Unable to get 6.1 Surround Sound System to work properly

[Greg Barry]

Hi All,

First time post. Found this site while researching my problem and you folks seem like the go to bunch for help.

I have an Onkyo 6.1 Receiver that I had set up in my previous home and worked flawlessly so I am familiar with how to set it up.

We just moved into a new condo that came with speakers already set up in the walls and the wires all run back to a small wall panel at the back of a built in cabinet. There are also speakers running to 4 other rooms as well.

Of course after some hours of test I figured out that 50% of the labels were wrong but eventually figured out which connections went to each speakers. Last night I spent hours connecting all the wires up for the 5.1 setup (no back center speaker in this condo). I could only get 1 or 2 speakers to work at the same time. I kept disconnecting and reconnecting until the wee hours of the morning trying to figure out the issue.

If I disconnect all wires and just connect one speaker at a time each will work on their own. As I add more speakers others start to fail. The front center or front right/left are the ones that usually work. If I just connect one of the back speakers they do work. It has nothing to with stereo vs. surround. I was in surround mode at all times. The receiver has a test mode that throws out ambient noise to help with the testing phase.

Could the speaker wire be an issue here? In my previous home I used huge Monster cable to connect all the speakers. No I have some tiny 18 gauge speaker wire from Radio Shack that was given to me. I am not an electrical whiz so I am not sure of the exact role the wire could play in this issue.

Any suggestions/guidance would be GREATLY appreciated!

Regards,

Greg.

 

[TLS Guy]

There is not nearly enough information to help you. We know nothing of what those speakers are or their impedance. Are there any impedance matching volume controls about? It sounds as if you have a major impedance problem sending your receiver into protection as you add speakers. It could well be this is not set up to use with an AVR.

Without detailed speaker specs and wiring diagram, it is quite impossible to help you.

Do you have any idea what the previous owner drove these speakers with?

If you pull a speaker and it says Bose you are in big trouble.

You are not the first to post about existing speaker systems. In these posts we are often of limited help, not being able to test and get measurements on location.

Pull a speaker or two, and see what they are and if we can find specs. Describe carefully any installed controls or devices and pull them and see what they are and get photographs.

It certainly can happen that even pro installers have trouble making sense of existing wiring.

The current wire is not your problem, but how it is wired and what it is wired to is certainly your problem.

One word of advice. Until you know exactly what you have do not risk smoking your receiver by connecting it a load or loads it might not be designed for. These are always high risk adventures.

 

[Greg Barry]

Thanks for the response. I will try to repost with your suggest info. This will take a while to gather as we just moved in and this will get pushed down the priority list. I will repost once I have the details you are requesting.