Distinguishing Speaker + and -

[jgruberman 10+ year member]

So I have a finagled wiring setup and some of the speaker wires I'm not sure if they are connected on the + or - terminals of the speaker. Obviously, I want to match them up on the amp, but because they are running all through the car, I'm not sure how to tell which wire is + and which is -. Does that make sense?

What's the easiest way to tell which wire is + and which is - to the speaker? I know the battery trick to tell which wire pair is which, but what about each individual speaker wire?

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[misfit138 5,000+ posts]

wow.

 

[jgruberman 10+ year member]

lol what? I haven't done this stuff in a while and I'm trying to remember it all. I can't help how the first guy wired it all... there's a crapload of patched wires on each line.

 

[jgruberman 10+ year member]

I figure hook one up to the amp and use a multimeter, but I don't have one readily available so I was checking to see if there was any other ways.

 

[misfit138 5,000+ posts]

Alright, man. Are you trying to find which wire is which behind the cd player or in the trunk?

If it's that bad, just buy some new speaker wire and do things properly. It won't cost much at all...

 

[jgruberman 10+ year member]

I have all four speakers wired directly to the amp, but don't know if the positive and negative connections on the amp match up to the positive and negative terminals on the back of the speakers. The rear speakers should be easy since it's a direct run, but the front speakers are tapped into the factory wiring, which is wired all crazy with a few different segments of factory and aftermarket wire.

 

[robertoyoung08 10+ year member]

well if the back are easy, then forget about those for now. give power to both front speakers and then disconnect one speaker. then do the "battery trick" and do the same for the other speaker?

 

[Supergumby5000 5,000+ posts]

depending on the multimeter, you should be able to read the voltage at the speaker wire coming out as positive or negative (if its negative, your backwards).

You can get a multimeter at radioshack for around 10 bucks, but im not sure if that will read negative or not. All i know is my fluke does.

or, wire the speaker up, turn the volume up. If it sounds like ***, its out of phase and you're wiring is backwards.

 

[jgruberman 10+ year member]

lol. Well I don't have the multimeter, but I went online and found a forum that listed the wire colors for the 350z harness. It seemed to wire right that way.... worst case is if they DO end up sounding like ***(waiting for my amp to come fedex today to connect) then I'll run to the store and buy a crappy multimeter and just connect one speaker lead to the amp and check for voltage on each wire and I can tell which wire goes where.... frankly I just didn't want to buy a multimeter. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[RJesus 10+ year member]

If you get a 9v battery, and connect one wire to the + end of the battery, and watch the speaker its connected to, you will notice the speaker will either press up/forward or down/backward.

up/forward = you touched the positive wire to the positive battery end.

down/backward = you touched the negative wire to the positive battery end.

And stock speaker wires are usually pretty crappy. I'd defiantly recommend ordering yourself some respectable 16g wire and running it through the car. You'll feel better inside when its done the right way //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[jgruberman 10+ year member]

That's what I needed. I knew I was forgetting something! And I think I'll run new wiring eventually. 16g is the recommended or the minimum? Or what should I do?

 

[T3mpest 10+ year member]

honestly, just try it both ways. Sometimes since your not dead center in a car like your supposed to be, one speaker out of phase with the other one will actually make the sound waves more in phase in the particular spot your head is at.