polarity and wires

[kwtjx]

Just about to replace my dash speakers, and I am 90 percent sure the reddish wire is pos and the greenish is negative. Is this right? I know VERY little abotu this stereo business. Thanks,

Nick

[rubibotkin]

is there a black stripe down one of the wires? cuz if there is then thats your ground, other wise id say the green is your ground.

[kwtjx]

I have no idea about ground, no idea about anything. I want to know which wire I connect to the + on the speaker and which to the -. Thanks for the reply though. Could you elaborate on grounding?

[rubibotkin]

the - is the ground, there one in the same

[Scrambler82]

:cool:

Try hooking up the wires one way and if there is no music coming out of the speaker (well maybe there might be talking) then reverse the wires.

Luck

[Jerry Bransford]

So long as both speakers are wired the same way, you could even have the wiring reversed at both speakers and you'd be fine, so long as both sides are wired the same... "correctly" or reversed, it makes no difference so long as they are in phase with each other.

Wire one side and then put the speaker grill on. On the other speaker, temporarily connect the wiring to the speaker and listen to music that is NOT stereo. Find an AM station playing music and it'll make it easier for this "listening test". Then reverse the wiring to that one speaker. Whichever way you wire that speaker that produces the most bass and the sound is "most centered" sounding between the speakers is how the wiring should be left. You may need several tries at reversing the wiring to one speaker to pick up which way sounds best, but it'll be readily apparent within a few tries. Since my own speaker wiring at home and in my Jeep is unmarked for polarity, this is how I do mine and it only takes a few seconds of listening to figure out which wiring direction on one of the speakers places both speakers "in phase" with each other. smile.gif

[corndogggy]

You're all soooo wrong... you are supposed to use the "smoke" test. Every speaker is pre-packaged with a certain amount of smoke inside of it. If you wire it up wrong, it will "release" this smoke, in an effort to visually warn you that this is not the correct way to wire it. This method works with other electronics too. Just be careful and try not to release too much smoke, or else you'll have to send it back to the factory so they can pack more smoke back in.

[corndogggy]

Yeah you guys were thinking what the hell I've been smoking weren't you. :D

[Imrubicon]

LOL you vguys crack me up

hope this is right its older but I belive the colors are the same

http://www.installdr.com/Harnesses/DCP-Wiring.pdf

[treborwhip]

I have a 2003 Sahara and today replaced my rear speakers. I, too, had the same question regarding wire polarity. My wires were brown/yellow and brown/blue. I simply did what Jerry suggested and wired them both the same and the results were great. FYI, I connected the brown/yellow to (-) and the brown/blue to (+).

[Scrambler82]

:cool:

corndogggy,
You are not far off on some things.
When testing electrical components and we couldn't find a problem with a unit we would let run until it smoked and then we would know where the problem was or is, called teh "Smoke Test".

Sometime too many things would burn up and all the smoke in the whole unit would disappear and then you can only throw it out.

Good Laugh though... Thanks,

[tatoodTJ]

Here is as simple as I can think of on how to explain wiring a speaker. It don't matter how u do it. What I mean is a speaker is going to work wether u wire it corectly or reversed. If it is done right the speaker will push outwards when a note is played. If it is reversed it will pull inwards when a note is played. So just hook it up and turn the radio on and watch the speaker to see if it is pushing or pulling.

[Jerry Bransford]

Originally posted by tatoodTJ:
Here is as simple as I can think of on how to explain wiring a speaker. It don't matter how u do it. What I mean is a speaker is going to work wether u wire it corectly or reversed. If it is done right the speaker will push outwards when a note is played. If it is reversed it will pull inwards when a note is played. So just hook it up and turn the radio on and watch the speaker to see if it is pushing or pulling. That only works if a DC voltage is applied to the speaker terminals, not music. With music or any other audio fed to the speaker, the speaker won't simply go in or out and stay in that position... it's going to go in and out in step with the frequencies being fed to the speaker. A flashlight battery will work for what you describe though.

[tatoodTJ]

To be completly honest the cone will travel differant distances along the voice coil either outwards or inwards depending on the frequince played. Not simply in and out. May statement was to help him determine if he had it wired correctly. When power hits the speaker it will either push out if wired correct or pull in if wired backwards.

[Jerry Bransford]

Originally posted by tatoodTJ:
To be completly honest the cone will travel differant distances along the voice coil either outwards or inwards depending on the frequince played. Not simply in and out. May statement was to help him determine if he had it wired correctly. When power hits the speaker it will either push out if wired correct or pull in if wired backwards. I don't know what electrical engineering school you went to but ask for all of your money back. smile.gif

[corndogggy]

Originally posted by Jerry Bransford:
I don't know what electrical engineering school you went to but ask for all of your money back. smile.gif No kidding. Even on a moderately low note for a door speaker such as 100 Hz where you could actually see the cone moving, it would be moving back and forth 100 times per second and would seem to be a blur. Nobody in their right mind can say, Oh, see, it went OUT first before it went in that time! :D As far as I know, recordings aren't like that anyway. Every note played doesn't have a fresh start where the speaker is pushed out first.

The only thing I have ever seen where you could actually tell that the cone was traveling out first was this bass recording I used to have. I think it was one of the Magic Mike cd's but I'm not sure. It was pretty wild. It had a funky beat with lots of bass, but it would hit, then the bass would stop for a few seconds. During this time, the subs would be playing like at 2 or 3 Hz. I mean, obviously you can't even hear that, but it was cool to watch because the cones were flexing up and down in slow motion to the beat of the music. Yeah you had to have an incredible system or else all that information would be ignored.