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jakdedert

wrote:
Hello all...

I recently installed a radio and stereo speakers in my car. The
speakers were a trashpicking find and they seem to work just fine. At
the time I wired them up, I didn't know which terminals represented +
and - on the speakers, so I took a guess and wired them both the same
way. The speakers had no marking to indicate polarity, other than a
"thin" spade lug for one terminal.

Just the other night I found the box the speakers were in. It has a
detailed wiring diagram on the side. According to the diagram I have
reversed the + and - connections on both speakers.

Over the years I've read a number of different views on the effect of
wiring speakers with reversed polarity. I've heard everything from "it
won't really matter if the speakers are both wired the same way" to
"the sound won't be as good because the speaker cone will pull inward
instead of being pushed out".

It wouldn't be hard to fix, but should I bother correcting the
polarity?

William
In a word, no. The only time that speaker polarity 'really' matters in
non-critical situations is in cases where different speakers in a system
are wired differently...leading to cancellation (one speaker is
'pushing' air, while another is 'pulling'.)

In your case, if those are the only two speakers in the car, absolute
polarity is irrelevant.

Next time, use a 9v battery to check. *Briefly* touch the battery
terminals to the speaker terminals. The speaker polarity matches the
battery polarity when doing so makes the speaker cone extend, as opposed
to pulling in. IOW, when the cone comes out, the positive battery
terminal is connected to the positive speaker terminal.

jak