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New member Username: Ray1212Post Number: 1 Registered: Apr-09 | My house was prewired for 4 sets of speakers with 4 volumn controls. I told the installer to wire both speaker wire and cat5 in case I upgrade someday to a more sophisticated whole house volume control. In each room he wired 16g wire from the speaker hole to the box for the volume control (2 wires, one from each). then he wired only 1 - 16g wire to the home area, as well as 1 - Cat5 line. Shouldn't he have run 2 - 16g wires home or can I use the Cat5 as the second line home? If so, which wires do I use from the Cat5, does it matter? I am only going with a multichannel amp to run them so I bought basic volume controls whcih I'm not sure can use the Cat5. Any ideas? thanks in advance... R |
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Silver Member Username: MccambleyBREEZY POINT, NY USA Post Number: 630 Registered: Jun-05 | Yes ray you should have 2 speaker wires running from the receiver to the volume control. In theory you could use the cat5 as speaker wire (twist the brown and orange, the blue AND green). I have to imagine that stripping the cat5 will be a pain. Did you use an electrician or a home theater installer? |
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Silver Member Username: MccambleyBREEZY POINT, NY USA Post Number: 631 Registered: Jun-05 | Ray check that single cable to make sure that it does not contain Four wires. |
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New member Username: Ray1212Post Number: 2 Registered: Apr-09 | Casey: thanks, i used a home theater type guy who also does alarms. I have 8 wires in the CAT5, of which I have the colors u mention. I will try what you suggested. if not, is there a volumn control that accepts 16g coming in, and then uses CAT5 going home? I bet the amp/receiver would be expensive as well. thanks R |
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Silver Member Username: JrbayLivonia [Detroit area], Michigan USA Post Number: 786 Registered: Feb-08 | Greetings Ray, Are you absolutely certain, as Casey has asked, that one of the speaker wires in the volume control box doesn't have four conductors with red/black/green/white leads in the cladding? |
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New member Username: Ray1212Post Number: 3 Registered: Apr-09 | Jim: just checked again, only 2 wires in all 3 16g. don't know how he missed that. i am worried by using the CAT5 as a speaker wire, I won't get enough power to them, I have 4 sets of ceiling speakers. Ray |
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Silver Member Username: JrbayLivonia [Detroit area], Michigan USA Post Number: 787 Registered: Feb-08 | That is a very strange error for him to have made and I would suggest that you call him. Perhaps it was intended to only be a monular system that would be relatively inexpensive and perhaps ideal if the system is strictly for background sound. CAT 5 should not be used to carry speaker level signals but there are various ways to transmit line level stereo signals with, as you suspect, additional cost. |
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New member Username: Ray1212Post Number: 4 Registered: Apr-09 | He's gone, so can't get him back. Just talked with Crutchfield about a system called On-Q whole house audio. The volumn controls have amps in them and you can do 4 source, 4 rooms. Expensive though. Plus I would still need a receiver to power my 5.1 surround, as well as this system. my current sony I don't believe has a preamp out. If i use the impendance volume control, i would need a speaker selector anyway or a multichannel amp. I believe with this On-Q you don't. Any thoughts? Thanks |
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Silver Member Username: JrbayLivonia [Detroit area], Michigan USA Post Number: 788 Registered: Feb-08 | Your not anywhere near Detroit are you??? Your Sony should have a tape out and with this On-Q system you simply input analog line level audio from your various components into the main controller. |
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Silver Member Username: MccambleyBREEZY POINT, NY USA Post Number: 632 Registered: Jun-05 | Ray you may need to look into that more robust system sooner. Russound and other companies make key pads that have there own amps built in. Trying to play 4 sets of inwalls through out your house at one time might be job bigger than a simple AV receiver can handle anyway. You can play one set at a time on one amp but all four would be too much of a load. I googled amplified keypads http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=amplified+keypads&aq=f&oq= |
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Silver Member Username: JrbayLivonia [Detroit area], Michigan USA Post Number: 789 Registered: Feb-08 | If using multiple speaker sets throughout the house a decent receiver connected to a good impedance matching speaker selector can easily handle 4 or more sets. |
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Silver Member Username: MccambleyBREEZY POINT, NY USA Post Number: 636 Registered: Jun-05 | All four sets playing at the same time? I know it can be done but I don't recomend it. |
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Silver Member Username: MccambleyBREEZY POINT, NY USA Post Number: 637 Registered: Jun-05 | The speaker selector will have an effect on the ohms and then when you add on the volume switches the load is even increased more. YES it can be done but I would not recommend running all four sets of speakers at once with this set up. If I am wrong I am only erring on the cautious side. |
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Silver Member Username: JrbayLivonia [Detroit area], Michigan USA Post Number: 792 Registered: Feb-08 | Casey my man it happens ALL the time! Load to an amplifier is measured in ohms not by the amount of speakers attached therefore impedance matching is the key. There are some other aspects of physics involved such as sensitivity (efficiency) so a thousand speakers would have difficulty extending to their furthest excursion and therefore not sound very good but within some semblance of reason you can run a whole house easily on a 100 watt amplifier http://www.nilesaudio.com/product.php?prodID=SMS-10C&recordID=High%20Power%20Imp edance%20Matching%20System&categoryID=Speaker%20Selectors&catcdID=7&prdcdID=FG00 260 |