In Wall Speakers

[mwm92]

In my condo we have two in wall speakers installed in four different rooms that all connect to the same receiver. A while back they completely stopped working and I think it could be the wiring. I have no experience with this type of wiring or with speaker systems in general as these were are all installed when we purchased the place. The wire coming out of the wall to the receiver has four connections (red, black, green, and white). I'm confused as to how 4 wires connect to 8 speakers. I have not taken down any of the speakers to look behind them. Not sure if it makes a difference, but each set of speakers has it own volume control knob in the room. The receiver, so far, has only been used for AM/FM and line in audio (not used for connecting to the TV etc)

Can someone maybe shed a little light onto how the wiring is (likely) setup for these and maybe any thoughts about something else that could be causing the problem?

Thanks in advance!

 

[ssddx]

how do the wires connect up to the back of the receiver?

are there two wires inside each cable and each goes to a different clamp or bannana clip?

if so this would make me think that they are similar to any other normal speaker.

or is this receiver unit something special and perhaps each speaker is a powered speaker with a 3.5mm or other input. this would explain the volume control on each speaker and the single cable more than normal speaker wire.

it could be the wiring or it could be the receiver. i doubt all would stop working at once unless it was one of the two.

 

[mwm92]

how do the wires connect up to the back of the receiver?

are there two wires inside each cable and each goes to a different clamp or bannana clip?

if so this would make me think that they are similar to any other normal speaker.

or is this receiver unit something special and perhaps each speaker is a powered speaker with a 3.5mm or other input. this would explain the volume control on each speaker and the single cable more than normal speaker wire.

it could be the wiring or it could be the receiver. i doubt all would stop working at once unless it was one of the two.

Thanks for the response!

This is what the back of the recover looks like where all the connections are: http://ashoppingparadise.com/images/AG-790A.jpg

There does not appear to be two wires inside each cable. The wire that come out of the wall to the receiver looks like this: [url]http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/public/i7U0ZbFqRUY9ztkhawAHGahZ_g83svTM8iNk-BlIX8d_kgoarisIm5FVt2IJLt2ZUC7ryq1mCEpwfxHPi6hQLcPiTGjNiLWSM3gyFG2Nj-MSpcUL5gLgU_Q7gfFxYLg53Sa8DnhftMVyPlAF8eHrFXl4DuQ1t_6KOU7EJk8mcFvELO0a0kVSXGXM86E7qlDaJ6JQgtc[/url]

 

[ssddx]

the photo you posted of the back panel of the receiver is not very high quality and is hard to read but here is what i am thinking:

if you look at the binding posts (red and black things) you see that they have left and right and left channel sets labeled as well as an a and b sets.

please confirm what the wiring actually looks like. just a written descritpion is fine.

depending on how your connections are ran things could be setup one of a few ways.

they could be setup so that each room plays the same left and right channel sound.

they could be setup so that two rooms play the same source and two other rooms play a different source.

did all of the speakers work when you first bought the place? if so then there probably isnt a cable somewhere that was not routed and instead they are using a junction box in the walls or under the floor to split the cables.

as far as them not working....there are a few things you could do.

first would be to pull all of the speakers out and disconnect them. disconnect them from the receiver as well. make sure you mark the arrangements! you can probably hook up a low voltage current through the line and use a multimeter to determine if there is a current on the other ends or not. repeat for all four wires and record the results. i would say to use the multimeter for a continuity test that is normally built in but the leads are too short for this... so you need to find a workaround.

next would be to check if the receiver is working correctly. if you have any old speakers laying around you can hook them up and test. you only need one speaker but 4 speakers would make the test faster. it doesnt matter if the speakers are old junk speakers or $5 at a yard sale as long as they work and use normal speaker wire.

if both of those tests come out positive that they are working fine then you might have a problem with your speakers. i find it odd that all would stop working at once though.

OR.... the problem could be your inputs to the receiver. try a different input if you have it and double check that you did not change any receiver settings such as volume, inputs, etcetera! i would hate to have you go through all the tests and grief if it is something so simple.

just my thoughts...

 

[soundguruman]

In my condo we have two in wall speakers installed in four different rooms that all connect to the same receiver. A while back they completely stopped working and I think it could be the wiring. I have no experience with this type of wiring or with speaker systems in general as these were are all installed when we purchased the place. The wire coming out of the wall to the receiver has four connections (red, black, green, and white). I'm confused as to how 4 wires connect to 8 speakers. I have not taken down any of the speakers to look behind them. Not sure if it makes a difference, but each set of speakers has it own volume control knob in the room. The receiver, so far, has only been used for AM/FM and line in audio (not used for connecting to the TV etc)

Can someone maybe shed a little light onto how the wiring is (likely) setup for these and maybe any thoughts about something else that could be causing the problem?

Thanks in advance!

Usually red and green are the right channel
turn up the volume controls in each room
now touch a 9 volt battery to the red and green wires
do you hear a "pop" from the speakers? The RIGHT speakers?
NOW, black and white are usually the LEFT channel...
touch a 9 volt battery to the black and white wires.
Do you hear a "POP" from the left channel speakers?
IF NOT, find the speaker pairs. Try red and black to the battery, try green and white to the battery.
Which TWO wires go to the RIGHT channel? Which TWO wires go to the LEFT channel?
Use the battery, touch to each pair of wires, until you have determined WHICH pair of wires feeds RIGHT and which pair feeds LEFT.
(most times it is red and green for right---and black and white for left)
NOW make a note of the color code. Save this color code.
Using the battery, touch the speaker pair wires.-- do ALL the speakers, left AND right in all rooms, produce a "pop"???
Then the speakers ARE working! If the speakers work then your amp is OUT.

 

[mwm92]

Best answer selected by mwm92.