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?

4 points

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

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1 point

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

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9 points
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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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1 point

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

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-7 points

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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8 points

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

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1 point

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

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

https://www.fluke.com/en-us/learn/blog/electrical/non-contact-voltage-detector-basics

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9 points

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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