Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Audio speaker wires which is + and -

just wondering if anyone could tell me which wire is + and which is - on the rear dorr speakers on my svt..the wires that actually attach to the rear door speakers in a 98 svt..one is white and brown and the other i can't remember?i installed some infinity speaker and i think they may be out of phase..can anyone help?

I'm pretty sure white was + and brown was -. To be safe just hook your speaker up and watch to see if its pushing out on the bass or not.

thanx joel,i tried them both ways,i thought i had them right,but now that i listen to them driving,the bass kinda clips,just wanted to double check,and make sure i had them right..thanx...chris..

well as long as both speakers are wired the same way it wouldnt make too much difference,if its out of phase its pretty easy to tell, it cancels out more than youd expect. when i accidentally had my two new subs plugged in out of phase, i was ready to throw them back in the box and take them back ! (luckily i was NOT an idiot and i checked everything over and found that in about 30 seconds )

noise cancellation is an intersting thing. a friend of mine has headphones that have a built in mic, read the outside noise, and produce off frequencies to cancel them out. put them on, and its like the whole outside world is put on mute. they are SO damn cool. pricey tho

you need to know this or you will destroy voice coils when running high levels . It won't be immediate but it will happen. Forget the colours for now. What you need to do is take a voltmeter if you have one and attach ground wire to battery. Then take positive side of voltmeter and touch one wire at a time. ( with stereo on) The positive wire will give reading on voltmeter when you touch it. They negative wire won't. If no voltmeter use speaker. Attach negative of speaker to battery negative by wire. Touch wires one at a time. the wire that gives you sound is the positive one.

the battery "pop" test does work , but i think i remember hearing somewhere that you dont want to hold it on there too long as it isnt good for the speaker so be careful when you do it. i dunno this first hand or anything, but just thought id toss that out there

sound_contour a battery (1.5v AA size) can be used across the terminals of a speaker to check it's polarity. When the positive terminal of the battery is connected to the positive of the speaker the cone will push out. If it's hooked up in reverse (batt positive to speaker negative etc) the cone will pull back into the speaker basket.

Handy for working out the poarity of the wiring loom if you have the original speaker to test. The battery wouldn't be able to supply enough current to damage the speaker.

okay, thanks for filling me in on that one, i just thought i heard that and wasnt sure. i didnt think it was enough juice to hurt anything, but i would've felt bad if the guy damaged his speakers

We'll need to know what? Are you saying that you think wiring subs out of phase will harm a speaker?

He's saying if you have your polarity reversed on a normal speaker it will eventually damage the speaker.