# Home Speaker Wiring



## GoldSluger89 (Jun 4, 2012)

Hey guys, I have a surround sound system in my basement; it was started by the previous owner and never finished I guess. I want to finish it myself, but I have absolutely no idea how to, and I'm hoping someone can help or give me some suggestions. I think it's almost done for the most part, but then again I have no idea :4-dontkno. I took some pictures with my phone and I'll upload them here. If you can help in anyway, I would really appreciate it! :flowers:


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## SABL (Jul 4, 2008)

Hi GoldSluger89....welcome to TSF!!

I'm going to move this to the Home Theater Forum and see if we can get some answers.

What do you plan on hooking the speakers to?? I tried a home theater a little more than 20yrs ago but gave up when the kids kept taking the receiver/tuner, VCR, and other components to their bedroom for their own little private system. I got tired of hooking everything back up.....

Your system looks like it was planned out long ago......what components do you have?? Where do the wires originate for each speaker??


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## GoldSluger89 (Jun 4, 2012)

Thanks for the reply and the welcome! I have already gotten some great help here, and I hope to receive and give some as well. I will probably hook the speakers up to my TV, computer, and phone interchangeably if possible. I'm not sure when it was planned and don't really know what components there are left, if any. Like I said, the previous owner started it and I thought it would be a nice project to finish. The wires for each wall speaker come from the back of each wall speakers like in one of the pictures and they connect/bundle in the center and come through the wall to the front like in the other picture. I'm not sure about the ceiling speaker wiring though. I'll add some more pictures when I'm able tomorrow. Oh, and I thought of posting this in the home theater forum, but I thought this was more of a DIY project so I ended up posting here. Thanks!


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## SABL (Jul 4, 2008)

I see a 5pin DIN in combination with the coax connection. Not sure what the DIN is supposed to connect to. Is the wire for the DIN bundled with the rest of the wires?? My system was only connected via coax, RC, and speaker wires.....nothing fancy. 

Main point is to get this thread to the people that can help you.....:grin:


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## GoldSluger89 (Jun 4, 2012)

You're already someone that is giving me great help though! :flowers: And about the connector, I tried looking for something, anything at all to hook up, but there were only those audio cables, I'll try to look again tomorrow though. I was thinking that that outlet had something to do with the audio.


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## yustr (Sep 27, 2004)

In order:

The black plastic oval is a FM antenna that's connects to the back of a receiver of FM Tuner.

The silver and copper wires are the speaker wires. 

Speaker cover

Speaker cover

The top connection is for S-video/bottom is for co-ax cable = both for video signal not audio

Back of speaker showing the speaker wires connected.

You'll need to find the loose ends of those speaker wires. They should all terminate at a single location. That location is where you'll place the receiver. Your sources (TV, iPhone, computer) feed the "Inputs" of the receiver which sends the sound out via the speaker wires to the speakers. I doubt you'll use the video connection as neither is up to current standards.


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## GoldSluger89 (Jun 4, 2012)

Thanks for the reply and the info about the pictures. Yeah, I thought that the connector was for S-Video, but I have usually seen those on TVs, so where doesa the video go to if it is connected into the wall? I'll go downstairs and look around a bit more, but it seemed to me as if both speaker wires ended at the second picture. I'll post more pictures in a little bit. Oh and any idea why the FM tuner was down there? Maybe you can plug it into the speakers somehow or maybe the previous owner just left it down there for a different reason. I saw the AM and FM antenna inputs on the back of an old stereo system that I have, but it already has radio (not that clear though), so is the tuner just to amplify the signal? Thanks again!


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## yustr (Sep 27, 2004)

GoldSluger89 said:


> Thanks for the reply and the info about the pictures. Yeah, I thought that the connector was for S-Video, but I have usually seen those on TVs, so where doesa the video go to if it is connected into the wall?
> 
> He probably had the source components (cable box, VCR, DVD) at one location and the TV at another. Rather than run cables on the carpet he routed them through the wall. My guess is there's another set of junctions somewhere else in the room/house.
> 
> ...


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## GoldSluger89 (Jun 4, 2012)

Hey guys, sorry for the late response. So I looked around some and took some more photos. There are no other wires at all, except for the copper and silver wiring coming from each one. I tested all the wires separately on my old boombox and wrote down their outputs. There are 9 pairs of copper and silver wires total. The ones that worked were the front left, front right, back left, and right speakers. There are, however, five more wires that didn't transmit the sound for some reason. I'm guessing they are the front left+right, back left+right, left+left, right+right, and maybe one for all four of them. The previous owner labeled one back center, but there are only four speakers so I'm guessing it means back left+right. So as there are ONLY silver and copper wires, maybe they plugged into the back of his old TV or receiver of some sort? My TVs don't have that on the back, so what kind of receiver can I buy where I can plug in all 9 of the pairs in the input and plug in other wires for different things such as TV, computer and phone? Maybe like an audio box or whatever those things are called? Thanks for all the help guys, I really appreciate it! Now here are the pictures!!











Speakers feeding through the wall to the front.










Expanded view.










Even more expanded view. Probably the TV was mounted on the wall here.










Close-up of the back of a wall speaker.










Probably the wires of the ceiling speakers. I will get a ladder tomorrow and see whats up there. 










Five pairs of speaker wires bundled together.










Where the bundled wires are fed through to the front. This is the topside of the very first picture.










Extended view of one of the wall speakers to show that only the silver and copper wires are coming out from it. Don't mind the coax cable, probably should have moved that.
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## GoldSluger89 (Jun 4, 2012)

Actually, I did some more looking around and it seems that there are only five pairs of copper and silver wires. The ones the previous owner had labeled "Front Center" and "Rear Center" were actually the ends of two other open wires, so I took those out which brought the total wires down four from nine. Okay so now there are wires for each speaker, but what is the last one for? Thanks!


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## yustr (Sep 27, 2004)

You'll need at least 10 wires set up in 5 pairs as follows: Left Front. Center, Right Front, Left Surround, Right Surround. That's a 5.1 surround system. (The .1 is for the subwoofer - more on that later.) Some systems may be set up as 6.1 or 7.1 - the extra speakers go in the back as either a single Center Back (6.1) or as a pair L/R Back (7.1) The center is actually the most important for movies and TV as that's were most of the dialog comes from. The L/R Fronts play music and some dialog, the surrounds and backs are for effects only - some scenes will have zero coming sound out of them but let a helicopter fly over and they'll be busy.

A subwoofer is a separate speaker for low frequencies. Most have an amplifier build in and get their signal from the receive.

For this to work you are going to need something to 1: take the sound signal from the sources (TV, cable/SAT box, DVD, B-R disk player) 2. decode it into it's component parts (L/C/R, LS, RS, etc) and 3. amplify it for the speakers. Most systems use a receiver to do all of these. They are available new or used in price range from $100 to many $1000's. Stick to name brands (Pioneer, Denon, Onkyo, Sony, HK, Yamaha, + many others) and you should be fine.

Do some browsing and get a feel for what's in your price range. Then post back with some ideas and we'll try to steer you in the right direction. HERE"S a site to get you started. They are very helpful and informative.


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## GoldSluger89 (Jun 4, 2012)

Thanks for the link, I did some looking around. I don't really need a receiver with a lot of features though. Preferably something cheap that supports 5.1 surround sound, has an HDMI port and supports inputs for TV, video game consoles, and blue ray and DVD players. Don't really need anything like 3D, because I'm guessing you would need a 3D TV for that to actually work? Oh and I probably won't have internet until Thursday or Friday so I would appreciate it if this thread wasn't closed. Thanks again!


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