Right surround shorts out system

[Saint]

I am screwed. Yesterday I hooked up my QS-8 surround speaker. I had had them run speaker cables in-wall, and then along the floorboards, covered with floor mouldings and then painted over.

The left surround is fine. The right surround shorts the system and turns off the receiver whenever their is heavy right-surround info.

I KNOW it's the cable because I hooked the speaker up directly and it works fine. (with the patch cable so I know that's fine too).

I am screwed I think...my walls are conctrete and the onlyw ay they did this was by burrowing some place for the wire and plastering over it.

My only solutions:

1. Tear the wall open, re-run the wire, re-plaster, re-paint, and re-mould. VERY expensive.

2. Run a new wire to the floor, and then a visible wire will run along the floorboards.

3. Scrap the whole in-wall idea and get stands.

Damnit. I didn't test the wiring because my audio equipment wasn't there at the time they did this.

FYI the surround cas survive a "test" of the speakers via my Harman Kardon's test button but it sounds MUCH lower than the left surround.

 

[Dumar]

The right surround shorts the system and turns off the receiver whenever their is heavy right-surround info.

Saint,

Can you get your hands on a meter and check the cable for continuity and ground faults?

I don't get it ... if the cable is damaged, why would a problem only show up during "heavy right-surround info"?

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

I am screwed. Yesterday I hooked up my QS-8 surround speaker. I had had them run speaker cables in-wall, and then along the floorboards, covered with floor mouldings and then painted over.


This may sound dumb, but can you use the existing speaker wire as a "fish tape" and tie a new speaker cable to it and pull a new one through? I don't know the paths the wire takes behind the wall. Probably too many turns and bends to do that, but thought I'd ask If the cable was damaged at the floorboard, it sure would be easier splicing a new wire to that section and replacing that as opposed to tearing up the walls. Too bad it wasn't drywall. That stuff is so easy to fix.

 

[saurabh]

I agree with Buckeyefan, the only thing to figure out is, whether they used conduit pipes or not. If not, check for continuity of cable otherwise you are definitely screwed. If yes, use the existing cable to pull through a fresh set and pls, pull through 2 sets, one as standby.

 

[Gazer]

There is a very good chance that the wire that is behind the floor molding got nicked by a nail,if that is the case,then get a putty knife and pry the molding off the floor and splice the wire. If the wire that runs in the wall is bad the only option you have is to run a new wire. You probably will not be able to use the existing wire to pull the new one in with, because the portion of the wire that runs in your walls is probably encased in plaster. good luck!

 

[Audioholics]

Minor shorts can cause what you are hearing. When run hot, the short gets more voltage across and causes the receiver to shut down.

Use/borrow a voltmeter to determine for certain that this is the problem... then use your best judgement on the solution. Only you know your room and capabilities.

I've dealt with two different scenarios twice now with crown molding. The first time the walls were concrete with paneling over (only have about 0.75" between the paneling and the block, but it's fairly easy to run wire down since there was no insulation and the furring strips were run vertically.)