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Topic: How to determine speaker polarity? |
Keith Hilton
From:
248 Laurel Road Ozark, Missouri 65721
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Posted 18 May 2013 9:33 am |
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| I have a Peavey amplifier where the speaker terminal is painted red. The wires coming out of the amplifier head are blue and yellow. Peavey says the yellow wire goes to the speaker terminal marked red. Suppose you have a speaker without the terminals marked, and you want to determine polarity. How do you determine the plus and the minus terminals? Since the speaker is just a coil I do not see how a ohm meter could determine polarity. |
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Scott Duckworth
From:
Etowah, TN Western Foothills of the Smokies
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Posted 18 May 2013 10:33 am
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Just about every speaker I have ever seen has either a red dot or + & -.
_________________
Amateur Radio Operator NA4IT (Extra)
http://www.qsl.net/na4it
I may, in fact, be nuts. However, I am screwed onto the right bolt... Jesus! |
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Alvin Blaine
From:
Picture Rocks, Arizona, USA
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James Hartman
From:
Pennsylvania, USA
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Posted 18 May 2013 11:10 am
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| Alvin Blaine wrote: |
I run a "Speaker pop" Signal through it and use the "Speaker polarity" app on my iPhone.
http://www.studiosixdigital.com/audiotools/speaker_pop/
Not all speakers are marked, and some(like JBL) the red is positive, then some have the black as positive.
The only way to really know is run a pop signal(or 9volt battery) and see if the cone goes in or out. |
If you use a 9v battery, might want to use an old one that's somewhat worn out for less of a jolt to the speaker. |
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Mike Wheeler
From:
Delaware, Ohio, USA
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Posted 18 May 2013 11:12 am
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9 volt battery...use alligator clips from battery to speaker and tap them onto the speaker terminals...don't clip them on, just touch them briefly with a tapping motion. If the cone moves out (away from the magnet), then the speaker terminal with the plus battery connection is the plus speaker terminal.
Clear as mud, eh? 
_________________
Best regards,
Mike |
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Keith Hilton
From:
248 Laurel Road Ozark, Missouri 65721
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Posted 18 May 2013 11:46 am
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| I was hoping there was a way of testing without removing the speaker cover to determine movement. |
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Mike Wheeler
From:
Delaware, Ohio, USA
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Posted 18 May 2013 1:02 pm
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speaker cover? What do you mean, Keith?
The only way to be sure of the results is to have access to the actual speaker terminals...disconnected from the amp, of course.
_________________
Best regards,
Mike |
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Ken Fox
From:
Nashville GA USA
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Posted 18 May 2013 3:48 pm
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| As Mike said above, a positive pressure to the positive terminal causes a forward movement of the voice coil, except in old JBL speakers (they are backwards). You can use a battery and gator clips to test it. Just pop it quickly, as DC is not good for a voice coil. |
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Stephen Cowell
From:
Round Rock, Texas, USA
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Posted 18 May 2013 5:30 pm
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If you can't see the cone you can reach around and feel it... or you can look at it with a flashlight to see which way it jumps.
_________________
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 19 May 2013 3:30 am
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| Also, it's good to remember that unless you're using 2 or more speakers, polarity is not really important. With multiple speakers, however, the phase differences can cause different sounds and frequency cancellation to occur. Of course, some times..."different" is what players are looking for. Chorus, flanging, and phasing are all created by these same phase differences. |
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