Yeah this is a dumb question but owell, is there positive+ & negative- on the speaker wire, does it matter when hooking up speakers like is there anyway if there was a + and - that it would mess the speakers up. Just wanted to know, and if there is a + and - how do you find which wire is positive and which is negative. Thanks
The speaker wire are just the regular 2 wire. Like on most speakers.
usually most people put the copper wire to the + and the silver wire goes to the -. hth or if the wire has he insulation u cant see through the one with the white stripe is -. doesnt really matter which way you put it though as long as you have the wire going to the right place i.e. positive on both ends and negative on both ends
The most important thing here is not what conductor of speaker wire is used for positive (+) or negative (-). The most important thing is that the positive (+) output of the amplifier goes to the positive (+) input of the speaker, and that the negative (-) output of the amplifier goes to the negative (-) input on the speaker.
If all your speakers are wired such that the above conditions are met, then your speakers are said to be ‘in phase’. If they are OUT of phase (meaning that one speaker is wired (+) to (+), but the other is wired (+) to (-)), then you will experience severely reduced audio performance and an almost total loss of bass output (because the waves from the woofer on one side will cancel out the waves from the other woofer). It is obviously important to ensure that all speakers are IN phase.
If you are using wire actually designed for speakers, then there should be a marking on the wire that indicates (+) and (-), usually by using different colors of wire or by placing a marking on the jacket of the wire.
Contrary to what ‘white_teggy’ said, usually the wire whose jacket has a tracer (could be a contrasting color line, or simply writing) is the one used for positive (+) connection. But again, this is not the important thing. Just make sure which ever you choose for (+) at one end, is (+) at the other end, and the same with (-).
HTH
The color of the wires isn’t a factor.make sure you keep the polarity right.Use a nine volt battery to “pop” the speakers they shuold all move the same way(out).But sticking with the same wire code helps.(stripe or copper as positve or negative doesn’t matter as long as they are all the same polarity)
I’ll throw in my 2cents worth, the above is the closest to being right, the output of an amp is AC so it makes no diff. on what way you wire it + to + or + to - on the speaker, as long as you do it the same on all the speakers, and the above is also right, having speaker wire with some kind of “tracer” on one of the wires will make it easier to wire the speakers in phase, but an easy test to make sure you have wired them in phase is to just balance from right to left, and if bass responce is better when both speakers are on, you have them in phase, if you get better bass when you are on the left or the right then when both are on, then you are out of phase, switch one set of speaker wires, [makes no diff. if you switch the left or the right] do this for the fronts, then the rears, use the fader, once you have the fronts , [left and right] and the rear, [left and right] in phase then you can check to make sure the fronts and rears are in phase, a little harder to tell, use the fader, [ balance in the center] and fade front to rear, there will be a point where the bass will, [ if out of phase] decrease enough to tell, if so, switch the speaker wires on both the left and right rear or front speakers. :whew: 94
An interesting observation I suppose. I don’t really understand what was said by ‘Integra4me’ that was not covered in my response.
If you read the VERY FIRST LINE in my response, I clearly and plainly called out what you guys are recycling; that the color of the wires or their respective insulation has nothing to do with the sound, but that the important thing is maintaining proper phase for all speakers involved. I then offered the tip that using the insulation references on the wires (they’re put there for a reason, it’s called convenience. ) can be a way to ensure proper phasing which will aid in ease of installation.
I’d like to direct your attention to the last paragraph in my original response, which states the following.