How do you test speaker polarity?

Question

I installed wire speakers at home and the wires do not have the black and red colors. How can check the positive and negative polarity using a multimeter?

Answer 1

Listening, like the first answer said, is a good way to tell how things are hooked up. If you really must know a specific polarity for some reason, you can place a 9V battery across the cable and observe the speaker cone move out (flip the cable ends if it moves in). Mark (tape? nail polish? paint?) the insulation on the cable end that touches the plus (+) terminal of the battery. Do this until all of the speaker cones move out when the marked end is connected to the plus (+) battery terminal. Then you'll have all of your cables marked and know that they will all move out when the marked end is connected to the red (+) terminal.

Answer 2

If you used twin flex or speaker cable there WILL be a marker on one core, it may be a raised line along the plastic on one side, or it may be different coloured strands of wire, silver one side, copper the other. So as long as you connect black to black and red to red each side the polarity will be correct. If still in doubt, listen to some music, reverse any ONE connection and listen again. The clear sound with left and right presence is the correct connection.

Answer 3

A speaker is just a coil of wire, I don't think the polarity is an issue. Try one way, then the other and see which sounds best, if there is any difference. You can't damage anything by coupling a coil the wrong way.

Answer 4

When the speaker cone moves out, the polarity is correct. When the cone moves in, the polarity is reversed.

Answer 5

best way is to hook up the speaker and observe the cone movement... if its hooked up with correct polarity, the cone will move outward on bass beats...reverse polarity will suck the cone in on bass beats.

Answer 6

go to this website:
http://colomar.com/Shavano/speaker.html