Small Project - Wiring for Patio Speaker and Volume Control

[crux]

Hello,
I started some serious research on components and HT install. I started by getting quotes from others and posting to this forum. Thanks for the help to this point, but after researching, I'm going the route of a minimal setup but doing it on my own. I'm a rookie, but like to learn and hope you all will share some expert advice.

My main goals in this mini project are to:
1. purchase a receiver
2. purchase and install indoor volume control
3. purchase and install outdoor speaker

I will need the most assistance with identifying the correct cables to connect to the receiver, the volume control, the outdoor speaker and figuring out how to connect them.

I have two areas in the living room where the wires are covered with face plates. When I remove the face plate to the wires I plan to use, I see the following (the other set is identical as the wiring crew set up the room so the entertainment center could be in one of two locations):

5 wires total
2 Purple - inside each are two shielded cables - black, red
1 Gray - CAT5e
2 Blue - inside each are four sheilded cables - red, black, green, white

There is already a CAT5 connection for Internet in a jack next to this face plate, but I guess you can never have enough CAT5 running around.

There is another face plate upstairs right by the patio door which I was told is for volume control for the speaker directly above the patio door on the outside. When I open this face plate, I see

One blue cable that appears to be the same wire as what is sticking out above the door outside and does not seem to come from downstairs
One gray cable seems to come from downstairs and comes out to an end from this face plate
Two purple cables come from downstairs and come out to and end from this face plate

On the patio, the blue cable sticks out just above the door. Obviously this is where I would hook up the outdoor speaker.

So, I would greatly appreciate any thoughts on a cheap volume control, a mid to lower end outdoor speaker and especially any tips on how to install the volume control and how to figure out which wires to connect to my receiver in the living room so I can play sound out of my front speakers in the living room while also playing sound to the outdoor speaker with volume control.

I have not yet purchased a receiver, so any thoughts on that would be helpful too.

Thanks in advance.

 

[markw]

cautions and a question

First off, as for what wire as are what, you'll really have to check with the person who did the wiring for this. I don't know that there is a standard color code for in-house wiring.

But, even if there is, I doubt a strand or two of CAT-5 cable is thick enough to adequately handle a speaker level signal.

And finally, one question; How many outdoor speakers are you looking to run?

 

[crux]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm looking to run one, maybe two outdoor speakers. I've been doing some research online and it looks like this is what I should do:

1. Hook up the two purple wires to the receiver (one black and one red each, noting the positive and negative). These two wires will then be hooked to the incoming source of the volume control upstairs.

2. Take the blue wire (4 colors) and hook one end up to the outbound source of the volume control and the other end to the outdoor speaker(s).

In my head, this seems to make sense. The CAT5 is probably for IR or some other fancy home system setup that I don't need to spend money on right now.

Thanks for any thoughts

 

[MDS]

Close...but not quite

Crux,
Regardless of the color of the outer jacket, from your description what you have is one set of 16/2 (16 gauge/2 conductor) wire and one set of 16/4. For what it's worth in my house the 16/4 is gray and the 16/2 is yellow.

The way it works is that you use one end of the 16/4 for connection to the receiver and the other end for connection to the inputs of the volume control. Then from the outputs of the volume control the pair of 16/2 goes to the speakers.

- use the red and black of the 16/4 for positive and negative of the left channel and the green and white of the 16/4 for the positive and negative of the right channel. It doesn't actually matter which colors you use but that is the convention and as long as you use the same color wire at each end you are good to go.

 

[crux]

MDS-
Thanks for the help. I understand what you're saying, but it seems like it would be the other way around for me at the 16/4 appears to have one end where the volume control would go and the other end hangs above the patio door for a speaker. The 2 16/2 wires seem to come from downstairs so I would think they would go to the receiver and the other end of the volume control.

???

Thanks