Anybody know anything about home built in sound systems?

[Rerun]

The house I bought last summer has has a built in sound systems ( 2 speakers in the ceiling in the basement, 4 ceiling speakers in the living room on the main floor, and 2 ceiling speakers in the master bedroom upstairs)

In the basement there are wall jacks (2 black/2 red) and a volume control. On the main floor the are more wall jacks, volume control, and a a/b switch. In the master bedroom there are no wall jacks... just the volume control.

I have my stereo system set up in the basement and I ran speaker cables from my stereo to the jacks but I can't get any sound out of the ceiling speakers. What gives. Do my ceiling speakers only work if your stereo is on the main floor and plugged into the jacks there?

If yes, how can I get the ceiling speakers to work without moving my stereo upstairs? I have my tv and stereo all hooked up together downstairs (and definitely don't want to move them upstairs) and I would like to have surround sound by using the ceiling speakers in conjunction with the two external stereo speakers I have. Plus, when playing music on my stereo, I would like to be able to hear it all through the house.

I suspect that the jacks in the wall downstairs are so you can perhaps hook up external speakers to them when you have a receiver upstairs thats plugged into the wall jacks upstairs? .... or am I wrong?

Can anybody solve my problem?

[shawnjohn]

I work in the merchant services industry (Visa/MC). And I've dealt with a few merchant who are in home theatre and audio and centralized smart systems.

If you want someone to hook it up for you let me know and I'll pass their contact information on to you.

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by shawnjohn

I work in the merchant services industry (Visa/MC). And I've dealt with a few merchant who are in home theatre and audio and centralized smart systems.

If you want someone to hook it up for you let me know and I'll pass their contact information on to you.

The system is already wired in. Its a finished house with a finished basement. The house is 5 years old and the built in sound system was installed when the house was built. I just bought the house last summer and there were no instructions regarding the built in sound system and this is my first house with such a feature.

I just have to figure out how to get it to work with my stereo being downstairs in the finished basement. I think the system was designed to have the stereo upstairs in the living room as that seems to be were the large majority of the wall jacks are and the controls are.

I don't want my stereo and tv upstairs in the living room. I want to leave them downstairs in my walk-out finished basement.

[Jedi Ninja]

How many jacks are in the living room? What is the "a/b" switch set to?

[GGG]

Have you tried putting the system in your living room and seeing if it works from there.

If you can get it working from there you may be able to figure out which inputs go from the livingroom to downstairs and from the living room to the roof speakers. Once that is figured out run a cable between the two sets of jacks in the living room and plug your reciever in downstairs.

The thing you need to figure out is which which jacks connect to which jacks. So start by making a diagram of all your jacks and then use a portable speaker with your reciever and plug one in on one end and one on the other and slowly map out what is hooked up to what. It is a rather painfully slow process depending on how many jacks are availalbe.

[Jedi Ninja]

GGG has good advice. But first, try the A-B switch in the A&B position. Actually try all 3 positions (a, a&b, b).

[ken0042]

As a "poor man's" speaker test- take a AA battery and touch the speaker leads to the opposite ends. You will hear a soft "pop" sound from the speaker it is connected to. Then touch the wires together without the battery in place to hear another "pop" and to release the charge from the speaker.

If the speakers are in another room this may be a two person opperation.