Car speakers + and -'s

[joker_927]

I'm hooking up a set of speaakers and the wires have +'s and -'s but the leads on the speaker don't have any sumbols that I can see. Does it matter if I hook them up backwards?

How else can I tell?

thx

[Dax_Brandy]

it should not concern you. the polarities for speakers are to make the connection standard. the red wire to the positive output and black to the negative. but in most cases you can interchange them. unless the connection has some circuit/filters/capacitors then you have to find out which terminal should be the + or -. polarized electrolytic capacitors in the speakers will tell you which is + or -.

[dustyrun]

I thought that it refered to the direction that the coil moves in relationship to the music.?

Rick

[bailey]

not totally true, the polareizing of the speakers has a pourpose,
it is so theat the cone of the speaker all move in the same direction at the same time.

[Dj-Icer]

How is it now? Still working properly?

[JayMan]

Basically the speaker will work which ever way you hook it up.

With the correct +- orientation the sound will be "normal", if you hooked up the +- in reverse, the sound with be in the opposite phase...

Now if all speakers are hooked up the same, you wont really hear a difference most likely (altho there is a difference, most people wont be able to tell). But say you have 2 speakers, one is hooked up normal, one is hooked up reverse, you will hear a pretty bad sound..... They will be very little volume & generally it will sound crap...

Why? See below for a rough picture of what happens with the sound waves:

"normal" - /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"reverse" -\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

So... as 1 speaker makes a /\ the other is making a \/... when these sound waves meet each other they will cancel each other out, meaning that sound will not be heard.

Hope that helps

JayMan

[JayMan]

Also... You may have notice if you hookup a speaker while it is not in any sort of enclosure (so the entire speaker is fully open all around) you will get very little volume.

This is for the same reason as above, but this time the sound waves from the front of the speaker are being cancelled out by the sound waves from the back of the speaker.

JayMan

[bailey]

itl work ok but will not have the impack it would have if connected correctly

[wju425]

You can find out by hooking up the speaker except for one lead. Turn the stereo on and tap the wire on the terminal. Watch the cone in front. If it pushes up you got it right. If it pulls down you'll know it's wrong. I'm surprised there's no marking. Usually there's a dot (+) on the metal or etching (+ or/and -) on the plastic bracket. I don't know if there's such speakers like your that's made for hi powered units that puts out ac instead of dc. In that case it doesn't matter which wire you hook up where but you don't ground 'em.

\o/ Billy