problems setting up a/v receiver to in-ceiling speakers

[ashbaker]

I've recently moved into a house that has ceiling speakers. There are five speakers (all identical) spread across the open plan ground floor, 2 in front living, 1 in kitchen, 2 in back living room. The speaker wire is in the back living room coming out of two holes in the wall.

There are 2 different types of wire:
-2 sets of black/red speaker wire connected by dolphin wire connectors, with an ethernet type cable connector attached
-2 sets of speaker wire that's clear/copper

I want to know how to make the speakers produce sound. I have purchased a Yamaha 5.1 channel a/v receiver but not sure of the next steps because the wires don't look like those in the manual. Help!

 

[americanaudiophile]

You are going to need to ID which pairs of wires go to each speaker. You can do this with a battery. If you touch and remove the black/red wires to each end of the battery it will cause the woofer to move and a helper will be able to hear which one it is. Label the wire. If will also help if you can determine which is the plus and minus. If you connect the red wire to the battery plus and black to the minus and the woofer moves out then the red is plus. If it moves in then the black is plus.
It sounds like you only have 4 speakers that you can use for surround.(living room front and back). When you can get a center channel speaker that you can put at the TV and a subwoofer for bass.
The single speaker in the kitchen is probably a stereo speaker meaning it has four terminals which would account for the other wires. It can be connected to the speaker B or zone 2 terminals of your receiver. Probably OK to cut off the connectors at the end. You can use the same procedure with these to make sure that your get the polarity correct. Left and right doesn't matter as they get mixed into mono at the speaker.

 

[tomc53]

You are going to need to ID which pairs of wires go to each speaker. You can do this with a battery. If you touch and remove the black/red wires to each end of the battery it will cause the woofer to move and a helper will be able to hear which one it is. Label the wire. If will also help if you can determine which is the plus and minus. If you connect the red wire to the battery plus and black to the minus and the woofer moves out then the red is plus. If it moves in then the black is plus.
It sounds like you only have 4 speakers that you can use for surround.(living room front and back). When you can get a center channel speaker that you can put at the TV and a subwoofer for bass.
The single speaker in the kitchen is probably a stereo speaker meaning it has four terminals which would account for the other wires. It can be connected to the speaker B or zone 2 terminals of your receiver. Probably OK to cut off the connectors at the end. You can use the same procedure with these to make sure that your get the polarity correct. Left and right doesn't matter as they get mixed into mono at the speaker.

I only counted wiring for 4 speakers coming out of the wall, so it is probalby formt he Front and rear living room speakers. They my have had front/rear reversed from youo, or just put the amplifiers in the back.
The Kitchen speaker may be wired form somewhere else, such as a closet or basement. you may have to get in the attic to trace it down.
Seeing the speaker move may or may not be reasonable with a battery, but you should hear it "thump" when connected.
Most likely the copper wire on the clear pairs is the positive, so go with that. If you don't use a subwoofer (I'd really recommend both a center and a sub) you may have to fiddle with the copper/silver polarity to get the lows to sound right. If you don't have a sub, set the crossover point on your amp as low as possible, if you can't disable it altogether.