Anyone willing to try to help with wiring directions / solutions ? Is fairly complicated. Please pm me...

An overview: I moved into a home with speaker wires already in place behind sheetrock, under floors, etc. with the ends accessible and labeled:
* Dining room L/R

* Kitchen L/R
* Patio L/R

I do not know what type of receiver or other equipment the prior homeowner had but I am hoping to use an old receiver with connections for two speaker pairs (Speaker A L/R amd Speaker B L/R).

I connected the Dining and Kitchen speaker wires to my receiver. The 4 speakers in these rooms (L/R in each) are built into the walls above cabinets, and not easily accessible, so i do not know the impedance on each. What I want to do is connect the third speaker pair (Patio L/R) to my receiver (again, with just A and B connections). How would I do this ?

 

The previous owner may have had a multi room or whole house stereo system.

At least in my house each speaker in each room is a zone all tied a 16 channel (8 zones @ 2 speakers per zone). Each speaker will need a positive and negative lead from the amp to work.

First inventory how many speakers you’ve got. That’s the number of channels you’ll need. If Its just 4 (or 4 you care to power) get an inexpensive home amp and run one room as the fronts and the other room as the rears.

If if you’re getting into more than that check out the multi channel amps from Niles and Elan. Not too bad on eBay used, but fairly pricey as new.

I use one Apple airport express for each zone at my place as a preamp, the pipe the output through amp to the speakers. This way I can have multiple sources feeding multiple zones independently.

Put another way I can have my music in the garage while my wife has hers in the bedroom and neither of us have to hear whatever the kids are playing in the family rooom.

 

Thx....there's wiring for 3 other pairs of speakers and a center speakers which I don't want to use. I just want 6 speakers total, but I don't know the impedance of 4 of them since they are already built in and hard to reach.

The old receiver I have is set up for 4 speakers (Speaker A L/R and Speaker B L/R). I want to know if and how I can use this receiver and add another pair. I don't need 'zones' since I don't care if all 6 speakers use the same source.

 

You need a home audio splitter box. This will give you 4 more outputs to connect other rooms. This will give you room to expand, pretty simple to install.

 

thx,,,,I wonder if I need to know the impedance of the 4 installed/built-in speakers for that (which I do not).

 

Maybe pop one of grills off, remind the speaker from the wall and see if there is an impedence marking on the back.

Or maybe there’s a make and model number you can look up to figure out impedance.

 

Most Stereo receivers have only two amplifier channels (left & right) and with the A - B switch will accept a minimum combined speaker load of 4Ω. If you connect two pairs of 8Ω speakers the combined load to the amp is 4Ω. If you connect another pair of 8Ω speakers the load will drop to 2.6Ω and could burn up the amplifier. The newer Home Theater receivers have 6 or more amplifier channels (front left, front right, center, surround left surround right & a sub-woofer) and many do not have the A - B switch to add a second set of speakers.

It sounds like your new home is pre-wired for a home theater receiver in the family room, and a multi-channel receiver for the other speakers scattered throughout the house. You can use a normal stereo receiver (with an A - B switch) as long as your combine speaker loads don't fall below the minimum rating for the receiver. You will need to know the rating of the receiver (usually printed on the back panel) and the impedance (in ohms Ω) of each speaker pair you connect to make sure you don't go below the minimum rating.

Rodney

 

Most newer receivers will accept 4, 6, or 8 ohm speakers.. It just raise or lowers the output power rating. If you connect two 8ohm speakers in parallel you get a 4 ohm load, if you connect two 4 ohm speakers in series you get an 8 ohm load.

 

The majority of modern receivers have no FTC rating for 4-ohm loads. Some are rated for 4-ohms but only if you flip a back-panel switch that strangles the power supply, making the receiver incapable of full power so as to not stress the output devices and heat-sinking. There's a giant, heaping helping of bottom-feeder dreck out there--including stuff made by "famous names" in the audio world.

1. Put a DC voltmeter on the in -wall speakers. AC impedance is TYPICALLY a bit higher than the DC resistance. This is not guaranteed, but is often the case. Of course, AC impedance varies with frequency where DC resistance by nature cannot.

2. Inspect YOUR receiver to determine whether it can REALLY handle a 4-ohm or lower-impedance load.

3. If it was me, (and it is, in my home) I'd put a receiver or preamp/power amp in each room so that the volume control is handy. This gets you away from miles of in-wall wiring of questionable gauge and quality.

 

when we bought the house it had speakers built in / wired in
I bought an onkyo receiver for 10 bucks
put both rooms on speaker A
positive and negative as they were


if i would have had patio that may have been speaker B

It worked

Now I just have klipsch Heresey with 100 watt amp loud and clear everywhere
Cops will not leave me alone...

 

As suggested, use an ohmmeter to measure the impedance of the installed speakers. There's a 99% chance that they will be 8-ohm speakers (4 ohm speakers are typically used in mobile installations where the power supply voltage is limited and the wire lengths are limited). It will be pretty obvious from the ohmmeter reading what they are. No need to pull speakers from the wall and take a chance that they are marked on the back.

Assuming the OP has a simple stereo receiver / amp with A & B speaker switches, it will certainly be capable of driving a net 4 ohm load (2 pairs of 8 ohm speakers). What I would do, is connect the pair that has #1 priority (that you want to play the loudest) to the A outputs of the receiver / amp, then wire the other two in series (16 ohm total load on the amp) and connect them to the B output. You'll loose a little volume/power on those 2 pairs connected to the B outputs, but it will still work fine, and you won't chance blowing the amp by driving a net load of less than 4 ohms.

If in that unfortunate 1% event that you find that the built-in speakers are 4 ohms, then you will need an external speaker switch box which should contain some resistance for each speaker load to keep the net load on the amp at 4 ohms or greater.