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I just had my outdoor covered patio wired for 4 in ceiling speakers to play sound off of a TV as well as music via a Sonos amp. I was looking at where they dropped the wires to connect to the amp and noticed only 2 sets of wires (black and white). When I went to look at the wiring outside I noticed the speaker closest to the house has a black and white wire while the rest just have a black traveling from the speaker closest to the house. 

After some googling it I think they wired this in series wiring which is not what I want, rather I want parallel for my use case. I’ll be driving 4 8 Ohm speakers (Polk 90-RT) and fear this is going to result in a loss of sound quality. They are about to close the ceiling tomorrow so I think I need to halt them and have the electrician re-wire the speakers 

If it’s a parallel run then I should end up with 4 wires not 2?

Can someone confirm my suspicion / hunch?

In the 1st pic you can see a white and black that is running into the house, in the 2nd you can see just a black with it arriving from the left side (from the speaker in the 1st pic) and in the last pic you can see just a white and black wire for 4 speakers arriving where the amp is going to be plugged in 

Edit: just realized that one of the speakers has two wires connected to it and the terminating black and white wires each have 4 wires within it for 8 total wires so I think perhaps this was done correctly, just confusing for the lay man to interpret / understand 

 

Ideally you want a “home run” from each speaker back to the amplifier location.

I can’t be sure from your description and photos, but the electrician might be messing with your sanity by swapping wire colors. The speakers don’t care about wire color. While I prefer a home run to each speaker, an alternate valid scheme would be a home run to the first left speaker, then a new wire from here to the second left speaker. During installation the two wires would be joined at the first left speaker. Similar for the two right speakers.

Ideally you want a “home run” from each speaker back to the amplifier location.

I can’t be sure from your description and photos, but the electrician might be messing with your sanity by swapping wire colors. The speakers don’t care about wire color. While I prefer a home run to each speaker, an alternate valid scheme would be a home run to the first left speaker, then a new wire from here to the second left speaker. During installation the two wires would be joined at the first left speaker. Similar for the two right speakers.

I think this is exactly what he did. 2 of the 4 speakers have 2 wires (for a total of 8, 4 inside each black and white wire) and the other 2 have 1 wire (with 2 inside)

 

he joined the “home run speakers” together, they happen to be front right and rear right just based on layout to route in the house  

Adding pic of inside of wires terminating in the house 

 

After your edit I’m a little confused. Are the wires at the amplifier location 4-conductor and there is a black 4-conductor wire out to the first speaker in each string, then white two conductor wires to the second location in each string? In this case two of the four wires in the black cable will be connected to the speaker and the other two will be joined to the white two conductor wire that continues to the second speaker in that string. This is a valid scheme and might save the electrician a few minutes while pulling the wires.

The junction between white and black should be soldered or crimped. Twist and tape or wire nut junctions will fail in a few years.

After your edit I’m a little confused. Are the wires at the amplifier location 4-conductor and there is a black 4-conductor wire out to the first speaker in each string, then white two conductor wires to the second location in each string? In this case two of the four wires in the black cable will be connected to the speaker and the other two will be joined to the white two conductor wire that continues to the second speaker in that string. This is a valid scheme and might save the electrician a few minutes while pulling the wires.

The junction between white and black should be soldered or crimped. Twist and tape or wire nut junctions will fail in a few years.

Yes, believe this is exactly how it was ran.  The wires at the amp location are 4 conductor and there is a black 4 conductor out to 1st speaker in each string (out to the 1st two closest speakers to house)

Now it looks like there is a black 4-conductor and a white 4-conductor cable. That’s OK, of course. For future reference you should make note of which wire runs where. This will save some headaches.

Now it looks like there is a black 4-conductor and a white 4-conductor cable. That’s OK, of course. For future reference you should make note of which wire runs where. This will save some headaches.

I am just going to assume that my electrician is going to hook this up but wanted to make sure that he wired it appropriately as I am unsure if he knew this was going into a Sonos amp

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