How can you tell postive from negative speaker wire? Does it matter?

Question

I bought some monster cable speaker wire for my surround sound system but can't distinguish b/w post. and neg. Does it matter asumming you keep same wire running from positive to positive terminal etc.

Answer 1

It doesn't matter as long as all speakers are connected the same way. If you have one speaker connected backwards to another you will have a phase issue.

Normally one wire has a line on it, make that one either positive or negitive, and keep it that way for all speakers.

Answer 2

Hi there.Monster speaker cable has identification on one section of the insulation .Also one part of the cable could be ribbed or thicker than the other.I presume the cable is two pieces joined together with a flat piece of insulation between them.Because the wires inside the outer insulation ares different for plus and minus Monster recommends that they should be connected using their identification for plus and minus to get the best sound

Answer 3

as long as the same wire goes from source to destination per speaker then it doesnt matter but if u have like a copper wire then a silver wire i would use copper for the positive since thats a better conductor