Speaker Wires Hookup

[BozSail]

Does it matter what speaker wires go to the terminals on the speaker? In other words, is there a positive and negative? I'm asking because the new speakers I bought don't show any mark indication on the terminals.

[Wotname]

No practical difference.

[wholybee]

If they are stereo speakers, or if you are adding speakers to an existing system (ex. front/rear) then what matters is that they are all wired the same. If they are not wired the same, you can usually hear the audio is out of phase. You might not hear dialog, highs will be lost, and just terrible quality in general.

As long as they are the same, then there is no practical difference.

[flee27]

you will not hurt anything by reversing the polarity. You will effect sound quality. But you might not be able to hear a difference depending on many factors.

Simply stated if one speaker is reversed from the other, one will cancel out the other. Audibly one will normally hear this in the low frequencies. Basically all of the air one driver pushes the other driver pulls. That is over simplified but...

Again a normal pair of 6.5" speakers, powered from a radio in your boat you most likely will not hear any difference.

You can hold the two speaker wires, one to positive and one to negative (9volt battery works great) of a DC power source. When you do this if the speaker moves out then the wire on the positive side of the battery is positive. If the speaker moves in then the wire on the positive side of the batter is negative.

Best
Foster

[jamhass]

The Flee rocks. Exactly correct.

[thinwater]

Yup. And that is why speaker wire is marked for polarity, as are the terminals.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Yup. And that is why speaker wire is marked for polarity, as are the terminals.

Originally Posted by BozSail

..... the new speakers I bought don't show any mark indication on the terminals.

Except when they aren't marked, hence the question

[stevead]

The speaker terminals may not be marked but usually the spade terminals are different sizes, the smaller of the two being the negative.

[ChrisJHC]

However, if you wire them up backwards then any heavy metal music you play will come out as Country and Western!

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by BozSail

Does it matter what speaker wires go to the terminals on the speaker? In other words, is there a positive and negative? I'm asking because the new speakers I bought don't show any mark indication on the terminals.

Insulation jacket of the conductor wire usually has an embossed ridge on one leg. Alternatively, one wire is copper colored while the other is silver colored. There is almost always a way to keep the polarity consistent. Though in the current world of ultra cheap Chinese manufacturing, I could easily see where neither convention was observed.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by BozSail

Does it matter what speaker wires go to the terminals on the speaker? In other words, is there a positive and negative? I'm asking because the new speakers I bought don't show any mark indication on the terminals.

It matters that the speakers are all the same source on the amp to the speaker terminals, otherwise your speakers can be out of phase.

In other words if there is a black and red terminal on the back of the amp, you want the wires from the Red terminals to go to the same color terminal on all the speakers, whether it is the black (-) one or the red (+) one on the speakers doesn't matter as long as the speakers are all the same ..

[senormechanico]

If you have them connected, supply a monoural i.e. not stereo signal (ex. an AM radio station) and listen in between the speakers.

If the sound seems to be coming from where you are, they are IN phase.
If the sound distinctly sounds like it is coming separately from both speakers, they are OUT of phase.

[jrobert890]

Connect the speaker to a D battery. If the cone moves out, then the terminal connected to the + side of the battery is the positive + terminal. If the cone moves in, then the terminal connected to the positive + side of the battery is the negative - terminal. Connect the wires accordingly.