Speaker wiring question from Member

It has been a while and I have a question I am hoping someone can help with.

I am building a new house which I wired for audio myself using in wall 4 conductor wire. In many of the rooms I looped through a box and back up to the ceiling mounted speakers. In the loop I plan to install a volume control. I just realized that when I hookup the volume control I need to know which feed comes from the amp and which feed goes to the speakers.

Is there an easy way to deremine this without having to hookup speakers in the loop to determine which end comes from the amplifier and which end simply feeds up to the speakers. I have a multimeter and a 12 volt test light; however I really do not want to blow anything up. Please let me know if anyone has any ideas. Thanks a million.

DDB

The easiest would be to check for continuity with the multimeter.

RE: volume control inline with speaker.......what receiver/preamp/processor are you using? Almost all of them today have built-in adjustments for each channel in surround modes...?

Also, a control inline will change your impedance read by the amplifier; if you go this route, be sure you you know how that works.

No problem. First, make sure that the amplifier is not hooked up to the wire. Now, ohm out the speakers. They should be at or close to the ohm rating of said speaker. Once you have that number, hook the left speaker up and go back to where the volume control box will be and ohm out each pair of speaker wire until you find the one that matches the ohm rating of the speakers [the others should read open]. Then hook up the second speaker and do the same thing with the leftover wires. The two pair of wires left will go to the amplifier.

Thanks very much for the quick responses. I knew you guys would know the answer.

Rabbit . . . I will be using a 6 way Rotel speaker selector that I have had for about 10 years. Is is impedance matched and will be attached directly to the power amplifier. It keeps a constant 4 ohm load on the amplifier irregardless of how may sets of speakers you are running. I do not think that the addition of volume controlds down stream from the speaker selector will make any difference to the load the amplifier sees. Also, I usually only run a couple of pairs of speakers at a time and most are lower wattage ceiling or bookshelf speakers (100 Watts max). This will be a two channel setup so there is no processor. For amplification I will likely use my Bryston 4B SST. I also have a Carver M 1.0t that I am not using that may go back into service.

Treitz . . . Thanks very much for the detailed instructions. Much appreciated.

No problem. Have fun and happy listening.