The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Wiring speakers

I bought one of THESE and there is no indication as to which speaker wire is positive and which is negative.

However one wire has a male plug and a female receptacle. The male has no rubber insulation shield but the female does.

Is it possible to figure out negative from positive by the male/female thing?

A good guess would be the insulated one is positive.

Speakers shouldn't be polarity sensative Woody, just pick one.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

That's what I thought but then I thought why would the non-powered positive be shielded? Wouldn't it make more sense to insulate the positive wire on the hot side?

And Denny, I don't know if you're serious or not but every speaker I've ever wired has been polarity specific and even speaker wire is coded.

Woody I'm almost positive that's only a concern if you're wiring more than one speaker up. You don't want to get them out of phase with each other, if they are out of phase then they will cancel each other out. All of the output circuits that I've run into are drivin by an audio transformer, and a transformer will only work on AC or alternating DC and as you know an AC plug can be turned in either direction. Just reverse the wires and give it a try.
Maybe Fred N. will step in and offer us a more technical explanation; he is much more of an audio man than I am.
All that said, I thought I was wrong once, but as it turned out I was mistaken!
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

This is a two-speaker thingie and the wires that come off the radio are marked + and -.

Hook em up and if sound is tinny (no bass) swap wires. It ain't rocket science. The + and - markings are probably on there because they are universal connectors that can be used for most anything.

You said nothing about the wire being shielded. The shield should be grounded.

My original post says "The male has no rubber insulation shield but the female does."

Regardless, I flipped a coin and it decided that the insulated plug was positive. Thank you for your help.

OK, there was a misunderstanding of terminology. A shielded wire has a metal shield around it. An insulator is not a shield.

There is no polarity with a speaker, as Denny said. The phasing is important with stereo systems so that they don't cancel each other.

I think from now on I'm just going to preface all of my posts regarding electricity with a disclaimer that, when it comes to this subject, I'm illiterate.

Thanks for jumpin' in with your expertise Fred.
Now don't cha feel bad Woody, that's why I had to call Fred into the house. Ya see, I've been everywhere but I only know ALMOST everything! Just kiddin I hope ya know.
Since you're so close to hitting the road with your truck, here's a song for you to try out those speakers on.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL