Speakers

It generally doesnt matter, as long as they are wired the same. Id put the stripe to +ve, but its personal preference

Dave

If you really must know, take an AA battery, and connect across the wires, while observing the speaker cone. Compare all your speakers, so that they move the same way.

This doesn't matter across pairs of speakers, as long as they are wired the same. It also almost certainly doesn't matter between rooms.

Lets say that as long as the tow speakers are wired up the same way, it doesn't matter.

I don't think that question has a definitive answer. As long as you connect both speakers the same way, and they are in different rooms to your existing speakers, then all should be well.

Chris

black stripe positive, while youre at it replace the speaker "wire" with some decent cable , doesnt have to be expensive but you WILL hear the difference :-)

speakers work on ac, so as long as theyre both phased the same all is well.

NT

'Flick' a low voltage DC source across them. A single cell battery - AA, etc - is ideal. Observe the direction the bass unit moves. Outwards indicates the same polarity as the battery terminals.

|bodger wrote: |> Not quite DIY but here goes.I have found an ancient pair of Wharfedale |> bookshelf speakers in the depths of the garage and would like to wire |> them up to my separates system to use in another room.There are the |> remains of two wires on the terminals,one is grey the other is grey |> with a black trace.Can anyone tell me which is positive and negative |> please. |>

| |It generally doesnt matter, as long as they are wired the same. |Id put the stripe to +ve, but its personal preference

It matters if you are using stereo. If a speaker is wired the wrong way round it produces sound 180 degrees out of phase. Not that I could hear the difference.

It won't hurt either way round. BUT if you connect the wires the designed way you will get noticeably more bass response.

Que? if one is wired one way, and the other the other way they will be

Dave

If you want to be really sure, connect them and put the two speakers close together and play some bass through them. Then reverse the leads. The setup that is loudest is correct.

That's why he said "as long as they are wired the same".

MBQ

Are you sure your ears are correctly phase-connected ?

As others have said, so long as they are the same, it is OK.

However, does anyone remember the Emperors New Clothes days of the 70s and

This was not mainstream, I grant you, but a substantial minority of the 'golden ears' at the time subscribed to this.

The theory was that absolute phase needed to be maintained all the way from the microphone to the speakers.

Ie: if the microphone diaphgram was being pushed away ( under positive pressure ), the speaker cone should do likewise. And the reverse under negative pressure.

Ahh, whatever happened to those people.

( I still have a Linn LP12 turntable, and a Naim tri-amp system driving active Linn Isobariks! )

Ah, the sondek, exellent piece of kit :-), looking to get a s/h one as I bought a systemdek/RB300 some 17 years ago, still sounds exellent. Musical Fidelity is the way to go regards amps IMO amazing stuff over the years.

Is there a CD equivalent of the old H-Fi Sound stereo test record? This has lots of stuff, including in and out of phase signals, along with pure tones at various levels to put your deck through its paces. I still use it occasionally to check that I haven't got a rewire round my neck.

Chris

And at the other end of the scale, Amstrad 'hi-if' amps with endless knobs to adjust things like the trilaterial spacial integrity balance (OK I made this one up ).

He did say "as long as they're wired the same".

If my memory serves me right (it often does not), the above condition would greatly reduce the bass (low frequency response). It would be noticeable on a decent HiFi system.

Sylvain.