Looking for a troubleshooting guru to help me out! (1 Viewer)

Hi folks,

I have a bit of a problem and I'm hoping one of you may be able to help me, or at least point me in the right direction. I apologize in advance for the lengthy post, but i want to be thorough enough that you can paint an image of what i'm describing in your head. So here goes:

I've just built a new house and had it pre-wired for my surroundsound in the TV room (5.1 setup), as well as 2 outdoor speakers and 1 In-Ceiling speaker (which is a DVC) which were to operate on the Zone 2 output of my reciever (I am using a Pioneer Elite VSX-50). So When i took posession and got to hooking everything up it started out as a breeze...got my 5.1 surroundsound setup no problem, yay me! But then I go to hook up my Zone 2 speakers and notice there are only 2 speaker wires coming out of the wall (essentially a right and a left i guess) but there should be 4 according to my count (1 for each outdoor speaker and 2 for the In-Ceiling DVC). This is where I got lost because I'm not a whiz at this but I started to assume things like maybe they've wired those 3 speakers in series somehow, or something like that. It would be easy enough to figure out except in the midst of all this there are not 1, but 2 wall mounted volume control knobs installed which both have Right / Left +/- In/Out....and not one wire is marked :-/

And on top of all this there are 6 more loose stereo wires hanging in my basement, which I have no idea why and again NOT MARKED!

Of course i initially hooked in the 2 wires to the Zone 2 speaker terminals on the back but nothing from any channel, not even the tuner. Then, being the type id try to fix it myself, disconnected from the volume controls and thought there would be a way to trace signal....but honestly i think I've made things worse cause now i dont know whats In / Out or Right / Left....I need help.

Can anyone point me in the right direction as to how i can fix this, or what to test, without calling back that damned company that wired this up for me because i've gone and attempted it myself so im sure they'll hold that against me now and not honor a warranty or whatever.

Thanks for reading!!

Call your home builder.

If it isn't marked...nobody can help you. Except the idiot(s) who put it in and didn't mark it.

They should have, at bare minimum, left a wiring diagram. Even if you can't read one...at least somebody could decipher it for you.

schan1269 said:

Call your home builder.

If it isn't marked...nobody can help you. Except the idiot(s) who put it in and didn't mark it.

Click to expand...

Yea, well it wasn't the builder as such but an outside company i hired to come in and do it for me. But I certainly will call them if there is no other way to trace the signal from the reciever. I just figured if it was possible to test the wires at the first volume control knob, then I could decide which ones were 'In' and 'Out' and go from there.

schan1269 said:

They should have, at bare minimum, left a wiring diagram. Even if you can't read one...at least somebody could decipher it for you.

Click to expand...

Nope, no diagram :-(

You could do all that...but...

If there are wires crossed, you could short the amp you are using...getting you no-where. But you have more wires hanging than you have speakers.

And, they should have ran your DVC(which I assume you mean single source stereo. Cause DVC is part of many things. SSS would mean something more specific) separate from the outdoor. Or, left you a future provision to do so.

schan1269 said:

You could do all that...but...

If there are wires crossed, you could short the amp you are using...getting you no-where. But you have more wires hanging than you have speakers.

And, they should have ran your DVC(which I assume you mean single source stereo. Cause DVC is part of many things. SSS would mean something more specific) separate from the outdoor. Or, left you a future provision to do so.

Click to expand...

Well I just called the installer and he is going to come back and straighten it out for me for $50-$100....would have been at no cost if I hadn't touched anything...Blah!

He says that the wires hanging in my basement are suppose to be tied in to an impedence panel or something, which they aren't....sheesh. lol