Speaker polarity

[BobD]

So, I'm having an addition put on my house and I had them wire some outside speakers. I stupidly got speaker wire that has no indication for polarity. How do I determine the polarity when I hook up speakers in the spring?

 

[OttoMatic]

I would attach a battery to one one and then measure the other end with a voltmeter.

I don't think there's a way to easily figure it out just by testing it with the speakers attached. You could listen, but depending on a bunch of factors, that might not be effective (speakers are too far apart; you got them both wired right, but they are both wrong polarity wrt receiver (yeah, I know that won't be a big deal, but I like to know which is which), you just can't hear the difference, etc.).

Good luck!

 

[Cpt.America]

I have never seen speaker wire where one half of the pair didnt have some sort of mark on the exterior shielding... never.

 

[OttoMatic]

I have never seen speaker wire where one half of the pair didnt have some sort of mark on the exterior shielding... never.

Yeah, it's very uncommon, but I have one example in my home of it. Not sure where it came from, and it sure is frustrating.

It's also possible that the wire itself is different colors. I've seen that before.

 

[BobD]

Ctp. America,

I guess I just got lucky. There is no indication on the outside of the wire at all. I can't believe I didn't look for that when I bought the wire.

 

[markw]

You need an assistant and a 1 1/2 volt battery.

The speaker driver should be hooked up and visible to said assistant.

On the non-speaker side, touch the spealker wires to the battery terminals.

With the polarity one way, the speaker will pulse (once) outwards. I would mark the wire touching the positive battery terminal.

If you reverse the polarity, the speaker will pulse inwards.

As long as they both go in and out with the same polarity, you've got a go, but I'd mark the posititive side when they pulse out.

Without getting nit-picky, just concern yourself with the largest driver.

 

[Exit]

My Yamaha YAPO has a speaker phase test and you get a graphic picture of any speeakers that are wired out of phase. You should check and see if your receiver has this feature because it makes correct connection very easy.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

That will work with some speakers but it gets others wrong. YPAO always says my Paradigms are reversed.

If you look at the wire real close you may find that the insulation splits differenty when you pull the two wires apart. One will indent and the other will stick out. You can use this for polarity identification.

The battery test is what I use.

My Yamaha YAPO has a speaker phase test and you get a graphic picture of any speakers that are wired out of phase. You should check and see if your receiver has this feature because it makes correct connection very easy.

 

[highfigh]

So, I'm having an addition put on my house and I had them wire some outside speakers. I stupidly got speaker wire that has no indication for polarity. How do I determine the polarity when I hook up speakers in the spring?

If your speakers are close enough to each other, connect them, listen to them and have someone adjust the balance to one side (it doesn't matter). If the bass is better with the balance to one side, reverse one. Since you're outside, imaging isn't critical and whether they're both reversed won't really matter unless the woofers can bottom out.

Do the battery test but don't keep it connected for long- just watch for the cone to move.

If one conductor is copper and the other is silver colored, that's how they indicate and it might not be visible until you strip some of the insulation off.

 

[Votrax]

Usually speaker wire that isn't marked will have one wire that's tinned and the other is plain copper.

 

[david_g]

Reverse Polarity - Does it matter?

I just set up my Pioneer Elite VSX31 and ran the MCACC program. It indicated all 5 speakers were reversed. Does it matter since all were wired the same?