Surround Sound System

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Hi,
Im guessing there will be 5 speaker cables for the main room, centre, front left, front right and 2 surround back speakers. These will connect to a receiver for your surround sound. There may also be a subwoofer cable.
The 2 speaker cables for the spare room will also connect to the receiver so you can listen to the radio, cds etc in there. The receiver will need a 2nd zone function to be able to use the speakers in the spare room..

john...
 
thanks, how many connect to the surround sound system? there are three cables near the tv point (the obvious place). two speaker looking cables and one other that i dont recognise. behind the setee there are more cables but i cannot see where they connect.
 
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i can see two output wires by the tv area but cannot see an input areas for the other five cables. does surround sound operate on only two output cables?
 
You have two pictures of speakers that look like they are near the bay window(?), then there's two wires from the ceiling; so let's say they are for the front speakers. That seems to tally with the picture of the four white mains flexes coming out of the wall.

You also have a picture of some wires in a corner near the base of a lamp stand. In that one it looks like you have two more white mains flexes, two copper coloured speaker cables, and two brown aerial coax cables. There's also a black cable coming up from beneath the carpet. I can't tell if that's a coax cable for a TV or a phono cable for a sub.

In total that seems to be 8 speaker wires (6 x white, two copper) when all you really need is five. What's missing from the pictures is a speaker wiring for the centre speaker, and a definitive subwoofer cable.

I can think of a couple of different ways to wire a system that might use something like the configuration you have, but unless you have exactly the same type of setup as the previous occupiers then that info won't do you much good.

My recommendation is to work back from the speakers to see what's connected where.

If it were me, I'd start with the two ceiling speakers and work out which wires are connected to them. You do this using a AA battery. Go through each speaker wire in turn coming out at floor level. Touch the wire to the battery. When you hear a tap sound you know you have found a speaker. You should be able to tell which is the left and right bay speaker. Label the wire. Masking tape and a biro is fine.

For the next bit you need a multimeter or some way of making and showing a complete circuit. You might decide to do this with a torch bulb and battery. Twist the wires together for just one of the speaker wires coming out of the ceiling. Make sure the others are open. Like you did before, go through the cables at ground level until you find one that completes the circuit. Label the cable, then double check: Untwist the wires at ceiling level and try continuity again. This time there should be no circuit. Repeat for the other ceiling speaker wire.

At this point you should know which four wires connect to the ceiling speaker points and they should now be labeled correctly.

Next you need to work out what the other wires connect to. Do the same as you did last; choose one end - join it - then look for the circuit continuity. Label these cables on both ends - A -to-A, B-B, and so on. You should now have a complete cable map for the speaker wires.

Unless here are speakers elsewhere in the house, my best guess is that the previous occupier had a separate AV amp, DVD, and sub rather than an all in one system. I think he might have had the sub behind the sofa where the four white flexes are. The signals for front left and right went to there from the corner near the lamp. Two cables connected to the sub for the signal going in. The sub then split bass and treble, sending treble over the other pair of cables to the speakers. He didn't need a separate sub wire because the sub split it from the main L & R signal.

If the above is correct, then you'll be able to join two pairs of wires together to make continuous connections for L & R going from the corner to the front speaker positions.

Now, the tricky bit.... Those rear speakers are designed to run with a proper AV Amp. They're probably rated at 8 Ohm. That means they won't work well with an all-in-one cinema kit like you'd get for £150 from Currys. The amp in those sort of kits wants to work with the speakers it is supplied with. They are much lower rated, usually 3 Ohm. The ceiling speakers can be connected, but they won't be very loud. In fact there's a good chance you won't hear them unless the volume is whacked right up, and even then they'll be very quiet even if you turn up the level to them with the home cinema kit.

What I'm saying here is you have a choice of either getting a proper AV amp, or ignoring the rear ceiling speakers and instead fitting the rears from an all-in-one kit. That will probably mean running some extra wire.

Do the tracing out then lets see where we are from there. :)
 
that's great, thanks for the thorough explanation. the wires near the light are two aerial cables, the black cable was the sky connection running under the carpet.


i'll read through the post in more detail and do what you suggest. the setup was installed before the previous occupant of the house so is probably a good 10 years old. i'll have a go and see if i can make sense of it, otherwise im tempted to skim over and start again.
 

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