Installed home audio wiring help (1 Viewer)

[Neilbro]

Hello,
My in-laws contractor installed ceiling speaker inside and outside and ran all the wiring for home audio. Four white jacketed speaker wires and a black jacketed wire go from laundry (where receiver will be) to an outlet in the den by light switches. Also, three blue and three black cat cables come out of wall in laundry for receiver. I’m trying to figure out what switch I need in den, what the cat cables are for, and what receiver I need. I’ve done my own home audio multiple times, but I’ve never seen this setup. I can attach pics if someone tells me how. Thanks

 

[Neilbro]

 

[John Dirk]

Hello - The cables on the left appear to match a standard 5.0 speaker arrangement. Adding a powered sub would therefore give you typical 5.1 audio. The cables on the right are for Ethernet and can be used to connect compatible hardware to the Internet.

 

[JohnRice]

The ethernet cables had me puzzled, but I suspect the answer is so simple I missed it. I suspect several rooms have an ethernet connection, and you just connect your modem to an ethernet switch, then plug in each of those cables to distribute your internet through the house, rather than using WiFi everywhere. Which is what John was saying...

 

[John Dirk]

The ethernet cables had me puzzled, but I suspect the answer is so simple I missed it. I suspect several rooms have an ethernet connection, and you just connect your modem to an ethernet switch, then plug in each of those cables to distribute your internet through the house, rather than using WiFi everywhere. Which is what John was saying...

Exactly, and it's great they did that as even the best WiFi is inferior to a wired Internet connection. I'm jealous as I had to do my own.

 

[JohnRice]

Exactly, and it's great they did that as even the best WiFi is inferior to a wired Internet connection. I'm jealous as I had to do my own.

That's why I have my office and main HT wired, but it's just too much work to get the rest wired. The bedrooms wouldn't be terribly difficult, if it becomes an issue.

 

[xx Brian xx]

Have you tone tested the wires from the laundry to see if all 4 or only 2 of them go to the switch location? Are there only 2 ceiling speakers in the living room? My guess is that they ran two of the speaker wires to the switch location and the other two go to the outdoor speakers. You would then need a volume control at the switch location and it would run from zone 2 of your receiver.
The other two speaker wires would go to the living room speakers and would play from zone 1.

Let us know how many speakers are installed already.

The network cables should be as stated above, for a network switch. It's amazing that your builder terminated these, most don't. I would still test them with a network cable tester which you can get from Home Depot or Lowes for around $80.

Brian

 

[xx Brian xx]

One more thing, do you have blank covers above light switches in other rooms, like the master bedroom, etc? If you do, remove the cover and see if there are cat 5 wires there.

The black wire you have going from laundry room to wall plate may be for either data line or low voltage power for a Russound or Elan type audio system.

Brian