How do I find in-wall speaker wires?

[Farrell]

I moved into a home that was built 6-8 years ago and I do not know the builder. The living room appears to be wired for surround sound as there are speakers wires in a box in the wall behind the entertainment center. Each pair of speaker wires is labeled "northeast", "northwest", "southeast", etc. The problem is that the other end is buried somewhere in the walls. I don't know how to trace them to find the speaker end in order to install in-wall or on-wall speakers. How do I trace and find the end of each speaker wire without tearing up dry wall? Are there some specific tools to do this? Where would I get them?

Thanks,


Farrell

[Troy]

Are there any holes in the walls that might indicate where some previous speakers might have gone? Do you have any indication of where the wires were run? Through the attic, through the basement? If you can find them in either of these locations, you should be able to trace them from there.

Welcome to the forum!

[Farrell]

Thanks Troy. No, there are no holes or indications on any of the walls. It would appear that the previous owner(s) never attempted to used this wiring. The panel that covered the Receiver end of the wires was never opened. The owner may not have even know there was anything behind the panel. At any rate, I hope someone on this board may be able to advise me of some electronic tool(s) that could aid me in finding the end of these wires. I really want to use them. It's a shame there were no notes or clues left that I have be able to find. It's a great room. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Farrell

[mrcaptainbob]

I have one of those electronic stud sensors. It will detect wires or pipes in the wall, as well. Don't know if it would pick up on wires of that gage, but I'd bet a good quality one would. There's two types that I know of. The better one has two scanning modes: regular and deep scan. I'd go for that one. A few more bucks, but I think it would help.

[Jimmer]

Farrell,

If you know anyone who does low voltage wiring, computer networks, telephone etc. You can borrow their 'tone generator' and probe. You clip the two leads from the generator onto the two speaker wires and move the prode back and forth on the walls you can detect the wires if they are close enough to the drywall.



Hope this helps,
Jim



'Just a handyman trying to help'

[Farrell]

Thanks Jim! I'll give that a try.



Farrell

[vdotmatrix]

go to city hall and find out who lived there in the past and ask them?[8]

[jackofall]

Home buyers that build a house from start won't spend the $ to have surround sound installed and not use it, so it sounds like the house once a model & when the subdivision closes out, the builder will remove the speakers but leave wires. Hope they did install surround, that'll kick @ss

[jackofall]

Also Home Depot has a toner for $40. I do electrical work and it the 1 I own works great>

[handyhecx]

Don't know if you were successful, but I was thinking. Do you think these might have been ceiling speakers and not surround? I had something similar and the wires ran into the finished basement's drop ceiling.

just a thought.