glw82664 wrote:
I'm far from an audiophile and need help with some wiring. I have an
old pioneer receiver that has an A/B switch. I use B for satellite
speakers on my deck. Until recently, they worked fine having run about
30 feet of wire from where the receiver sits to the speakers.
Yesterday, I moved the receiver to a room farther away and had to
splice in about an extra 20 feet of wire. There are actually three
splices in each wire now due to obstacles and such. Now, when I turn
up the volume to even a moderate level the receiver stops transmiting
the signal and starts clicking. I presume the extra wire I added is
the problem. The wire I have been using, with success in other parts
of the house, is using a load of telephone line that I came in to for
free. It has eight wires in each run so I split 4 positive and 4
negative. It adds up to roughly 14 gauge.
This doesn't sound right. I suspect you're comparing diameters
rather than area. Depending on the speaker power, even four
phone wires might be marginal. Check the current ratings
he
http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm
Add the current ratings of the wire you're using, and you'll see
it's nowhere near 14 gauge.
I have checked, re-checked,
and re-checked again all the connections and they are correct so I
presume the runs are simply too long for the wire I am using. Maybe
upping to 12 gauge will help, but before spending the money I'm just
looking for ideas here. Thanks in advance.
As I said, your total wire gauge is probably marginal, but that
wouldn't
cause the effect you're seeing. As others have said, it's probably
a bad splice or a short, although you seem to imply that it's both
speakers
and that would be a really weird coincidence. Did you check with an
ohmmeter to see if there was any short between the wires.
Of course, don't discount the fact that you may have damaged something
else in the process. Try:
- switching which outputs go to your external speakers
- moving the speakers back inside and see if they still work
when they're close.
The only other thing I can think of is that you might have introduced
a left/right channel short somewhere in the wiring. This might
cause odd behavior as you increase the volume.
-jc