Our media room was pre-wired for 7.1 audio. This meant that audio wires were pulled behind the walls and ceiling to where the speakers were going to be. The other ends of the wires collected at one point where the audio receiver was to be placed. The wires weren't labeled though. So at first, the media room just had a mess of wires coming out of the wall. It looked sort of like this:
The first task in setting up the media room was to figure out which wires went to which speaker. Because the wires went behind the walls, it wasn't a simple task. No need to buy a fancy wire tester though. You can test each wire with a AA battery and a flashlight bulb.
At its core, speaker wire is just two copper wires bound together in one housing. This means that you can hook the AA battery up to the two wires at one end and the flashlight bulb at the other end, and the bulb should light up.
First step is to strip the external housing and then strip the individual housing on each speaker wire. After the copper cores are exposed, you can hook up a battery and bulb to either end of the wire. If you have chosen the correct wires, the bulb will light up. Below is a diagram:
Through a series of trial and error, you can figure out which wire goes to which speaker. Label each wire so you don't have to repeat the test.
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