Speaker wire polarity.

Not sure that I understand what you want to do. I'll guess that you want to identify the wires because they are not marked or coded in any way. If you have a voltmeter, you can connect a AA cell at one end and then measure the dc polarity at the other end.

Unless someone has fitted new wires that are identical, there must be some identifying mark(s) on them. Are they individual wires, or a piece of twin ? If twin, there will usually be a stripe on one wire, or text printed along the sleeve, or a difference in the sleeve profile between top and bottom, or even the strands inside may be different colours - gold in one conductor, silver in the other. If it really is two absolutely identical wires, then you will need to get at both ends, and use a battery and meter as suggested by the other poster. Alternatively, you can connect to the speakers with no regard to polarity, then use at 1.5v cell at the far end. The speaker cone will move either out or in. So long as you then pick one wire to arbitrarily be "+", and arrange for the same direction of cone movement on the other speaker, to arrive at a similar arbitrary "+", then your speakers will end up correctly in phase with one another.

Arfa

ARE YOU ASKING FOR WIRE COLOR USED? WHICH ONE USES THE RIB IN ZIP CORD? or WHAT?

gb

I have two wires coming from my radio. The wires go to the speaker.

One wire is a solid color, the other wire is striped.

Which one goes to the positive terminal on my speaker and wich one goes to the negative terminal?

Does not matter ... just be consistent with all the speakers.

It doesn't matter. Electrons can't see the stripe. But ...

If you have stereo, the left and right channels should be consistent.

If one of the speaker terminals is grounded at the speaker, you need to connect that one to whichever terminal at the radio is grounded.

I'm only replacing one speaker. The speaker terminals are marked + and

- .

(The old speaker has no markings on it.)

The wire pair is marked, one wire is a solid color, one wire is striped.

There must be some way to determine polarity.....

Well, then just connect it and stop worrying!

If that's the only speaker, then "polarity" is irrelevant.

If you're replacing one speaker in a stereo system, then connect it consistent with the other one. That means determining the polarity of the other speaker, which you can do with a 1.5 volt battery. But you already said you don't need help with that.

I just did some checking, speakers use ac, correct? At least in home speakers do.

If my car speakers use AC then polarity should mean very little, as in I won't fry anything???? That's my main worry, destruction thru reverse polarity.

For the speakers in question I am using the striped wire to connect to the minus terminals on the new 5 1/14 inch speakers. They sound fine and a lot better than the old ones.

Yes and yes.

No, nothing will be fried except your ears and brain if you play it too loudly.

With stereo speakers, they should be in-phase ... if they are out-of-phase, there will be cancellation of the lower frequencies ... but no frying!

Actually the OP was saying car speakers. If they are in the doors or facing each other (one in the dash the other on the rear, they need to be out-of-phase. If they are side by side, then they need to be in-phase. And Charles is right - if you get it wrong all those lovely bass notes will be reduced. So just try it one way then the other, and if the bass sounds better one way - wire it that way. And like Charles says - no frying, as they are AC.

HTH,

John

Why would you want them out of phase if on facing doors? Explain.

I personally would make sure the polarities are the same on both (in phase) since this is the way the music was originally recorded to be played back.

Bob

What he said.

Try it for yourself. If they are facing each other and in phase the sound waves create a dead zone where they cancel out. If you reverse one side they are aiding each other. When they are on the same wall the effect is reversed. What is real fun is when someone puts speakers along all four walls for paging, and you can't hear anything in the center of the room. Sometimes you want a dead zone, and if you can place the phase the speakers properly it is amazing. I installed a sound system in a high school football stadium about 30 years ago. They told me they wanted to be able to use a live microphone from goal post to goal post for the band. It worked so well that the coaches from visiting teams never failed to complain, "My boys can't hear your PA system!" I would jusT smile and tell them to "Teach your boys to play ball, not to listen to the game". Losing coaches have no sense of humor, but the school was thrilled with the way it worked.

They usually have different sized terminals.

Not so.

At least that bit's correct.

I'd suggest you actually try this. You just don't get cancellation in the centre. You will if the speakers are so close as to near touch one another.

It's most usual to identify the negative.