jpsgolf

Amateur Stereo Installation

Hi. I found this forum while searching for information on stereo/home theatre installation. I'm hoping someone can help me. I just bought a new house and the entire downstairs floor is wired throughout with 14 GA speaker wire running into five different rooms. There are plates on the wall identifying each room that can accept banana plugs. I tried to hook up my Sony receiver to a switch that allows me to press a button to selectively turn zones on and off. I get no sounds through most of the speakers. I connected the receiver to the switch with 20 or 24 GA wire (it came with the switch). I go out of the switch into the wall jacks with 16 GA and 14 GA is run throughout. Could this be the problem? The speaker wire should work as the previous owner had a stereo set up and indicates it works. Otherwise, I have no clue. When I direct connect the speakers through the switch, it works. I can't imagine speaker wire could go bad, nor can I find any breaks in the wire. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

Allan Jayne

Re: Amateur Stereo Installation

There may be problems with the push button activated switch(es) or some of the wires may have oxidized on (or fallen off of) the banana plug connections in back of the wall plates. Properly soldered connections will maintain excellent electrical contact almost forever but joints not twisted or linked together before soldering can still split apart.

Take one of the plates off of the wall and see what kind of speaker wires you have. Notice particularly transparent sheath cable where the wires inside are not bright gold or silver. In extreme cases, the insulation can biodegrade and the wires short together although not until long after the wire is seen to have turned green. Thus only approved wires (such as Romex) are supposed to be installed in the walls.

The wires themselves don't break inside the wall unless perhaps chewed by rats or squirrels.

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jpsgolf

Re: Amateur Stereo Installation

Hi Allan. That is excellent advice. The speaker wires are installed in a crawlspace area underneath the room, which is not temperature controlled in anyway and could theoretically get damp. The speaker wire then penetrates through a concrete block wall into the basement and goes up through the subfloor and sole plate into the wall cavity. Each wire has a silver conductor and gold conductor. I don't see evidence of oxydation where it comes into the controlled space, but could they possibly be corroded within the wall? Many thanks. James

jpsgolf

Re: Amateur Stereo Installation

I checked the speaker wires last night. The sheathing for the wires is supposed to be transparent; one of the conductors (copper) is heavily oxidized to a green color. I cut the end off and wire brushed the oxidation off of one end. Then I twisted the ends of the wires together and did a continuity test with a multimeter. I was able to get a tone, but hooking up the receiver and speakers through the wires did not result in any sound.

I talked to the previous home owner this morning. He told me that he had a powered subwoofer in the corner with "in" and "out" jacks on it. He said that all the wiring worked; you just have to run the sound into the sub and out of the sub through jacks provided in the wall. I don't have a sub for this location. Assuming he is right; can I just use a short length of wire to connect the "in" and "out" jacks together?

I'm still not convinced this is going to work; the cabling seems heavily oxidized. Does anyone have an opinion? Should I just pull the cabling out at this point and run new wires?

Thank you!

James