Stereo speakers question

[kuba]

Hey Guys

Our new store has built-in speakers and we'd like to take advantage of them. However the seller didn't include the receiver, so we want to know what to do.

There are 4 speaker cables sticking outta the wall. Red, white, and black. Each bundle is labeled for where they belong (main floor, reception, upstairs etc)

Are these just speaker cables?
Should I take pics?
They appear to be gold inside and red/white/black - what's the black for?

Help!

Thanks

 

[Vise]

Take a pic... speaker wires are just positive/negative so not sure why there would be three wires for each area unless the third is a remote on or something else. Are they just bare wires or are there any connectors attached?

 

[Blue Meanies]

That sounds like "four conductor" speaker wire, except its missing the fourth color green. If they were 16 gauge they'd be referred to as 16/4, if 14 gauge then 14/4, etc. The normal ones with only two conductors would be 16/2.

You could use that single run to one pair of speakers. By convention, the black and red would be for one speaker and the green and white for another but it doesn't really matter as long as you are consisent on both ends.

It was probably put there with the intent of using it to wire a volume control for one pair of speakers. The 16/4 would go from the receiver to the volume control and then one 16/2 to each speaker.

 

[kyfe]

Normally this is done for bi amping,

 

[kuba]

 

[kuba]

So.

What do I need to buy at bay bloor radio etc. to get this mofo going?

Just a receiver or an amp?

 

[kuba]

Keep in mind I know nothing about these sorts of things.

 

[Vise]

Ah that makes more sense... you said before it was red/white/black but didn't mention the green. The grey wires are fairly standard in wall rated speaker wire for 2 channels, I had something similar put into the walls in our place by the builder for my surround speakers.

Based on that my assumption is each of those grey wires (with the red/white/black/green inside) is for a pair of speakers. How many speakers are there in each area (ie. reception)? Its possible that each grey wire is running to just one speaker and thus is only using the red/white or black/white pairs but hard to say. Can you access the back of the built in speakers to see what colour wires are connected?

Either way shouldn't be too hard to figure out, assuming this is just for background music and not super loud blasting you just need a stereo receiver with A+B speaker connections. If it turns out each of the 4 zones has two speakers each you can just wire them together (ie. main floor + reception = A).

And please don't waste your money at Bay Bloor... email me and I can recommend a place for you.

 

[ndrwrld]

couldn't you just ask the seller ?

 

[kuba]

No.