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Who knows about home audio (the integrated kind)
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)
Posted by: Maverick
I am no audio/video noob at all, but this is something that I have never dealt with before, much less seen. My Mom just bought a new house and in came with one of those "in-home, integrated" sound systems. I'm sure there is a proper word for this, but I just cant think of it at the moment. I have pictures for those of you who need more information. But before that, let me just explain it.
Basically, there are speakers in the ceiling of every room. Four in the "common area/living room", two in each of the three bedrooms, two in the kitchen, and three out in the pool area. Picture of the speakers:
http://www.eightysixed.org/images/sound/speaker.jpg
Now here is the tricky part. The house came with a pretty spiffy RCA DVD Receiver, and it was nicely placed next to the bunch of wires that come out of a wall panel, which I am 99.999% sure work with these in-home speakers. Wires:
http://www.eightysixed.org/images/sound/wallplate.jpg
There are four sets of "smaller" wires, I'm guessing one for each of the aforementioned spots of the house. However, they are not regular speaker wires. They are solid. Solid as in like thick wire copper - they still bend and all, but they are not like regular speaker wire (twined). Picture:
http://www.eightysixed.org/images/sound/smallwires.JPG
Also, there are two larger wires. One that is labeled FM and the other labeled BAR. What these go to, I do not know. Either way, pictures:
http://www.eightysixed.org/images/sound/bigwires.jpg
http://www.eightysixed.org/images/sound/bigwires2.jpg
http://www.eightysixed.org/images/sound/fm.jpg
Here is a few picture of the receiver:
http://www.eightysixed.org/images/sound/receiver.jpg
http://www.eightysixed.org/images/sound/back.jpg
http://www.eightysixed.org/images/sound/back2.jpg
http://www.eightysixed.org/images/sound/receiver.jpg
And last but not least there is one of those "Russound Impedance Matching 4-Way Speaker Selector".:
http://www.eightysixed.org/images/sound/selector.jpg
With the labels: "Family Room" "Living Room" " Master Bed Room" "Pool"
Now for all easiness I tried hooking up the smaller, copper speakers into the back of the receiver and turning the radio on. The regular speakers worked fine, but nothing came out of the "house." In all reality it *should* have worked. Either Im missing something or, the wires are completely for something else, since they are not like regular speaker wire.
There is a small knob right above the wall plate, so Im sure its correct.
http://www.eightysixed.org/images/sound/button.jpg
Its just weird. I've not seen anything like it, and I do not know what the problem is. Im hoping one of you guys have experience with this type of thing, or can at least shed some light on some things.
Oh, and one more thing. There is a couple of "rougue wires" coming out of the walls like 10 feet high. They are made of normal speaker wire.
http://www.eightysixed.org/images/sound/wallwires.jpg
Anyways, I tried to compose this post as descriptively as possible. Any help, advice, or solution would be of much appreciation. Its aggravating to me, and Mom wants her house to have music! 
Posted by: kestrel1
You really need to find out what wires are connected to what speakers. The type of cable should make no odds. I suspect that this single strand wire to improve the sound quality over a longer distance.
Finding what wires goes where should be your first step though.
Posted by: FadedMaster
Okay, as kestrel said, you'll definitely need to find out what wires go to what. One way to test this is the good ol' battery test. It's quick and easy. Take a pair of wires, and match them up to the ends of like a double-A battery. It should cause a crackle in the speaker that the wires match up to, then of course using common sense, hook that pair of wires up to the corresponding point on the switcher.
The speakers at about 10ft high... well, my best guess would be that they were set up as sattelite speakers for a surround sound system (as the back ones are usually the only ones you run wires for), then they sat the 3 front, and the sub, by the TV.
If you're really unsure or just don't wanna mess with the hassle, just have an installer come in and take care of it. It'd probably be $200 or so. But once you figure out what wire goes to what, it should be pretty simple from there.
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