New install, but 1 spkr doesn't work

apc

Had our electrician run in-wall spkr wire for 3 additional rooms while we are renovating. I tried to hook up a pair of in-ceiling spkrs recently and only 1 worked. Ohm meter to spkr terminals shows 0. Same to just spkr without wires attached is about 7. To me, the spkr is OK, but the wire is compromised somehow. He claims no staples were used. Plan to re-run wire by pulling new attached to old eventually.

My receiver will cut off if both of the spkrs are connected. Must be internal protection circuit. The 'non-working' spkr has very slight volume. If volume increased, it will cut off receiver. Same will happen if on long enough. Trying to toss out all the info in case it turns out there is more than bad wire involved. Hard for me to imagine that particular length of wire is bad off of a 500' roll.

Thanks for any insight you might offer.

tonyb

Whats all this hooked up to and how many speakers ?

apc

Only receiver and CD player. I took everything else out to test this. 1 set spkrs.

apc

I had an entire 5.1 system in new cabinets in the den. We tested an extra set of in-ceilings in the dining and 1 didn't work. I removed everything to get to the wall plate with banana jacks to start testing.

leftwinger57

Because your electrician says he did not use staples might be true and there could be another trade involved. If he he just snaked up the exsisting walls and then h/run all cables then they should be fine .If he did w/ walls open and did not use nail plates then the sheet rockers could have shot a screw or nail through that wire and voila a dead short.When I ran mine I did use romex staples but on the vertical as a hitching post then ty-rapped to that so no crushing of the wires and by code had to use nail plates.Another test ,I see you have a digital meter and if you have a known valued resistor place that on the so called good run end read it, then repeat on the bad one and see if you still get that short or if it reads the right resistance.If it reads the right resistance it's not the wire.BTW I have come across beat rolls of wire w/ insulation missing in the middle, back jacketing and other such problems that just happen in mass production. I was in the alarm industry and used 10s of thousands of feet of all kinds of wire so yes again beat wire in rolls is a real possiblity.Most installers assume new wire is good no not our boss and we had a check list and on it was to do a continuity test before we left the house on pre wires.

apc

Thanks, that's exactly why I asked. I was hoping to gain some insight into other possibilities. I don't recall the order in which it all happened as I was always a the office when work was done. One way to tell if the cable got 'screwed' is to pull new wire and see if it hangs up I guess.

tonyb

I would not pull the wire until a last resort. Have you removed the speaker and hooked up to the receiver directly with some short wires to see if the speaker works ? How about the connections at the wall plate ?

apc

Will not remove spkr unless determined broken. It's in ceiling and I went to attic to remove wires and test impedance of spkr terminals. Wallplate connections are solid. I also tested them with meter. The ones that do not work read 0. I would've expected infinity with no spkr on the other end and about 8 ohms if there were a spkr attached.

tonyb

What speakers are we talking exactly, and what receiver ? How many feet of wire between the 2 ?

apc

I'm 100% Polk in the 5.1 den setup (disclaimer to offset next info). I used a set of Meridian P200ZQ (I had gotten in a charity auction a while back) for the ceiling in our dining room. Testing with a Yamaha RX-V473 for now as I don't want to screw up my new Onkyo TX-NR717. Monoprice 14 ga in wall spkr cable and that run is about 20 ft.

leftwinger57

Ok I just took out my meter just to reconfirm some things for my self. I used a valued resistor 2.2 and it read it correctly.I took the alligator clips and just put them together which said 0 and is a short. Like you said you can get the speakers I also would not pull them until every test possible on the wire was done.A simple continutity tester w/ a piezo sounder is even good enough. if you hear tone w/ the wires shorted that's ok, w/ them opened and still hear a tone that's a dead short.If no tone when shorting the wires then 1 or both conductors are cut somewhere in the run.Of course do all this w/o any power on any decives just because. Good luck, let us know what it was......Lew

tonyb

If the wires are accessible in the attic, see if you can connect the wires from one working speaker to one that isn't. If the receiver is going into protect mode with just 2 speakers hooked up, you have a short somewhere, maybe loose speaker wire strands touching another post on the back of the speaker, connection plates or receiver. That's assuming you have some bare wire connections.

You have to determine if the speaker itself is good or not before pulling wire.

apc

I thought by removing the spkr wires from the spkr, then testing with ohm meter that read about 7, that is was OK. If I understand, just because the resistance is close, do not assume it works?

PS - my fatal mistake was not testing prior to install, but again, I was not there. Screwed in the drive-thru.

[Deleted User]

Hi apc,
In order to test the speaker wire for shorts, the speaker wires should be disconnected at both ends and the two wires kept separate. Then at either the speaker end or the receiver end place one VOM probe on one wire and the other probe on the second wire. There should be "infinite" resistance on the meter, it might display "OL" for "open leads". If you read some kind of resistance then there's a problem. If you measure at both the receiver end and the speaker end, the end with the lowest number is closest to where the short is located.
I hope this helps.
Ken

apc

It does help, thank you. Can't wait to get home and try all of the suggestions!

kcoc321

I would test continuity on each of the 'bad' speaker wires and also connected the pos & neg together and check the wire as a whole.
IF there is a break that will tell you. If there is a short, then you would get continuity from one leg into the other leg.
Least then you can findout exactly what you are dealing with.

Do you have access to be able to run a speaker wire from the good wire to the 'bad speaker'?
Depending on your receiver, you could run them in series and still get a mono signal to both speakers.
It would look alittle different than the diagram, since you would also need a jumper from the good speaker wire to the neg of the second speaker.

apc

Don't think that would be easy. The wire comes up inside one wall into the attic, then splits to go to each spkr spread about 12 feet apart.

leftwinger57

Like I said before ,you said you can get to your attic speakers and disconnect the leads.In this case as now everyone is chiming in test the wires 1st before pulling the speakers. Also another test just to make sure your ok on the amp/avr side take 2 spkrs of any type w/ short wire runs hook them up to see if both channels work then for sure at least now you've eliminated the avr.Most meters also have just simple continuity sounders built in.Just that will tell you if the wire is beat.Do what I most have said already read either resistance or for open and short. If wire is clean then you have a beat speaker.

apc

Made some time last night to do more testing. For those who may not know, one cannot touch the VOM leads or squeeze the wires against the leads with one's fingers. The human body has resistance. I was unaware of this detail.

Once you stop laughing, I'll continue.

All of the wiring checked out with a 0.L, or open lead indication. The troublesome spkr read about 7. Not sure why because I thought they were 8 ohm spkrs. Re-installed wiring to it and it worked. Re-installed wiring to other spkr and it worked. By this time, my wife and I are looking at each other in disbelief. The two of us, along with the electrician and his wife all heard the problem at the same time. One of the spkrs was not working. Later testing, as described above, resulted in cut-outs, etc.

With fingers crossed, I plan to continue the install this weekend. Will report back later.

Thanks for your help!

apc

Crumby phone pic of the wiring wall with the cabinets removed.