Need guidance with connections among receiver amplifier and speaker selector (1 Viewer)

[peter2107]

Hello Home Theater Experts,
We moved into a new home which has inbuilt roof and wall speaker system setup throughout the home. Here is the general setup.
Speakers:
1. Living area has 5 speakers in the roof (Front Left, Front Right, Front Center, Rear Left and Rear Right).
2. Living area has one subwoofer in the wall (not sure if this has one or two subwoofers in it).
3. There are 10 other speakers throughout the house (2 in each of four rooms and 2 in patio).

Devices:
1. Yamaha Receiver (RX-A2080 AVENTAGE 9.2-Channel AV Receiver with MusicCast)
2. Klipsch RSA-500 Subwoofer Amplifier
3. Sonance 6-Pair Stereo Speaker Selector

Here is the connectivity that is already there.
1. The cables for 5 speakers in living room are connected to the receiver and are working fine (through red and black wires), so no issues there.
2. The cables between receiver and speaker selector are already connected, so I am assuming they are connected properly.

Questions where I need guidance:
1. How do I connect the subwoofer? I have a cable running between receiver and amplifier already, but how do I connect the subwoofer speakers (wires from the wall outlet)? Should they be connected with amplifier? I have red black green white wire through the wall outlet which appears to be from subwoofer speakers (see right side highlighted on the attached image), but not sure how to connect these to amplifier? What kind of cable would I require and where would I connect this to amplifier?
2. The cables from speaker selector need to be connected to wall outlets. The wall outlets have only red and black plugs (see left side highlighted on the attached image). However, the cables from speaker selector have red black green white colors. How will this connection work? Is there a way to know which wall plug is for which room speaker if they are not marked?

Appreciate any help in this regard. Thank you.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

The speaker cables from the wall should be connected to the subwoofer amplifier. As to which colors go to what – see #2.

I believe there is an industry standard for the polarity of 4-conductor speaker wire (+) and (-), but I forget what it is. No problem in your situation though, since the cable is already connected to output side of the speaker selector box. All the selector switch speaker terminals are red (+) and black (-). So, all you have to do is just see how the installer connected things. Two of the colors will always be (+), and the other two will always be (-).

Whatever you determine the “code” is, you can apply it to the subwoofer connections.

As far as which speaker terminals go to what room – simply connect one pair of speaker wires (left/right) coming out of the selector box, to one pair of wall terminals. Play some music, go from room to room to see which room gets the sound, and then mark the wall plate with a Sharpie or something. Rinse and repeat until you’ve ID’d all the rooms on the wall plate.

I assume the front of the speaker selector switch box has room labels for each volume knob. Thus all you need to do is connect the speaker wires from say, the Patio output on the selector box to the Patio wall terminals. Rinse and repeat for the other rooms.

This should put you in business.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[peter2107]

Thanks a lot Wayne. I tried to connect one set of speakers to test (patio speakers) and one speaker in patio works but the other one does not for some reason.

On checking further, some of the wires from speaker selector are 4 color wire (red black green white) and some are 2 color ones (red black only). The patio wires are 4 colored wires out of which the black and red seem to be working correctly (but not the green and white). The reason I say that is I tried to switch the black red wire from selector in both speaker slots and it worked, but the green and white wires did not work in either speaker plug in wall.

Could this be an issue with the wire itself? I ordered the following wire from Amazon so I can test it out with new wire.

See on Amazon

For the connection between wall to the subwoofer amplifier, I am planning to use the same above wire. I am planning to connect red black from wall to #1 (Speaker Out port) and green and white to #2 (Speaker Out port). Is this the right way to connect this?

I will also try to connect other room speakers tomorrow to see if they work as expected.

Thanks again for your help with this.

 

[peter2107]

Hi Wayne,
The speaker issue turned out to be because of a loose wire between receiver and speaker selector. Now the speakers seem to be working. Here are the questions I still have. Appreciate your help with this.

1. For the connection between wall to the subwoofer amplifier, I am planning to use the below speaker wire from Amazon. I am planning to connect red/black from wall to #1 (Speaker Out port on amplifier) and green and white to #2 (Speaker Out port on amplifier). Is this the right way to connect this?
See on Amazon
2. To connect the receiver to amplifier, I have connected Receiver Subwoofer Port 1 to Amplifer LFE port 1. Is this the correct way to connect these?
3. The volume on room speakers seems to be very low even if I turn on only one room speakers via speaker selector. The protection on speaker selector is turned on. When I look at the user manual of speaker selector, it is recommended to keep it on. What could be causing the issue with the speaker volume?

Thanks again for all your help with this.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

1. It depends on how many subwoofer speakers you actually have (no noted earlier that you don’t know for sure). The best way to determine would be the same process you used to chase down the other-room speakers: Connect one of the subwoofer speaker cables to one of the AVR’s front channels (left or right), and play a music signal with a good bass signal. Depending on what you find, connect either the single or both subs using the same color coding you determined for the other-room speakers.

2. The LFE is labeled “in” and “out,” according to a picture I found. You want the “in.”

3. The manual if kind of vague about what to expect with the protection switch engaged or disengaged. ( https://www.sonance.com/assets/media/files/downloads/SS4_SS6Manual_Final2.pdf ). Either way, connecting so many speakers to an amplifier is poor form, even with a selector switch. The switch divides out available amplifier to all the speakers, so each speaker ends up with only a few watts. This is probably why the volume is insufficient. On top of that, the SS6's built-in volume controls will also drag down power.

For example, let’s say you’re playing the system at a comfortable volume in the main room, and the amplifier is putting out 75 watts per channel at that level. Well, divide that by 6 and it means each of the secondary speakers can only get 12 watts at best. So you can see why the volume in the secondary rooms is low. Those speakers would have to be extremely efficient to generate as much SPL with so few watts, as the main speakers do with 75.

Really, it makes more sense to ditch the switch and get a 12-channel multiroom amplifier, connected to the Yamaha's Zone outputs. Most of them put out 40 watts per channel, which should get you plenty of volume in the other rooms.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[peter2107]

Thanks a lot Wayne for your inputs. I feel so much relaxed now. I will try out the subwoofer connection once I get the speaker wire tomorrow or day after. Will keep you updated.

 

[JohnRice]

I don't know about Wayne, but I find these installed whole-house systems tend to be pretty low end and only suitable for quiet background music. These days there are much better ways to achieve it wirelessly, with a lot more flexibility, but at a cost in dollars.

Aside from that, a distribution amp is a better solution for the existing system than the speaker selector, for the reasons Wayne explained.

 

[peter2107]

Thanks JohnRice. I will definitely consider that when I plan on upgrading the system. Wayne/JohnRice, one basic question on my current setup.

Which ports do I use to connect my amplifier to the subwoofer? Attaching an image of the back of my amplifier and some info from manual. Should I be using Speaker In ports (left side of image marked #1) or should I use Speaker Out ports (right side of image marked #6). From the description in manual, looks like it should be Speaker In ports (marked #1) but I am confused.

The amplifier is connected to receiver from 'LFE in' port of amplifier.

Thank you.

 

[JohnRice]

Speaker outputs to the sub.

 

[peter2107]

Thanks John. I tried the connection from Amplifier port 'Speaker output' to the subwoofer cable in wall but it does not seem to work. It could be a problem with the connection wire or some other setting in receiver, still trying to figure out. Any pointers? I will try to order some speaker wire couplers just to rule out possibility of loose connection in cables.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Did you try what I suggested on Post #5, point #1? That will tell you if the subwoofers are actually working. If they are, then it means the sub amp is bad.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[peter2107]

Thanks Wayne. Just to clarify, I should be connecting the subwoofer wire from wall to Receiver Front speakers (left and right) to test this? Please confirm.
The subwoofer wall wires seems to be in bad shape, and I have tried few times already coupling them with tape which probably was a bad idea. I am going to order some cable splicing connectors and then try this out.

 

[peter2107]

One other confirmation, the connection between Receiver and Amplifier is from Subwoofer (Front) on Receiver to LFE in on Amplifier. Is that the correct way from Receiver perspective or is there another port on Receiver to connect to Amplifier?

 

[Dave Moritz]

I would honestly move away from the speakers in the ceiling. It is just impossible to get a good sound stage with speakers aimed from the ceiling. Your not able to get proper surround sound and forget about ever having Atmos mixed into the other speakers all aimed down from the ceiling. As far as your subwoofer goes if the connectors from point A to point B doesn't have a rca cable to hook up to your subwoofer. Then I would purchase a wireless transmitter / receiver for your subwoofer so you can go subwoofer out from your Yamaha Avantage AVR to the transmitter then place the receiver and go rca to the subwoofer.

I would highly suggest

Your RX-A2080 has two zone stereo outputs so you can go to two differ power amps and power two pair of speakers that way. Or if you want to get into Control 4 you can do multi room audio that way and have control over smart devices and your home theater and multi room audio.

I would use these on ether end of a cable one plugged into your RX-A2080 with the other end plugged into your wall plate. Then a speaker wire from the wall plate to where the speakers are located if you decide to move away from the ceiling speakers. Above is my Klipsch bookshelf speakers that I use for surrounds and they sit on stands to get them at ear height.

This is the back of my Marantz SR-8012

Depending on your room you can always run inwall speakers for surrounds if you do not want to see alot of speakers in the room. Also many of the speaker companies make grills you can paint to match the walls to help them blend in. I would suggest a center channel under your tv. And floor standing speakers for L & R but you can also use inwall for L & R as well. Try to have everything lines up at ear level. IMHO you would be much happier with your bed layer channels at ear level which also gives proper separation for Atmos speakers if you ever decide to get Atmos speakers for your RX-A2080.

 

[peter2107]

Thanks for your inputs. Will definitely consider them when I upgrade/change the system. For now, I am trying to see how I can make this work with the existing setup available. Two questions that I still have open are:
1. the connection between Receiver and Amplifier is from Subwoofer (Front) on Receiver to LFE in on Amplifier. Is that the correct way from Receiver perspective or is there another port on Receiver to connect to Amplifier? (see attached image with the port highlighted in red).
2. Clarification on the test suggested by Wayne, I should be connecting the subwoofer wire from wall to Receiver Front speakers (left and right) to test whether the subwoofers are working or not? Please confirm.
Wayne/John/Dave, if you can help with this?
Thank you.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

1. Receiver Sub Out jack to the subwoofer amp LFE input. Either Sub Out jack is fine – just make sure that one is enabled in the menu.

2. Subwoofer speakers to receiver left/right speaker connections. Make sure receiver is set for stereo.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[peter2107]

Thanks Wayne. I am sorry if this is very basic question, but when you refer to left/right speaker connections (for #2), are you referring to Front left and Front right (highlighted in read in attached image) or some other ones?
For #1, I have marked the attached image in red on the port I am using which appears to be correct.

Thank you.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Yes, those are the correct speaker connections and subwoofer output. Good luck!

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[peter2107]

Thanks Wayne for confirming. I will give this a try once I receive my order for wire couplings. Will keep you posted on how it goes.

 

[peter2107]

I was able to test the subwoofer speakers independently and all the connections are working now. I am all set Thank you so much Wayne and others. There is no way I could have done this without help from you guys.