Home audio & video forum: Home theater black/red speaker wires mixed up. Make a diff.?

im sorry you kinda lost me with polarity and speakers pushing/pulling? as far as im concerned, they both only push out sound (newbie language i guess lol) but anyways these are thin cables, about 20ft. and all black, split in 2 (with a small red sticker on one side at the end to distinguish between +/- << this is what fell off on a couple of the wires and im not sure on which side of the wire it was on)... do you mean i have to follow down each wire from one end to the other to see that theyre connected both to a positive or both to a negative?

btw the speakers are working i just wanted to find an answer to this because these +/- signs must have a reason??

was YES it matters. a] the life of the speaker could be shortened
b] the sound will be off a bit especially at certain frequencies.
If the wires are not labeled - tagged - or colored - or have, like
a white line on one - then you have to run your hand along the
wire and follow one side so you can put your own label on.
if u r useing cabled wire then u will have to use a multi-meter set
on ohms to see which is which.
you would probably notice it the most on the woofer if the wires
are backwards. the woof might be more of a meow. LOL

I believe he is actually a she.

I've tried it many times. The only person who could tell also was telling me he could hear the splice I had in my speaker cable. I let him replace that line and he proudly announced "See how much better it sounds?"

Sadly I could neither see nor hear any difference.
Bob

Being sure you connect it properly at the source and at the speakers is important, especialy with the newer 5.1 and 7.1 systems. The sources are just like batteries and do have a polarity. Connecting them at the speakers with the red and black polarity connected properly will make sure that you preserve the surround sound quality and effectiveness. You could try changing this to see the effect it has on your system, tey it on the rear speakers of the system after you have selected a dramtic passage from a movie of your choice. I like to use a very dramtic part of the movie "Days of Thunder". It occurs during the meeting inside the glass walled office off of the mechanics shop area in the garage. Just as the meeting is breaking up, one of the people gets up and opens the door to the shop area. A rush of sounds enters the office and someone drops a wrench on the concrete. This sound is so striking that it will catch you looking at the area where the sound appears to come from and you may turn your head, only to realize that there is no speaker at that location. Now reverse the polarity on one of the surrouns speakers and replay the scene. You maynot even get any effect or the sound may now appear to come from another location.

Color coding has long been standardized in electronic applications. Red means positive (+) and black is negative (-). Additionally, some audio wiring consists of three conductor wires (Red, White and Black). In that case, Red is for the right channel and white is for the left channel, while the black wire is often the common ground for both the left and right channels, so if you cross the black wire with the red or white wire, you end up with a short.

There are a couple of good answers here. For maximum stereo imaging speakers must be in phase. That is to say positve to positive and negative to negative. Red and black connects are intended to show the difference although it would not make a difference if both black terminal connectors were connected to the positive and vice versa as long as the lines coming from the amplifier go into the matching terminals on the speakers. If you have a home theatre system do yourself a favor by taking the time to assure the system is wired properly. As you are apparently not an audiophile but probably just a music afficionado it won't really matter that much, but if you are able to do so without tearing out a wall do so at least for any vistors you may wish to entertain. If the speakers are too far apart, which is the case with most people who have sound systems in their home it won't make a bit of difference. I have seen people with a pair of five thousand dollar speaker systems 15 feet apart that don't, and wouldn't know the difference in sound quality even if they were properly spaced. Depending on size, speakers should be spaced 6 to 10 feet apart slightly canted in toward the listening area.

Yes it makes a difference. If one speaker is out of phase with another you won't have proper imaging plus the sound can appear weak. If you have decent speakers you will notice a difference. It won't damage your speakers but it won't sound very good. When I recorded a cd awhile back the engineer recorded a mandolin track that was out of phase which he did not catch on his system. When we took it out to skywalker ranch and listened on their b&W speakers we noticed the track sound coming from behind the listener instead of in front like it was supposed to. So yes it matters!

If your speakers are set up in any sort of symmetrical way you can easily hear the effect of speaker phasing. Sit directly between the speakers and play something that is not in stereo (mono). If it seems to come from directly between the speakers, they are in phase. If the sound seems to lurch around as you move your head a bit (possibly even seems to eminate from outside the area enclosed by your speakers) they are most likely out of phase. Simply reverse the wires on ONE speaker and listen again.
This can also be accomplished using a top 40 song in stereo. The lead vocal is mixed to the center 99.9% of the time on modern recordings (don't use early stereo recordings eg. Beatles as this was not always the case). If the vocal sounds sharply centered, everything's fine. If it sounds "floaty" or hard to localize, try reversing ONE speaker's leads. Listen again, focusing on WHERE the sound seems to be coming from.

The difference is not dramatic, but it is there. I had an H.H. Scott tube amp back in the 1970's that actually had a polarity reversing switch on the front panel. (This is much harder to do in solid-state due to common grounds). I had Larger Advent speakers and I would demonstrate bass power by blowing out candles with a certain Ten Years After album that had a low-frequency oscillator tone in one of the songs. Switch the polarity reverser, and the flame survived. You could also hear the bass attenuation, but not dramatically. But certainly enough that you would want it hooked up correctly.

By now you know polarity (sometimes called 'phase') IS essential. The left and right speakers must move forward and rearward in sync. If one pushes and the other pulls, you cancel out the signal. The simplest way to check polarity is with a 1.5 volt battery (C or D cell size. Touch one wire to the negative (-) terminal, the other to the positive (+)terminal. Watch the bass speaker cone. It will move forward or backward. You want the cone to move forward, so reverse the wires if necessary. Which ever wire, when touched to the plus (+)terminal of the battery, makes the cone move forward...THAT is the plus (or red) wire, and should be connected as such to your amp. Do this for both L and R speakers.

Thanks for all the replies. So I took the time out to disconnect all of the speaker wires and follow each one down from one end to the other and made sure the red had red at the other end and the black was black at its other end. I hooked everything up and whoa.. I simply hear the difference, mainly in there being more bass - way more. I thought it was the speakers at first (Bose Acoustimass 5) which I just bought, but I guess not. I love the system now. Thanks for all the help.

Dave:

Everybody is correct.....you speaker will be out of phrase it will affect the sound.......BUT, you may or may not notice it. I had my speakers connected wrong was I was young......too lazy to fix and I did not notice a difference when I corrected them after 2 years. But it could affect the bass notes..who knows...most people do not have audiophile ears. Neverless correct it because that is part of a tuned sound system.

Many speaker wires come color coded. Copper and silver. Run Copper to positive and silver to negative. Rewire your system with fresh wiring.