New house with lots of speaker wiring need help understanding

[SameeThaGamer]

First time posting, would really appreciate some help.

Moved into a new house, there is wiring for 6 ceiling speakers on the main floor.

I ordered new speakers and quickly connected them to an old amp I have directly and they seem to work. (So amp and speakers are good.

Now in the basement control room I see 3 wires coming in (4 gauge with the 4 coloured wires) that are labeled for the right rooms.

I only connected 3 speakers (one in each room) and used the red and black wires from the four in the 4 gauge cable (white green red black). I then connected the same ones to my amplifier. But there is no sound or anything from any of them.

Now, There are two more of the same ables coming in the basement control room called Volume Control. These seem to lead to the wall my living room where there are also two of the same wires coming from the wall.

Connecting those with the amp and then holding a speaker to the wall with those volume control labeled wires I can get audio signal.


Does anyone have any idea what’s up? Would be really odd that all ceiling speaker wires are not working? Am I doing anything wrong? Do I need to somehow incorporate those volume control wires to get
Any help is really appreciated. Or any debugging tips.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

We get questions like this pretty frequently. There’s only so much troubleshooting that can be done remotely.

The four-conductor cable is typical for in-ceiling and in-wall installations. The trick is to figure out the color code the installers used for connections. I believe that red/black for one speaker and white/green for the other is the standard, but there’s no guarantee yours were wired that way.

Thus, the first thing you should do is remove a speaker from the wall or ceiling to see what wire colors connect to it. Once you’ve established that, you’ll know what wire colors go to the other speaker on that line.

You should get a signal tracer kit, typically called “fox and hound,” “tone and probe kit,” “amplifier and probe kit” etc. Connect the tone generator to the correct wires where there’s a speaker connected, you will hear the tone through the speaker.

Alternately, if there is no speaker connected, you will hear a tone generated by the probe when it is close to the cable. This should help you identify the cables at the amplifier location that show up in the basement.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[DigitalDawn]

Here's a quick and cheap way to find speakers:

 

[highfigh]

First time posting, would really appreciate some help.

Moved into a new house, there is wiring for 6 ceiling speakers on the main floor.

I ordered new speakers and quickly connected them to an old amp I have directly and they seem to work. (So amp and speakers are good.

Now in the basement control room I see 3 wires coming in (4 gauge with the 4 coloured wires) that are labeled for the right rooms.

I only connected 3 speakers (one in each room) and used the red and black wires from the four in the 4 gauge cable (white green red black). I then connected the same ones to my amplifier. But there is no sound or anything from any of them.

Now, There are two more of the same ables coming in the basement control room called Volume Control. These seem to lead to the wall my living room where there are also two of the same wires coming from the wall.

Connecting those with the amp and then holding a speaker to the wall with those volume control labeled wires I can get audio signal.


Does anyone have any idea what’s up? Would be really odd that all ceiling speaker wires are not working? Am I doing anything wrong? Do I need to somehow incorporate those volume control wires to get
Any help is really appreciated. Or any debugging tips.

Before turning the amp(s) on again, disconnect the speaker wires and determine where they go, to prevent killing the amp(s).

Have you seen any blank wall plates at the same height as switches in places where you thought "That would be a good place for a volume control"? Remove them and look for speaker wires. If you find these, do the battery test or use a Fox N Hound type tracer. In-wall or in-ceiling speakers may be wired with a separate two wire cable for each speaker or they may have used a four conductor cable, run to the closest speaker and two wire cable used to connect the farther speaker. These may enter the junction box from the top OR bottom, so don't assume anything- you'll need to check for writing on the jacket or labels of some kind. If all speaker cabling has been disconnected from the amplifier(s), it's safe to twist wire color pairs, then use a multi-meter set to measure resistance to identify them but DO NOT twist any wires if they're still connected to the amplifier(s). Starting in the room with the speakers usually yields results faster, so I would start there an then go to the head end where the equipment lives.

Does this place have a basement?If so, check for speaker wires and cables below the place where they come out of the wall behind the equipment, to locate the cable runs for clues about where to look.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Wiring would typically be red + /black - (right speaker) white +/green - (left speaker), connected to a volume control INPUT, which repeats the same pattern on the output to connect to in room speakers. The color coding matters. If they didn't follow that standard, then you putting speakers on one end and a amp at the front, with wires you chose, but don't match up to what the volume control used, then you may be connected completely wrong. Hard to know for sure without you pulling the volume control out and seeing exactly how it is wired up and ensuring they are following that standard.

The other thing is that the volume control needs to be turned up or the amplifier won't pass much in the way of audio through it. Likewise, the volume control may or may not be in good operational condition based on the quality of it to begin with.

I don't mess much with volume controls, but they tend to be pretty straightforward.

GAUGE, by the way, is a measurement of the thickness of the wiring. 4 conductors, would be common for distributed audio, but 14 gauge would be more typical for the thickness of that wiring. Maybe 16 gauge. Rarely 12 gauge when it comes to distributed audio. It would never be 4 gauge. That would be enough copper to power a Tesla.

That said, posting photos can help with things and may get you some better answers.

I'm not sure what you are using as an 'amplifier', and that may impact things as well. Maybe.

You also want to think about the end game here. What is it you are hoping to achieve from the different locations for audio. Typically stuff like this is used for background music for your home. Music to put on while you are doing your thing. There are dozens of different ways to connect things from a basic amplifier and speaker distribution hub with a single source like a Wiim or Sonos, to a more advanced setup with individual sources and control, which costs more and requires more sources and a bit more effort. Like using 3 Sonos Amps to run the show.

You should plan on a speaker pair in each room, as that's proper stereo in those rooms and really is the way these systems are designed to work properly. If there are existing speaker holes for in-ceiling or in-wall speakers, it is EXTREMELY unusual for someone to remove them when they leave the home. Simple as that. Even if they repair the holes, it is unusual to remove them in the first place. Like removing a chandelier would be weird.

It's clear that they have a oddly separate setup going on with stuff on the main floor and something separate in the basement, but this may not be that big of a deal overall, it just means that the two systems will stay somewhat separate unless you go with Sonos which can network spaces together nicely.

If you own the place and plan to stay there for years, then spending a bit of money getting this all setup and working well is a nice way to go.

Would be worthwhile to do your homework on the setup of speakers and ask questions if you have them, maybe post some photos as well, so you can get some additional feedback of your options and if there are any obstacles you may want to consider.

Not sure what the 6 speakers are on the main floor either. Are they in different rooms without volume controls? Are they in a single room setup for surround sound? Hard to know, but good to know you got them working.