I just moved into an old house where we redid the kitchen and ran some
new wire for ceiling speakers in addition to our mains in the living
room. There was also some existing 14/4 CL2 cable run to the detached
garage. No conduit, just run through the walls to a small hole in an
outside wall and strung with some phone wires into the garage.

It is about 50-60 feet from my amp. This cable was then split into two
pairs for cheesy speakers in the garage. We like to entertain inside
and out, and replaced the garage speakers with a pair of JBL N24AWII
Northridge Outdoor speakers. Now, obviously with the long run to the
garage, those speakers are getting very little power. To get decent
volume outside, the inside speakers are way too loud.

What is my easiest (cheapest?) solution to bring up the volume for the
outside speakers?

Do I need another amp out there? Will a separate volume control for
those speakers do the trick?

Somewhere in the back of my brain I know the answer to this. I'm just
too lazy to work it out on my own!

Thanks for your thoughts!

"WirelessNut" wrote ...
I just moved into an old house where we redid the kitchen and ran some
new wire for ceiling speakers in addition to our mains in the living
room. There was also some existing 14/4 CL2 cable run to the detached
garage. No conduit, just run through the walls to a small hole in an
outside wall and strung with some phone wires into the garage.

It is about 50-60 feet from my amp. This cable was then split into two
pairs for cheesy speakers in the garage. We like to entertain inside
and out, and replaced the garage speakers with a pair of JBL N24AWII
Northridge Outdoor speakers. Now, obviously with the long run to the
garage, those speakers are getting very little power. To get decent
volume outside, the inside speakers are way too loud.

What is my easiest (cheapest?) solution to bring up the volume for the
outside speakers?

Do I need another amp out there? Will a separate volume control for
those speakers do the trick?

Somewhere in the back of my brain I know the answer to this. I'm just
too lazy to work it out on my own!

Hard to believe that you are actually losing that much
signal in your wiring. Sounds more like your garage
speakers are much less efficient (and/or higher impedance)
than your kitchen speakers.

A "volume control" will only reduce the level, not increase
it, so a control on the kitchen speakers would appear to be
more beneficial than a control for the garage speakers. This
assumes that whatever is feeding it (unspecified) is up to
the task of driving both sets of speakers concurrently?

In article , "Richard Crowley" wrote:
"WirelessNut" wrote ...
I just moved into an old house where we redid the kitchen and ran some
new wire for ceiling speakers in addition to our mains in the living
room. There was also some existing 14/4 CL2 cable run to the detached
garage. No conduit, just run through the walls to a small hole in an
outside wall and strung with some phone wires into the garage.

It is about 50-60 feet from my amp. This cable was then split into two
pairs for cheesy speakers in the garage. We like to entertain inside
and out, and replaced the garage speakers with a pair of JBL N24AWII
Northridge Outdoor speakers. Now, obviously with the long run to the
garage, those speakers are getting very little power. To get decent
volume outside, the inside speakers are way too loud.

What is my easiest (cheapest?) solution to bring up the volume for the
outside speakers?

Do I need another amp out there? Will a separate volume control for
those speakers do the trick?

Somewhere in the back of my brain I know the answer to this. I'm just
too lazy to work it out on my own!

Hard to believe that you are actually losing that much
signal in your wiring. Sounds more like your garage
speakers are much less efficient (and/or higher impedance)
than your kitchen speakers.

A "volume control" will only reduce the level, not increase
it, so a control on the kitchen speakers would appear to be
more beneficial than a control for the garage speakers. This
assumes that whatever is feeding it (unspecified) is up to
the task of driving both sets of speakers concurrently?


Placing them side by side can identify that. Cheap and easy?
The right way is to install an isolator and another amplifier.

greg

Yeah, I'll have to check all my connections, make sure I'm not losing
signal due to something else. We have the JBL outdoor, kitchen ceiling
speakers, and our mains run through a Niles SPS-4 switch. Everything is
driven by a lowly Onkyo HT-S570 with 100 watts per channel.

In article , (GregS) wrote:
In article , "Richard Crowley"
wrote:
"WirelessNut" wrote ...
I just moved into an old house where we redid the kitchen and ran some
new wire for ceiling speakers in addition to our mains in the living
room. There was also some existing 14/4 CL2 cable run to the detached
garage. No conduit, just run through the walls to a small hole in an
outside wall and strung with some phone wires into the garage.

It is about 50-60 feet from my amp. This cable was then split into two
pairs for cheesy speakers in the garage. We like to entertain inside
and out, and replaced the garage speakers with a pair of JBL N24AWII
Northridge Outdoor speakers. Now, obviously with the long run to the
garage, those speakers are getting very little power. To get decent
volume outside, the inside speakers are way too loud.

What is my easiest (cheapest?) solution to bring up the volume for the
outside speakers?

Do I need another amp out there? Will a separate volume control for
those speakers do the trick?

Somewhere in the back of my brain I know the answer to this. I'm just
too lazy to work it out on my own!

Hard to believe that you are actually losing that much
signal in your wiring. Sounds more like your garage
speakers are much less efficient (and/or higher impedance)
than your kitchen speakers.

A "volume control" will only reduce the level, not increase
it, so a control on the kitchen speakers would appear to be
more beneficial than a control for the garage speakers. This
assumes that whatever is feeding it (unspecified) is up to
the task of driving both sets of speakers concurrently?


Placing them side by side can identify that. Cheap and easy?
The right way is to install an isolator and another amplifier.

greg

I guess the cheapest would be to add another amplifier right near the other
amplifier, feeding the other speakers.

greg

WirelessNut wrote:
I just moved into an old house where we redid the kitchen and ran some
new wire for ceiling speakers in addition to our mains in the living
room. There was also some existing 14/4 CL2 cable run to the detached
garage. No conduit, just run through the walls to a small hole in an
outside wall and strung with some phone wires into the garage.

Above: is your problem, I believe...the 'phone wires into the garage'.
What gauge are they? The 14/4 is okay. Ditch the phone wire and
replace with something similar to the 14/4. OTOH, it would behoove you
to at least verify theat the 14/4 is in good shape.

It is about 50-60 feet from my amp. This cable was then split into two
pairs for cheesy speakers in the garage. We like to entertain inside
and out, and replaced the garage speakers with a pair of JBL N24AWII
Northridge Outdoor speakers. Now, obviously with the long run to the
garage, those speakers are getting very little power. To get decent
volume outside, the inside speakers are way too loud.

See if the problem disappears once you replace the phone wire. If not,
try swapping your inside and outside speakers. It may be that they are
of different impedances (lower impedance in parallel with higher = louder).

What is my easiest (cheapest?) solution to bring up the volume for the
outside speakers?

See above.
Do I need another amp out there? Will a separate volume control for
those speakers do the trick?

Separate amp may have advantages, but will require different wiring. An
'L pad' on the loudest speakers will help, but must be sized to the
amplifier output.

Somewhere in the back of my brain I know the answer to this. I'm just
too lazy to work it out on my own!

Recent research indicates working the brain keeps it young.....

Thanks for your thoughts!

No prob'. I like to work my brain.

jak

Bad description on my part, Jak. The 14/4 is just routed alongside the
phone wire on its way into the garage. The phone wire plays no role in
the speaker setup.

WirelessNut wrote:
Bad description on my part, Jak. The 14/4 is just routed alongside the
phone wire on its way into the garage. The phone wire plays no role in
the speaker setup.


I see. 14/4 should be big enough to carry audio for long
distances...maybe 100' or so depending on the power.

Swap out your speakers (inside for outside) and see what happens. It
sounds like either a bad connection somewhere (unlikely as it would
probably affect only one channel) or the impedance issue mentioned.

jak