead and give it a shot since I'm anxious to get some help regarding my recent problem!

I have a Denon AVR-2800 and have been really enjoying it for the last couple of years. However, I just moved into a new house and ran into a problem that I'm not sure if is being caused by my Denon or something else. I wired 5 sets of speakers throughout my home (for 5 separate rooms) in addition to the home theater set up that I have in my living room. I bought a monster cable 6 channel selector box to accomodate the additional speaker inputs for my 5 rooms. At first, everything was working fine. However yesterday I noticed that a couple of the speakers aren't working and in one of the rooms one of the speakers is coming in softly. At times they sound louder and they fluctuate as I listen to them. I made sure to select the button on the monster selector box (which states to press if listening to multiple speakers). I used 14 guage wire throughout my home.

I've done as much troubleshooting as I can think of. I tried getting another 6 channel selector box and I experienced the exact problems as before. Then I tried hooking the wire (which was connected to one of the speakers that won't work anymore) into another input, and still no sound. I even tried putting a new speaker in the faulty speakers place and again, no sound. I then tested the speaker with another receiver and it works fine. When I stick the wire directly into one of my receivers inputs (just to test), it causes my receiver to shut off. Therefore it seems that something has caused my wire to go bad. I didn't know that was possible (I'm new at this by the way).

So, what I'm wondering is 3 main things:

1. Is my Denon 5.1 (I believe 85 watts per channel) underpowered for what I'm trying to do - power 5 inputs in my living room and 5 sets of speakers with my channel selector? If so, how much power do I need. I was looking at a Sony and Yamaha receiver today that had 770 watts of total power (7.1 110 watts per channel) for $399. I need to keep my expenses down so I can't afford a bigger and better Denon (if I have to replace it).

2. Is my wire faulty? Do I need to replace it? That is going to stink because that wiring job I did two weeks ago was VERY tiresome. However, I'll do it again if need be.

3. The channel selector box states that the power handling is 120 watts per channel max (without protection engaged) and 50 watts with protection. Should I definitely use the protection? I did before and I still encountered this problem!

Basically what I'm looking to have answered is - What caused my problems and what should I do to prevent future problems.

 

[av_phile]

Just a request for clarification on your problem. Is the monster "6-channel" selector box a speaker selector box for a 5.1 speaker set-up in each of your 5 rooms? How are the cables terminated or connected? Did I get you right, your set-up worked fine at first?

 

[Wino]

Just to clarify... I have a denon receiver. I have a 5.1 home theater speaker set up in my living room. In addition to that, I have a Monster 6 Channel speaker connector that I have hooked up to my receiver. I have 5 rooms with 2 speakers in each room that have been wired to the cable selector box.

Yes, everything worked fine at first, and actually with the exception of one speaker (where I've determined that somehow the speaker has completely gone bad), everything is working again fine. I turned off the protection so that the max handling of the connector box is 120 watts rather than 50 watts (I was thinking that maybe I was overpowering my channel selector box when protection was turned on with only 50 watts). I try to limit my listening to only 2 or 3 rooms at a time in addition to 2 speakers in my living room (which aren't connected to the box).

My wires are just bare at the end, I didn't put any connectors on them.

The strange thing about the one speaker that isn't working (because of the wire) is that when I tried connecting the wire directly into 2 different receivers to test it, it caused both receivers to shut off. THe speaker works fine with a different speaker wire attached to it. So, this weekend I have a little project or re-wiring that one speaker.

Any thoughts or suggestions on any of what I've stated or am doing would be welcomed!

 

[JohnA]

Time to rewire?

"The strange thing about the one speaker that isn't working (because of the wire) is that when I tried connecting the wire directly into 2 different receivers to test it, it caused both receivers to shut off. THe speaker works fine with a different speaker wire attached to it. So, this weekend I have a little project or re-wiring that one speaker."

What you are describing is a dead short in the speaker wire.

Also you can try going to a larger size wire I would have used at least a 12ga or even better a 10ga.

MAKE SURE that the speaker selector is impedance matching (I'm assuming that the speaker selector has its own volume controls, or did you run volume contols to each room?) If you ran seperate volume controls to each room make sure that they are impedance matching.