Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Audio speaker pos and neg? how do i tell each?

The cheap way to determine proper polarity is to use a 3v or 6volt battery.

When the negative side of the speaker is connected to the negative side of the battery and positive side of speaker to positive side of the battery you should see the speaker pop OUT (forward, in polarity). If it goes in, well you are wired backwards, out of polarity.

Note I stated POLARITY because PHASE in a car is Relative to your Listening Position. In other words you may achieve proper phase at your listening position by using backwards polarity at the speaker terminal.

You have relative and absolute phase.

Absolute out of phase is like the recording was +/- but your complete system is -/+, this is hard to detect.

Relative Phase, a speaker or set of speakers out of phase with another set can be easy to detect.

I use a tone generator and phase detector to set up phase.
A tone generator should be used to in lue of a 3v or 6v for checking polarity also.

You need to be careful when using a battery so that you don't blow the speaker.