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Question

Surround sound pre-wired. But, 7 cables at every speaker loc

by Aug 6, 2015 10:25AM PDT

Bought our house a couple of years back. It is wired for Surround Sound ( I think 7.1). I see 7 speaker locations with face plate. But, when I open the face plate, I see 7 cables at every speaker location. How do I know which one to cut at every location?

Thanks in advance!

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3 Posts
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Answer
A photo would help
by Aug 6, 2015 12:20PM PDT

Makes the job easier if we can see exactly what you see Wink I normally take a quick one with an old digital camera and upload to imgur.com, then post a link to a forum like this one.

In any case, you could be looking at 6.1, since it was offered a few years prior to 7.1 being the more common successor to regular 5.1 surround. There also could be an extra cable thrown in by the installer. Please post a photo (or photos) to see what's going on Wink

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Thank you!
by mmdhar Aug 6, 2015 4:41PM PDT

Thank you! that not only helped, but, actually answered my question. Not being sarcastic. Real. I am dumb. After seeing your reply I opened a face plate and took a photo. In the photo, I noticed there is a lose end of a cable hiding behind those pack of cables. Really hard to see with a naked eye. I pulled it out...turns out... it is not 7 cables.. but, one cable folded like that. I thought 7 cables were passing through that. verified the same at a different speaker location too.

And you are right... Now I think it is only 5.1. there are two speakers out in the patio. I always got confused because there are 6 face plates inside. I am posting a picture of that 6th one. It has 3 cables passing through. Do you know what those for? probably volume adjustment and for some reason cables for outside patio speakers? http://i.imgur.com/yTfYJRL.jpg

Also, where all these cables are connected near tv... there are total 8 cables. I think 5 (inside) + 2 (patio) speakers + 1 coaxial. What is that coaxial cable for? Not for cable for sure. Because I have cable connection which is a different one next to this set of cables. Any ideas? Here is that picture...http://i.imgur.com/dBLm4GO.jpg

Thanks again!

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It's difficult to analysis exactly what you have or...
by Oldartq Aug 7, 2015 9:09AM PDT

what the original installer had in mind. All you can do use what is there to setup your system. Some of the cable maybe just pass through the box and that each speaker uses 2 wire. It's easier to run cable through than wires, that's why you have 8 cables but you only need 2 wires on that cable for the speaker. But to actually do this, a friend with some electronic may be nice. Good luck.

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