I am finishing my basement and I had the contractor pre-wire the area for an HTiB.... I've subsequently bot a Sony DAV FX-80 but now I see that the thing comes with its one speaker wires and has some unusual color coded connectors/terminals in the back of the receiver for the speaker wires. My questions , if someone could assist are: 1) Do I need to use the same speaker wires that this HTiB came with?(please say no...) 2) How can I replace the terminals that the HTiB came with so that I can use the speaker wires that I have in my basement? Are these proprietary from Sony b/c Radio Shack didn't have them... 3) Is there a maximum length that the wires can be? I believe that the contractor used 16 gauge wires 4) I can't really tell which of the wires is +ve and -ve; is there an easy way to check for polarity? The ends are probably 10' apart and I cannot get them closer than that. Appreciate any help that you can offer.
Got a fix... I bot a pack of 25 butt connectors (crimp-style) from Walmart, about $1.88, attached them to the ends of the stereo cable and plugged them directly into the back of the DAV FX80 and presto! it works fine... Dunno how much they affect the sound quality but so far, no noticeable problems... :D
get a small 1.5v battery (AA will do) make a note of its polarity hook up a speaker on the other end of the wires and take note of its polarity. Remove grills to observe cone movement
Connect small battery to the other end of the wires.
Tap the connections quickly and have someone observe the movement of the speaker cones.
If the cones push out, you have just discovered the right polarity of the speaker wires in relation the speakers.
If the cones pull in, the polarity is reversed.
If they are, reversed your speakers will be out of phase.
