Hey Guyz,
How important is it to get the polarity of the speaker connected correctly :?:
What would happen if they switched? or one is wrong and the other is correct?

Good question...
I also wish to know this...
Haydn

Its easy to get the polarity right. The positive wires are solid colours and
the negative wires are solid colours with either a white or gray or some
other coloured line down the length of it.

As far as I can find. mixing the polarities causes interference. One speaker
produces sound that is 180 degrees out of phase with the other speaker
causing destructive interference.

Its easy to get the polarity right. The positive wires are solid colours and
the negative wires are solid colours with either a white or gray or some
other coloured line down the length of it.

Not always. Traditionally, it was the solid color was negative and the color with the stripe was positive.

The easiest way to check the polarity of your speaker is to get a 1.5V battery and connect the + and - speaker cable to the + and - terminals of the battery (WARNING: ONLY DO THIS FOR A VERY SHORT PERIOD OF TIME). If the speaker moves "outwards" then the wire connected to the + terminal of the battery is the + speaker wire, otherwise if it moves "inwards", then the wire connected to the - battery terminal is your + speaker wire.

I hope this helps.

VLAD your pciture of the 4 eyed, 2 mouth chick makes me DIZZY and wanna puke everytime i look at it. Serriously!!! hehe good one 8)

Anyway... if the sound system in the car sounds rather dull and quiet... could this be the 180 out of phase effect you are talking about? I wouldn't have thought it would make that much difference considering the complexity of the car interior, etc...

I really hate taking the front dash console out again to switch the polarity as it's a real pain in the arse to do...

VLAD your pciture of the 4 eyed, 2 mouth chick makes me DIZZY and wanna puke everytime i look at it. Serriously!!! hehe good one 8)

Anyway... if the sound system in the car sounds rather dull and quiet... could this be the 180 out of phase effect you are talking about? I wouldn't have thought it would make that much difference considering the complexity of the car interior, etc...

I really hate taking the front dash console out again to switch the polarity as it's a real pain in the arse to do...

Hehe. I've got the full sized picture as well. And that really screws with
your mind. :D

About the polarities. It could explain the dullness. Did you install new
speakers into the dash? Do you have the stock HU? If you installed after-
market speakers, how effecient are they? Can they be driven from the
HU without external amplifiers?

thanks for the replies so far...

so... if I wired a speaker with the wrong polarity, would there be a noticeable difference in sound quality??

thanks for the replies so far...

so... if I wired a speaker with the wrong polarity, would there be a noticeable difference in sound quality??

Try it at home in an enclosed room by swapping one of your mini stereo's
speaker wires and then listen to a selection of music, ie, rap, r&b, pop,
rock, classical etc etc. It also depends on how good your ears are.

just like to confirm the out of phase sound... yeah it will sound weird..some CD player cleaning cd's have tests for this..... it does sound weird if out and yes it may sound quiet!!!

If you have your speakers wired wrong (called out of phase) it won't be as loud as they can be.

There are test cd's that can do phase tests, or even just swap the wires around and test them.

i think people are under estimating the difference can be! my mate has a 1999 honda prelude, and infact the dodgy bastards had wired the speakers out of phase from the factory, and it actually sounded better faded to the left or right than it did in the centre because the speakers were basically cancelling each other out.... it's not as noticeable with treble, and if you have you're front and rear out of phase, but if the left and right is, it will sound horrible!!

the best way to make sure is to wire it correctly the first time, remembering which wires were connected to the head unit, and make sure it matches the speakers when u connect them!

cheers

http://www.eminent-tech.com/music/multimediatest.html
dunno if it works