Free stereo (not working)

Hey guys,

I'm 42 years old and have never owned a home stereo aside from a cheap Aiwa all in on unit as a teenager. I have no idea what I'm doing with stereo stuff.

With that being said my sister's boyfriend gave me a bunch of home stereo stuff when I helped them move last month. It was his grandmothers stuff and he knows nothing about it. Cheap Kenwood stuff for the components. Realistic speakers.

Decided to take it out of my pickup bed this morning as I need the truck. Rather than pile it up in the garage I decided to see if it works. Only two speakers have any wire. So I hooked them up. Connected the 5 CD changer with a red white cable from the line out of the changer to the CD ports on the stereo receiver. Hooked up the speakers on A-side. Turned on and both lit up. Set CD player to disk 5 as that is where I put a CD. It started to playing the first track according to the display, but no music from the speakers.

Switched to B side for speakers, but still nothing. Unplugged the speakers from the receiver and used an old trick for car stereos. When trying to figure out right and left years ago a guy told me to use a 9 volt battery and it will make a static sound in whichever speaker you have it connected to. Both speakers made static noise, so I'm pretty confident they work.

Any idea why no sound from the stereo?

Chris

Oh crap, I meant to put this in off topic. Can a mod move it, please?

I wouldn't start with trying the CD changer- it's just one more thing to go wrong.

Start with the radio. Receiver and speakers- nothing more. Once you have sound there, add the CD changer.

I have a feeling it is an operational issue, like a "Mute" button depressed, or the input selector on the wrong channel, or something like that.

I tried the stereo as well. No antenna attached though, so that could be an issue. Used a good strong fm station as the test, but nothing.

In reply to Mazdax605:

Even without reception or an antenna, you should be able to get radio white noise.

Is there a button to select speakers, like A-B?

Yeah, when you have A/B you can have either on or off, or both on or off.

I cant remember but can tape monitor mess with the output?

Yeah, Tape, or VCR or any other input will do that too, depending on the unit. It can look like everything is set for radio but the Tape button is pushed and you get only tape (or nothing if there is no tape playing.)

There is a button for A or B speakers. Also a switch on the rear that is for A or B 8 ohms or more, or A and B blah, blah, blah ohm numbers(I don't remember) switching these doesn't result in any sound at all.

No technical insight to add, but my general advice would be to not spend too much time on it. When my old receiver in the shop died, I picked up a decent mid-2000s Pioneer at my local Goodwill store for $30.

I use this method for car speakers, should be the same for home speakers. Grab a good 9 volt battery and briefly touch the speaker wires to the posts. Should get a good "thump" or "thud" from the speakers. Can use it to figure out polarity of the wires too, based on whether the cone moves inward or outward.