Which speaker wire is negative

Yes, if polarity isn't the same for both speakers in a stereo setup, at points equidistant between the speakers you'll get cancellation when you should get reinforcement. Asked by: Aifen Niederhofer asked in category: General Last Updated: 26th March, How do you tell positive and negative on speaker wire? Every speaker wire will have an indicator to tell them apart, such as color. In some high-end speaker wires , the insulation is transparent, or see-through, enough to see the bare wires.

When this is the case, usually the silver wire will be the positive polarity and the copper wire will be negative. Which side of speaker wire is positive? If correctly connected, the copper-colored wire compared to the silver-colored wire or the wire with the white stripe compared to the wire with no stripe should be your positive wire.

If your amp or speaker has color-coded connections, the positive should connect to the red connection. What color wire is power on car stereo? Most aftermarket head units usually use an orange wire or an orange wire with a white stripe for this. Disconnect both ends of the cable from the amp and speaker; get somebody to hold the conductors at one end onto the terminals of a battery; measure the voltage at the other end with a volt meter or a dollar-store battery tester.

Try connecting it both ways. One way the meter will show negative volts or the batter tester needle will swing the wrong direction. The other way the meter will show positive volts or the battery tester needle will swing the right direction. Sign up to join this community.

The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Identifying positive and negative speaker wires Ask Question. Asked 5 years, 4 months ago. Active 2 months ago. Viewed 47k times. I'm trying to hook them up to my amp but I have no idea which wire is positive or negative. Improve this question. It looks like the wire on the right has ridges, which often is done to identify one of two wires.

It doesn't matter which is "plus", as long as you're consistent. This causes destructive interference where the positive change in sound pressure of one sound wave cancels out the negative change in sound pressure of the other wave. The positive amplitude of one wave cancels out the equal but opposite amplitude of the other. Of course, miswiring speakers can potentially damage the speaker, amplifier, cable and more.

And How To Match Them. The actual polarity of the signal in a given speaker wire polarity is largely determined by the amplifier driving the speaker. A wire without any signal passing through it is simply a conductor generally made of copper. You can check for the following signs to ensure that your speaker wires are correctly installed. If you look through all of these factors, you will be able to ensure that your speaker wires were installed correctly.

This will provide you with the best listening experience so you can have good quality audio whenever you need or want it. What is the difference between sound and audio? The key difference between sound and audio is their form of energy. Sound is mechanical wave energy longitudinal sound waves that propagate through a medium causing variations in pressure within the medium.

Audio is made of electrical energy analog or digital signals that represent sound electrically. What is microphone polarity, and how does it affect audio signals? Microphone polarity is thought of and noted in two ways.

You can check out a few of them with the best reviews. In most cases, you will have to connect your phone to the audio output and then move it closer to your speaker. How to test polarity with the Speaker Pop polarity testing app. A lot of testers also come with a tone generator, which can transform an electrical signal into an audio signal.

So, if you need a signal generator as well, investing in a polarity tester with both of these functions will come in handy. The battery is a cheaper option than the tester.

Thus, you can run to the nearest store and buy one. Once you have the battery with you, you should take one of the speaker wires and put them in the negative terminal of the battery. Then, take another one and place it on the positive terminal. Your speaker will move as soon as you connect the wires to the battery. In case the speaker moves inward, the wire that you connected to the negative terminal is positive.

On the other hand, if a speaker moves outward, you connected the positive wire to the positive battery terminal. Is it important to connect your wires correctly? Can connecting speaker wires of a wrong polarity harm your devices? Not really. Generally, connecting the wrong wires cannot ruin your speaker or the amplifier you connected the speaker to.