speaker wire not labeled + and -?

[robblaw]

I have this speaker wire that has one silver and one copper strand but nowhere do any of them indicate positive from negative. You know like the white line on most speaker wire to indicate positive. What is going on here? What if someone was color blind? Which is positve the silver or copper wire???? Also how can I hook up my 4 speakers to run off a 2 channel amplifier. Thanks.

[Terrandus]

Simple, hook 2 speakers to one channel and the other two speakers the other channel. From what I've seen its one of the most common ways. A lot of the guys around here are running 3 channel amps with 2 speakers on one channel, 2 speakers on another channel, and the subs on the third channel.

On the speaker wire.. it really doesn't matter. as long as the wire connects to both the (+) on the amp/cd player/etc. and to the (+) on the speaker.. it doesn't matter what color or what lines are on the wire. Electricty doesn't care what your wires look like. And in all reality.. you could even hook-up the wires backwards and the speakers would still play, the signal would just be inverted, meaning you get the same sound, but the speakers reproduce the signal exactly opposite as opposed to having the wires "not crossed"

[bbriand]

I think if you wire one side in differently from the other side you may get distorted sound. They would be working against each other and there may even be some weird sound deadening going one. Something to do with one side being the inverted phase of the other.

Especially with the front and rear on the same side make sure they are wired the same. Now as long as you wired say the copper strand to the negative on one wire the copper strand as negative on all the speakers.

Terrandus is right that it doesn't matter how you wire them just make sure, like I mentioned earlier, you remain consistant! Pick copper (or silver) as ground and use it for negative on all the speakers.

Good luck,

Bill Briand

[Terrandus]

I understand why you would think that about the inverted phase and everything.. my brother kept telling me the same thing untill I dragged into my room and showed him and although I can't give you the scientific explination I know it works.. try it out your self. I play around with stereo system in my room all the time. Your speakers will play the same if you reverse the positive and negative leads on the JUST the radio side. You will hear what sounds like the same music, but technically its not the same because its inverted.. and simply put: the speakers in this case are functing backwards.. but backwards or forwards the sound waves sound identical.

[WhtCastle]

Originally posted by Terrandus

And in all reality.. you could even hook-up the wires backwards and the speakers would still play, the signal would just be inverted, meaning you get the same sound, but the speakers reproduce the signal exactly opposite as opposed to having the wires "not crossed"

That CAN cause problems. It is rare though. I believe that is called 'phase' mode as well.

[Terrandus]

I only did it once to see if it would work. I didn't leave it that way because I knew there had to be reason why it isn't done that way.

[92saturnsl2]

When combining multiple speakers to your amp, make sure the impedance is correct, or you may wind up with a fried amplifier. Say the amp is designed to run in a 4ohm stereo mode, a two channel amp can only operate one car speaker per channel. If the amp is rated two ohms stereo, you can safely wire two speakers (in parallel) to each channel. If you want to wire two speakers to each channel in a 4ohm stereo amp, you'd have to wire the two speakers in series (making 8 ohms per channel) but that effectively cuts the wattage in half produced by the amp.

While speakers can be operated in reverse polarity, it's not recommened in an aftermarket amp setup. Especially when different speakers are operated at different polarities. You will get distorted sound, and a definate lack of bass by doing this (in most enclosures).

Normally the sound waves are produced at each ocillation of the speaker (measured in hz). The soundwaves are created from both the front and back of the speaker (which cancel each other out [mostly low hz, bass] if an enclosure isn't used).

When the speaker is inside an enclosure (such as a car door or hatchback), the sound waves produced from the back of the cone are deadened by the enclosure, the only the sound waves from the front of the cone are heard (sound waves are not cancelled out this way, that's why subwoofers must have enclosures to be loud).

When the polarity is reversed between different speakers, it's the same effect as having a "free-air" speaker with no enclosure. Because the waves from one speaker (with reverse polarity) will be cancel the sound waves (not so much noticable at higher frequencies) of the other. The front cone of the speaker with reverse polarity is essencially putting out the same sound wave as the back of the cone on the speaker with normal polarity....

Sounds confusing but is true...

If the polarity of the wires is not labeled, it's safe to say the copper wire is the positive, and the silver wire is negative. This is a common setup, copper being closest to red, is obviously positive (well the designer of the setup came to that conclusion).

Hope this helps :-)

[David 93 SL2m]

All of this is correct. When we switch the wires for both speakers the sound will be the same. Wire is wire. But when we only switch the wires for one of the speakers but not the other the sound will be terrible. This is called "out of phase." Hopefully the use of colors, underlines, and bold attributes will make the following easy to read.

For example, we can decide to attach:

• silver wire between the radio's positive contact for the rear left speaker and the rear left speaker's positive contact
• copper wire between the radio's negative contact for the rear left speaker and the rear left speaker's negative contact
• silver wire between the radio's positive contact for the rear right speaker and the rear right speaker's positive contact
• copper wire between the radio's negative contact for the rear right speaker and the rear right speaker's negative contact

It will sound fine.

We could be inconsistent and decide to attach:

• silver wire between the radio's positive contact for the rear left speaker and the rear left speaker's positive contact
• copper wire between the radio's negative contact for the rear left speaker and the rear left speaker's negative contact
• copper wire between the radio's positive contact for the rear right speaker and the rear right speaker's positive contact
• silver wire between the radio's negative contact for the rear right speaker and the rear right speaker's negative contact

It will sound fine.

We could even do something weird such as attach the wires like this:

• silver wire between the radio's positive contact for the rear left speaker and the rear left speaker's negative contact
• copper wire between the radio's negative contact for the rear left speaker and the rear left speaker's positive contact
• silver wire between the radio's positive contact for the rear right speaker and the rear right speaker's negative contact
• copper wire between the radio's negative contact for the rear right speaker and the rear right speaker's positive contact

It will still sound fine.

But if we reverse the leads for just one of the speakers, that speaker will be out of phase and the music will sound terrible. Try this with your home speakers.

For example, assume that the wire is set up as I mentioned in my first list and we were to change it as follows:

• silver wire between the radio's positive contact for the rear left speaker and the rear left speaker's negative contact
• copper wire between the radio's negative contact for the rear left speaker and the rear left speaker's positivecontact
• silver wire between the radio's positive contact for the rear right speaker and the rear right speaker's positive contact
• copper wire between the radio's negative contact for the rear right speaker and the rear right speaker's negative contact

It will sound like crap. Notice that we have crossed the wires for the rear left speaker but not for the other speaker.

So define which wire will be used for which contacts and then be consistent.

[92saturnsl2]

Yes the speakers will sound the same as long as the polarity is matched.

You know when speakers are turned up loud, the cone moves in and out. Well if you take two speakers, one with the reverse polarity, every time the first speaker's cone moves outward, the other speakers cone will move inward... Sound waves are cancelled out.

In a correct polarity setup, the cone moves outward when fed a positive (+) signal.

[David 93 SL2m]

Yes. In wave theory the points where the waves overlap are called nodes and the waves cancel out are called anti-nodes. These show up in general springs and sound waves and stuff.

Here is a good example: two kids swinging a jump rope. When both kids have their arms swinging in the same direction with respect to the rope (one kid going clockwise and the other going counterclockwise) everything works out and they get a nice pattern. One kid can even swing their arm twice as fast as the other kid is swinging their arm and they still get things working out okay. But when the kids are swinging the rope in opposite directions with respect to the rope (both are going clockwise or both are going counterclockwise) weird things happen. In some points the rope will be still (anti-nodes) and in other points the rope will be swinging wildly (nodes).

Physics is phun!

[OhioVueBoy]

Volkswagen had a problem that they will not admit to, but some owners on VWVortex.com figured out. On the Golf and Jetta models with the double din Monsoon stereo, the speakers were wired out of phase at the amp, and they sounded terrible and nobody liked it... everyone blamed it on the new head unit at first, and then when they got the speakers fixed, everybody liked the new head unit better.
~D.J.~