Speaker Connection Problem

[ryanbatc]

So this house we moved into already has speaker wires running to their respective locations for 5.1 audio

The guy wired the rear speaker cables through the top of our basement, above the tiles (which I removed on the route to make sure there were no disconnecting wires). I can't see any visual anomalies in the routing either, however I must confess I can't see about 5% of the wiring. I also made sure that the polarity is correct for the connection from the speaker to my system. I did the 5.1 audio test and get no sound through the two rear speakers L + R.

However, when I use my own crappier cabling , the speakers work perfectly. I'm at a loss here. Is there a way to test the connection other than hooking up a speaker lol?

My system is the Logitech Z-680 system
Logitech Z-680 PC Speaker reviews - CNET Reviews

[DougBob]

You may know this already, but!

Well you can by wrapping the two wires at one end together and using a multi-meter to do an ohm check on the other end, but the problem is if it checks bad you have to check what your trying to avoid and replace the wire.

There is not check to tell you where it is bad, only that is is.

[ryanbatc]

yeah I don't have one of those either lol!

It's just odd. Unless there's a rip or something, I can't see why they wouldn't work. Also, I noticed, in the casing that the previous owner had, there's a little string inside with the two + and - wires. Anyone know why he might have done that?

[Savage_Hobo]

I've checked the connections in my car audio wires by taking a 9 volt battery and connecting the two terminals of the battery to the +/- wires. Then check for a clicking noise on the speakers on the other end. Each time you connect and disconnect the battery you should hear a small noise. It's the speaker moving up and down. Polarity doesn't really matter because the speaker can move in and out. But BE CAREFUL I've used it on my speakers but I'm not sure if it will work on yours.

[Trooper110]

yeah I don't have one of those either lol!

It's just odd. Unless there's a rip or something, I can't see why they wouldn't work. Also, I noticed, in the casing that the previous owner had, there's a little string inside with the two + and - wires. Anyone know why he might have done that?

Probably left there in case you want to pull more wire. That way you tie the string to the end of the wires and just pull it through rather than trying to thread a new one through. If you tie another string on, you leave yourself or others another string to pull further cables with. There are devices you can get that you basically plug in to the end of a cable and it will light if the connection is good, I've seen them for ethernet cables, not sure if they exist for speaker wires, although I'd assume that they would.

[ryanbatc]

Well I tried going back to the junction where the two rear wires split to go to the back of our family room. They split behind the sheetrock so I really can't see much. I had a mirror and flashlight but they seemed to vanish into the darkness. I ordered a little multi-meter from amazon should be here in a week or so. I really want to know if there is a broken connection or just something weird about my system. I connect all the speaker wires into my sub, instead of a receiver, like a real home theater system. From my sub I have a Dsub connection to my control panel.

If the multimeter shows a dead cable I spose I'll have to think about running my own set of wires back there ugh

[ryanbatc]

Hey can someone help, I bought a little digital multimeter, but when testing resistance in the speaker wires, it only shows a value of 1, no matter if I test on the 200k or 2000k ohms setting

heres the one i got:
http://www.amazon.com/7-FUNCTION-DIG...5792856&sr=8-2

[Apache Warrior]

If an ohmmeter measures one this means that the resistance is more than the maximum which can be measured on this range and you may need to switch to a higher position.
Apache

[mapes]

If the multimeter shows a dead cable I spose I'll have to think about running my own set of wires back there ugh

It may not be as bad as you think. You can always tape the new wire ends to the old wires and then pull the old wires through. If the wire routing has lots of bends this may not work. It some times helps also to have another person push/feed the wires and you pull em.

[ryanbatc]

I tried tugging and they aren't moving.

How bout running a new line back there? Would there be any problems with interference running two wires so close together.

I won't be using the preinstalled ones, I will only use mine - but will leave those in there for the next person.

[juneau]

I tried tugging and they aren't moving.

How bout running a new line back there? Would there be any problems with interference running two wires so close together.

I won't be using the preinstalled ones, I will only use mine - but will leave those in there for the next person.

Nope, no problems at all. As long as they aren't coming into close proximity of high power electrical cables you'll be fine. Even then it's very rare for problems like interference to occur.