So there are 4 speakers upstairs split between 2 areas (kitchen & living room) and 2 more outside on the deck. But there are only 4 pairs of wires. There is a knob on the wall in the kitchen which I assume acts to control volume but I can't tell if it works. The 2 in the living area work, but I can't get the 2 in the kitchen to work. I tried turning the knob and nothing. Only one of the 2 outside speakers works. I don't remember what brand they were or specs, but I pulled a grill off one in the kitchen and had to google the name and it looks like some junk brand. The speaker in the kitchen was wired, but I couldn't trace the wire without tearing up the kitchen. I believe this was all installed when the house was built but am suspicious that someone might have added the 2 outside speakers and then tried splicing the wires or something. That might explain how only one of the two is working.
The basement also was setup for 5.1 surround using similar crap speakers. The movers made a mess of the wires when they moved the former owners out, but I got all 5 working and may replace them later on. There were HDMI cables that were run through the wall from a closet to a cutout behind the wall mount. Unfortunately the movers had tried yanking those through and the cables got stuck in the studs 1/2 way through. Took me a day to get the cables out then to take off the base board, notch it out and cut out the drywall behind the baseboard to get cables back up to where the tv hangs. I really wish the builders had run conduit or the movers didn't try to pull the HDMIs.
Bottom line, neither the builder or the previous owners were focused on quality sound. This was just for appearances, but I am trying to make it work.