Virtually every current home receiver has some type of Protection Circuit built in. This is intended to alert the receiver to any short circuit on the speaker outputs, allowing the receiver to disconnect the speakers internally. This will normally prevent expensive damage to the amplifier inside the receiver when such a condition occurs.

• Carefully inspect the speaker wires for damage, and ensure that they are properly connected. Also be sure that it is a clean connection, because even one strand of a speaker wire that grounds out or shorts to another speaker wire can cause problems.
• One defective speaker can cause the sound to cut out to all of the speakers. To check for a defective speaker, try connecting the speakers individually to see if a specific speaker is causing the problem.
• If the volume is turned up beyond the capability of the speakers, this can cause the speakers to appear shorted to the receiver. It is typical that the maximum safe volume setting may be less than 3/4 of the way up. A volume setting higher than that can either cause extreme distortion from the speakers or may cause the receiver's internal amplifier to clip the output signal. Either one of these problems can cause the protect circuit to engage, and cut out the sound.