How do I know what kind of whole house Audio system I have and how to work it?

If the wires all come to one place in the main living room, and they're just hanging loose, you don't have a system - you've just got speakers and wire. Which means you can connect any system you want... If you're really lucky, that bundle of wires will have both speaker cables and cat5e "Ethernet" wire types - which will give you even more options. Identify the wire types (how many conductors in each wire, also can tell from any wire markings on the jacket) as well.

If those wires connect to a box, tell us what it's called and/or take a picture of it. It could be a hub-based system if there's something attached...

Jeff

Check the closets / basement for the home's "structured wiring" enclosure. The wall jacks imply an A-Bus system, and if so there will be a hub located wherever the phone / coax TV wiring is all terminated.

If that's the case, the wall plate will be a source input, and you can use an AVR's zone2 output (if it has one), or a fixed line output (if it has one). What brand/model is your AV receiver?

EDIT: Are the wall jacks RCA or speaker connectors (banana plugs / binding posts)? That will make a big difference...
Edited by jautor - 2/25/13 at 1:53pm

I think pictures are the easiest way to get some help. It does sound like you have audio wiring, but probably not an actual system with hardware. So you'll have to use your own hardware. By posting a couple of pictures, we can probably tell you what hardware would work. There is a possibility that you could use a normal receiver. There is also a possibility that using a regular receiver would cause it to burn out because it is trying to drive too many speakers. So it is critical that you know what you have before you start trying stuff out.

That's no system, just a bunch (way too many!) of speaker plates to hide a few feet of speaker wire. He must have had an entertainment console below the TV and probably L/R speakers on stands or tall tower models.

The "scoops" behind and under the TV are to route cables so they're not visible up the wall. Unfortunately Mr. Engineer didn't do it correctly to follow code, as this arrangement will have you running the power cord through the wall. The correct way to do it is with a PowerBridge product that uses romex to bridge between the two ends.

It's a shame he put all those plates so high on the wall instead of down at outlet-height. You''ll certainly want to have a piece of furniture to cover up that big collection in the middle!

So there's nothing here - just wires in the wall and faceplates to connect your speakers. Connect anything you want to them...


Jeff

If there are speakers in every room, there are either either lines run someplace else, or there are multiple leads run to another location, or several lines bridge together behind some of those plates.

Its a pain, but I would pull them out of the wall and see how many lines attach.

He's retrofitted some Ethernet wiring for the house, most likely, with all of it coming from that shelf location. The modem/router would be placed there, and what appears to be some RJ45 keystone jacks to feed other rooms.

Ah, sorry, I forgot about the other rooms. Are there surround speakers in the living room? There's enough speaker jacks on the wall in the living room to support a surround pair and the "whole house". Assuming there's a surround pair, all the other rooms will be connected to one plate, using the "impedance matching" in the volume control knobs to allow multiple pairs of speakers to connect safely to one amplifier.

No, you just need to verify some of this by unscrewing the faceplates to see what's behind them for sure (or ask the previous homeowner for a diagram or explanation). As long as it's what we're expecting, you'll be able to just use any AV Receiver with a Zone2 output (perhaps with an external amp like the AudioSource AMP-100), and you'll be able to use all of it.

Jeff

Fixed that for you... Many A/V Receivers have a "Zone 2" output, which allows for the "rest of the house" to listen to a different source (or the same) at a different volume level than the main, surround-capable output.

What's the make/model of your current system? Regardless, there are inexpensive solutions for getting the rest of the house to work (as in <$100). Getting the speakers wired into the other rooms is the hard/expensive part, so you're ahead!

Jeff

First step, unscrew the faceplate on one of the volume controls and examine the control. See if there's a brand name or model number on it.

TAKE PICTURES OF IT. And post them where we can see 'em.

There are lots of different ways to distribute and control audio. Some are passive, where the knob on the wall just handles volume. Others have brains in the controller that talk back to a centralized piece of equipment.

The next question is where the wire goes from those rooms. It needs to come back to a source somewhere. This could be those plates at the TV. Your simplest route for finding this is to get a tone unit. This is a gizmo that you connect a tone generator at one end of the wiring and then use a portable sensor to probe to pickup the tone. This is one example: http://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-Tone-Generator-Probe-Kit/dp/B00845RZ38 You'd basically put the generator on at the source plugs at the TV and then go room-to-room with the probe to see if the wall control wiring carries the tone. Or vice-versa, put the generator on the wires behind the wall control and see where the tone comes up back at the wall plates.

As for the closet and high shelf, that's likely where they put a wireless router. It's not uncommon to bring the wires to where you can get your best WiFi signal distribution. Once upon a time wifi routers and equipment was pretty expensive. So you'd often move the router to the best place instead of adding more routers or access points. It's still not a bad plan to do it this way.

It's not a Zone2 output, it's just a duplicate set of connections for the front L/R. These are "A + B" speaker outputs - it's essentially a built-in speaker selector. You can connect the B outputs to your other rooms, but you will be hearing whatever is in the main room, and at the same volume.