[hipertec]

I recently moved into a new home and there is 1 green wire (with 4 sep red/blk, grn/wht pairs) that the installer labeled ZONE 2 ADM 2.1 on the wire itself. Its ran to 3 rooms that each room has 2 speakers each and a volume control knob.

I tracked the colors for the wires and it looks like the red/blk is my Left + and -, while the Grn/wht is the Right = and -

I hooked up to my receiver using the 2 channels and music ran thru the 3 rooms but my old Sony receiver went into protect mode and now the receiver is useless.

I want to say that my old Sony just went out but afraid to test out on another receiver that i have. So I wanted to get help to see if what I did was correct. Please let me know if what I did is right. Not sure what Zone 2 ADM 2.1 means.

 

[RoboRay]

If you connected your receiver to all 3 sets of speakers in parallel without an impedance-matching device in between, you may have presented a 2 ohm load to amplifiers probably designed for 8 ohm loads.


This would have caused about 4 times as much current to be drawn through the amps as normal, and the receiver either put itself into protect mode to save itself from being damaged, or it may have shut itself off too late and something was damaged anyway.


Did you smell any smoke? If not, unplug the receiver for a while, disconnect the Zone 2 speakers from it, and turn it back on. You may be lucky and it still works.


If you did smell smoke, the receiver is probably done. Electronics actually runs on smoke, not electricity. When you let the smoke out, stuff stops working.

Check with your installer and see if there is an impedance matching device already in place somewhere in the wiring distribution, or if you are expected to provide one. It may already be built into your in-wall volume controls, or maybe not, since your receiver didn't like the situation.

 

[hipertec]

all the three rooms were wired with a volume control knob in each room. The only wires coming from the wall was the 1 green wire marked Zone 2 ADM 2.1

When connected this wire, I did get music to all rooms and was able to control via the knobs.

Then it went into protected mode and smelled like smoke. My receiver is toast because when I try to turn it on it goes into protect mode...to late =(

I cant call the installer because is was built about 4 years ago and it was done professionally.

What is an impedance-matching device? Could this be in the volume knob? Im afraid to try on my newer receiver and have the same issue. Anyway for me to find out?

 

[RoboRay]

When you split a circuit in parallel (which your 3-room speaker system probably does) the resistance to electrical current in the circuit drops. This causes more current to flow, so long as the supplied voltage is unchanged. If this causes more current to flow than your receiver can handle, it either shuts itself off to protect itself or gets damaged. That appears to have happened here.


An impedance matching device provides additional resistance to your speaker system, to prevent that extra current from flowing and causing damage. They are often built into in-wall volume controls for multi-room systems, but yours may not have them since your receiver failed. If you can identify a model number or anything on the volume control by taking the faceplate off, you may be able to Google it and find out if it does impedance matching. If it doesn't, you will need to add something to the system to take care of that. There are solutions available online and possibly even at your local Radio Shack or similar store.


WARNING: I think it likely that you will experience similar problems with any other receiver you connect to the Zone 2 speaker system without figuring out the impedance matching issue first.


It could be pure coincidence that your receiver picked that moment to die, but I would find out for sure before hooking up another one.

 

[hipertec]

thank you. I will check out the model numbe on the volume control knob and google it.

You know alot about installs, why did the installer write ZONE 2, ADM 2.1 on the wire?

what does this mean?

 

[hipertec]

OK, looks like all 3 rooms have the Russound LPT-X 75 watt volume control knob, which shows that it does have an impedence on it.

question:

1. would it be normal to run these 3 knobs from 3 rooms to 1 wire source (my green wire with 4 wires in them?)

2. would these knobs bring the ohms to the correct level?

3. could it just be bad luck that my old Sony receiver just went out when I hooked up the wires?

 

[RoboRay]

Honestly, I don't have a lot of personal experience with multi-room installs, especially regarding specific hardware or configurations. I'm far from an expert on those topics.


You will probably find the experts in the Home A/V Distribution & Networking forum, here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=36


You may want to repost your question there, or ask a moderator to move this thread to that forum.