What are these wires?

2 years ago by surewhynotlem to c/diy

I bought a house a few months ago and I'm still trying to figure out all the wiring. I found these coming out of a cabinet in the kitchen.

I think (?) the black one is a cut-off coax cable. There's a LOT of coax in this house, so that seems straightforward (but I would still love if someone can confirm!)

I'm not sure about the other ones. They don't look electric, as I'd expect electric to be black + white + copper, like the rest of the house.

There is supposedly a speaker system in the house (I see speakers) but I haven't figured it out yet. Could that be power for the speakers? I'm not familiar with speaker wire setup. If it's speakers, why would there be so many wires?

rc__buggy 23 points 2 years ago

Do you have a chicken stick yet? Every homeowner needs a chicken stick:

https://www.fluke.com/...

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surewhynotlem 10 points 2 years ago

An excuse to buy a tool? Yes please!

And thanks, I hadn't even thought of this. I was going to try and rig up a multi-meter and pray I didn't fry myself.

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cannedtuna 22 points 2 years ago

Like others have said, it’s speaker wires. That’s not what you’d used for electrical wiring. Nothing wrong with being cautious and checking for voltage with a multimeter, but those are most likely speaker wires.

The reason there are probably so many wires is they may have had a stereo receiver located there for patio audio or something similar with a cable box as one of the inputs on the receiver.

You might look into buying a tone and probe kit if you are having trouble locating the wires. A toner runs an audio tone through the wires and the probe wand has a speaker that helps you hear and follow the sound that runs down the wire.

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brygphilomena 5 points 2 years ago

Nice thing about speaker wires since he says he sees speakers still in the house, is you could just connect an audio source and you'll know exactly where that wire ends.

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Telstarado 15 points 2 years ago

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surewhynotlem 2 points 2 years ago

Thank you all! With a bit of testing, I've confirmed that the gray ones are speaker wires.

I used the non contact voltage another first. Great advice.

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TheWorldRolledMe 10 points 2 years ago

Left most looks like cat5/6 Ethernet cable but hard to tell from pic. If there's multiple tiny, colored wires, solid and a striped, it's that. Next one is RG-59 coax. Others look like speaker wire of some sort but I'd test with a multimeter to be sure they aren't live

Edit: RG-6 to RG-59. Hard to tell from pic though

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surewhynotlem 2 points 2 years ago

Thank you all! With a bit of testing, I've confirmed that the gray ones are speaker wires.

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Clent 9 points 2 years ago

Looks like it could be speaker wire for stereo, left/right channels

Is there another end or are there speakers in the ceiling or walls?

Do you have a volt meter? You can use that to match the ends, twist one set together and see which one is closed.

If that was connected to a wall jacks, someone is an asshole for not leaving it. The part tools to strip and rebuild the connectors aren't expensive but they a one and done tool for a diy-er. Maybe you know someone that can borrow you the tool.

These days, there are a lot of wireless options so you could also shove it the wall and buy a blank plate to cover it.

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surewhynotlem 1 point 2 years ago

Thank you all! With a bit of testing, I've confirmed that the gray ones are speaker wires.

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dariusj18 8 points 2 years ago

Two speaker wires, coax and I think cat5 or phone wire

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surewhynotlem 1 point 2 years ago

Thank you all! With a bit of testing, I've confirmed that the gray ones are speaker wires.

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infinitevalence 4 points 2 years ago

Two speaker wires, one RG6 coaxial cable, and I think cat5 on the left.

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surewhynotlem 1 point 2 years ago

Thank you all! With a bit of testing, I've confirmed that the gray ones are speaker wires.

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surewhynotlem 1 point 2 years ago

I had issues with the image upload. Sorry about that. Hopefully it's showing now.

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flueterflam 6 points 2 years ago

Quality is enough for the 2-wire speaker cables. The coax cable makes sense from the photo, but I personally I wouldn't have figured it out from the photo. Seems like a lot of ideas from the left-most cable but it seems too broad to be ethernet and especially telephone. It seems like power, based on width, but difficult to tell without a more direct view of the cross-section and preferably cutting some of the outer-most shelling to see the inner colors

EDIT: I disagree that the black and red colored frayed cables are power. Those colors are most frequently speaker colors AND frayed from being forced into speaker ports. You don't normally get fraying like that from power-related components (e.g. power outlets).

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surewhynotlem 1 point 2 years ago

Thank you all! With a bit of testing, I've confirmed that the gray ones are speaker wires.

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ALostInquirer 4 points 2 years ago

Not sure what these wires are either, but the frayed ones seem like possibly electrical. Do you have a multimeter to help check?

Also replying here to let ya know the image is showing now.

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badbytes -7 points 2 years ago

These are found in late century builds, they are called Shakies. You grab all the wires in one hand and try and hold on as long as possible, for maximum points.

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