Top products from r/audiovisual

What he said!

Extech 40180 Tone Generator and Amplifier Probe Circuit Finder Kit https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00023RVNO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_s77kDbSBPKNRE

There are cheaper options, but you'd want to unplug the wire at the speaker, connect the tone generator to the conductors, then determine if the wires go up or down using the 'wand' by following the sound generated in the cable and vocalized by said 'wand'. Go to the basement or attic accordingly.

People who run their own cables are amazingly clever in their application, but usually you are looking at one of 3 scenarios:

1. Every cable in the house is pulled to a central location. This tends to be a closet and possibly cabnit within a centralized room of some sort, maybe in a laundry room, bathroom, or master bedroom.
   
   
2. Each room is a stand alone system, in which case a/v cabling will be self contained per room, usually in a closet or supposed to be connected to equipment in credenza underneath a TV. The cabling could likely be mudded in to the cavity in the wall.
   
   
3. A mixture of the two above, with bedrooms being the most likely to be self contained and audio cabling for outdoor/living areas being centrally ran.
   
   Bear in mind, low voltage cabling is often done without licensing and inspection, and therefore will likely need to be ripped out upon presale inspection. People leave boxes in walls because it's easier than ripping them out, mudding them, and painting what is likely to be an entire room. Have you verified the cabling is in place? You should be able to see cables exit walls above outlet areas either in an attic, basement, or crawlspace.
   
   If you have verified there is existing cable, it is a simple matter of determining where the cable goes in your home from the wall above a speaker - follow it until it gows down in to a different wall, identify that wall in your home, and look on both sides on every floor of that wall to find a place the cable could reasonably exit. This is where your fox and hound will come in. Sweep the wall the cable enters from either top to bottom of bottom to top, using the intensity of the sound of the sensor to tell you how close or far away the majority of the cable is. Understand wall studs are often placed 12-16 inches apart, and that there are horizontal bars blocking progress between floors- this means it's most likely that only one cavity within your wall is used for cables to go back and forth.
   
   This can be frustrating to decipher. There are silver linings. If this home was once cabled, and it no longer is, the path is still there. Most of the time people will cut ends off instead of pull cable entirely out- that means if you can locate it, there's a good chance you can use the cut cable to pull your new cable through. The rewards of a house successfully wired for A/V are worth the headache.
   
   I hope this helps. Good luck!

Bose (Better Off-with Something Else) used to use RCA connectors for speakers which is very non-standard. You could buy a cable like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CMW6Q1B and cut it (so you didn’t need to cut the male cable that does into the wall) and connect to bare wire to your speaker outputs. However normally those small speakers connect to a subwoofer which is also a cross-over. Skipping this could blow speakers. Especially if you are sending much low-end to them. That’s my memory of Bose but I’ve never been a fan of anything but their headphones. Good luck.

Something like this, I believe.

PAC TL-PTG2 Tone Generator and Speaker Polarity Tester with RCA Cable Tester https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0072LHMME/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_YutkDbXV8K0HV