What Happens When You Wire Speakers Backwards?

What Happens When You Wire Speakers Backwards?

How to test the polarity on a speaker and the speaker wiring. I’m slowly finalizing the audio system overhaul on my truck after dealing with a mess of wiring. To ensure all speakers are working correctly, I had to check the polarity on both the speakers and wiring. I was also able to reference a wiring diagram specific for this truck to determine which was positive and negative, this will be based on the color-coding of the wire’s insulation. Finding electrical polarity is used to determine which source is positive and which is negative, this is important on both the wiring and speaker sides. With speakers moving in the correct direction, the amplitude is increased. In simple terms, a higher audio output. If the polarity is mixed between speakers, so they’re not operating in the same direction, one will cancel out the other in opposite movements and you’ll be left with poor audio performance. #caraudio #electronics #music

Procedure:

There are spade terminals on the back of the speaker, one is large, the other is smaller. I already know the large terminal is positive and the small terminal is negative. To double-check this, we can use a small amount of voltage. Only use a very small power source, such as a used AA battery which is rated at 1.5 volts. While there is still a risk here, a higher voltage battery can certainly damage the coil in the speaker.

Touch the wires on the battery terminals, one on negative and the other on positive, and watch the speaker movement. Only do this very briefly, while this is a small battery, holding the speaker movement can damage the coil too. Speakers use an electromagnet to push out the speaker. The correct movement of the speaker is to push out, at the moment the speaker is pulled in, so the polarity is wrong. Flipping the battery around, the speaker pushed out so the polarity is correct. Positive is connected to positive and Negative is connected to negative.

Cleaning up the mess, I desoldered the wires on the rear, they were removed and the speakers will be connected using spade terminals instead.

There is a very low voltage output to the speakers, using a digital multimeter, set it to the 200 millivolt DC setting.

Ensure the wires do not make contact with each other or the body, otherwise, you’ll create a short. Now is turned on the radio and you’ll need to turn up the sound louder as well. I have music playing, however, to avoid any copyright issues, it’s been muted out.

Connect the positive probe to the one wire and the negative probe to the other, then watch the value. The value will vary based on the audio output, the only thing we’re looking for here is a positive or negative value.

As the value fluctuates, it stays positive, there’s the red probe is on the positive wire and the black probe is on the negative wires. Make notes of the wire casing color, here I’m working with one gray with a blue stripe and the other is a gray with a yellow stripe.

If the probes were reversed, in other words, the polarity is mixed up, you’ll see a negative value like this.

Another process of elimination is using a known ground source and only testing one speaker wire. This known ground can be a known ground wire, body bolt, or in this case, I’m using the steel structural frame under the dashboard. The black probe is used here, then using the red probe, check the wires. The one with the value will be the positive wire, leaving the other wire to be negative.

Unfortunately, the wires are too short to hook up the speakers, I cut them back to expose a clean conductor and soldered on extensions using the leftover wiring from the new amp. I purchased quality spade terminals, there are two sizes. So beyond the wires being color-coded, the spade terminals are also specific to the terminals on the speakers, so they can’t be mixed up. These crimp terminals not only clamp onto the conduction, but they clamp onto the wire’s insulation providing more of a reliable connection and have vinyl covers to protect the terminals. 

What Happens When You Wire Speakers Backwards?

How to test the polarity on a speaker and the speaker wiring. I’m slowly finalizing the audio system overhaul on my truck after dealing with a mess of wiring. To ensure all speakers are working correctly, I had to check the polarity on both the speakers and wiring. I was also able to reference a wiring diagram specific for this truck to determine which was positive and negative, this will be based on the color-coding of the wire’s insulation. Finding electrical polarity is used to determine which source is positive and which is negative, this is important on both the wiring and speaker sides. With speakers moving in the correct direction, the amplitude is increased. In simple terms, a higher audio output. If the polarity is mixed between speakers, so they’re not operating in the same direction, one will cancel out the other in opposite movements and you’ll be left with poor audio performance. #caraudio #electronics #music

Procedure:

There are spade terminals on the back of the speaker, one is large, the other is smaller. I already know the large terminal is positive and the small terminal is negative. To double-check this, we can use a small amount of voltage. Only use a very small power source, such as a used AA battery which is rated at 1.5 volts. While there is still a risk here, a higher voltage battery can certainly damage the coil in the speaker.

Touch the wires on the battery terminals, one on negative and the other on positive, and watch the speaker movement. Only do this very briefly, while this is a small battery, holding the speaker movement can damage the coil too. Speakers use an electromagnet to push out the speaker. The correct movement of the speaker is to push out, at the moment the speaker is pulled in, so the polarity is wrong. Flipping the battery around, the speaker pushed out so the polarity is correct. Positive is connected to positive and Negative is connected to negative.

Cleaning up the mess, I desoldered the wires on the rear, they were removed and the speakers will be connected using spade terminals instead.

There is a very low voltage output to the speakers, using a digital multimeter, set it to the 200 millivolt DC setting.

Ensure the wires do not make contact with each other or the body, otherwise, you’ll create a short. Now is turned on the radio and you’ll need to turn up the sound louder as well. I have music playing, however, to avoid any copyright issues, it’s been muted out.

Connect the positive probe to the one wire and the negative probe to the other, then watch the value. The value will vary based on the audio output, the only thing we’re looking for here is a positive or negative value.

As the value fluctuates, it stays positive, there’s the red probe is on the positive wire and the black probe is on the negative wires. Make notes of the wire casing color, here I’m working with one gray with a blue stripe and the other is a gray with a yellow stripe.

If the probes were reversed, in other words, the polarity is mixed up, you’ll see a negative value like this.

Another process of elimination is using a known ground source and only testing one speaker wire. This known ground can be a known ground wire, body bolt, or in this case, I’m using the steel structural frame under the dashboard. The black probe is used here, then using the red probe, check the wires. The one with the value will be the positive wire, leaving the other wire to be negative.

Unfortunately, the wires are too short to hook up the speakers, I cut them back to expose a clean conductor and soldered on extensions using the leftover wiring from the new amp. I purchased quality spade terminals, there are two sizes. So beyond the wires being color-coded, the spade terminals are also specific to the terminals on the speakers, so they can’t be mixed up. These crimp terminals not only clamp onto the conduction, but they clamp onto the wire’s insulation providing more of a reliable connection and have vinyl covers to protect the terminals.