Need Help with my surround sound system and speakers!
03-26-09, 08:08 AM
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Need Help with my surround sound system and speakers!
I have a Yamaha HTR-5240 receiver that has never given me any problems and I have always used the speakers that came with it. I just moved into a new house with a built in sound system (2 front speakers in the wall and 2 rear speakers in the ceiling) and I have gotten all the speakers to work, just not at the same time and I can't figure out why.
The speaker terminals in the wall have 8 outlets (4 red and 4 black obviously) and the previous owner didn't label them so I don't know which one is which speaker. The first time I hooked it up I assumed the top 2 were the Left Front and Left Right so I hooked them ALL up according to that theory and 4 out of 5 speakers worked. (No front right). By the way, I'm using my original center speaker so that makes 5 total speakers.
After trying that unsuccessfully, I swapped wires and assumed the bottom 2 were the front speakers so I hooked everything up like that and still got only 4 out of 5 speakers to work but this time BOTH front speakers worked and I had no right rear speaker! The wires aren't bad and apparently all the speakers work so that's not an issue. I haven't changed anything on my receiver since I last used it at my old house so can someone please help me? Any suggestions on what I should try next?
The speaker terminals in the wall have 8 outlets (4 red and 4 black obviously) and the previous owner didn't label them so I don't know which one is which speaker. The first time I hooked it up I assumed the top 2 were the Left Front and Left Right so I hooked them ALL up according to that theory and 4 out of 5 speakers worked. (No front right). By the way, I'm using my original center speaker so that makes 5 total speakers.
After trying that unsuccessfully, I swapped wires and assumed the bottom 2 were the front speakers so I hooked everything up like that and still got only 4 out of 5 speakers to work but this time BOTH front speakers worked and I had no right rear speaker! The wires aren't bad and apparently all the speakers work so that's not an issue. I haven't changed anything on my receiver since I last used it at my old house so can someone please help me? Any suggestions on what I should try next?
03-26-09, 08:13 AM
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Re: Need Help with my surround sound system and speakers!
Yes.
If you have a wall outlet for your speakers, connect bare speaker wire to a single pair. Take a AA battery and touch the positive to the top, and the negative to the bottom. It will send a small current to whichever speakers that jack is connected to. You will hear a low hum. Label it. Move the bare wire to the next pair. Follow the steps above for each pair of wires connected to a speaker.
If you have a wall outlet for your speakers, connect bare speaker wire to a single pair. Take a AA battery and touch the positive to the top, and the negative to the bottom. It will send a small current to whichever speakers that jack is connected to. You will hear a low hum. Label it. Move the bare wire to the next pair. Follow the steps above for each pair of wires connected to a speaker.
03-27-09, 07:54 AM
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Re: Need Help with my surround sound system and speakers!
glad i could help. i was in a similar situation when i ran all my wires in wall and my labels fell off.
03-27-09, 11:43 PM
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Re: Need Help with my surround sound system and speakers!
If you are really skilled, you can use yourself as the battery. But that requires a full understanding of the Matrix.
