Red paint proves polarity?

Rev. Hayes

Just picked up a psw300 with a blown speaker for $40. Figured I could use the amp for a DIY box I've been wanting to build.

Cracked her open and found that the spider had separated and was thinking I might try the crazy glue thing but......

I also noted that the basket was marked with a spot of red paint on one side of the terminal. I have seen this before on other speakers and had assumed that the manufacturer placed the paint to mark the polarity and make it idiot proof for the next man down the line who would wire it up. In this case the red (positive?) wire was on the opposite side from the paint.
Does this mean it was wired backward or was my supposition false from the start?

mmadden28

Having seen some odd wiring in speakers even as it was meant to be, you can't always trust the colors to be what you expect. For all you know somebody could have already changed something. Usually though, the wires are terminated with different size connectors that would also prevent them from being connected wrong. Best bet is to verify against a schematic.

For the spider, you might look into this glue here.

Rev. Hayes

Further inspection reveals a phase switch on the PSW300. So I imagine that it wouldn't matter to the assembler whether the "red" wire was on the "red" side of the terminal.

But the initial question remains.

Is the paint mark a generally reliable way to identify polarity?

Rev. Hayes

mmadden28 wrote: »

Having seen some odd wiring in speakers even as it was meant to be, you can't always trust the colors to be what you expect. For all you know somebody could have already changed something. Usually though, the wires are terminated with different size connectors that would also prevent them from being connected wrong. Best bet is to verify against a schematic.

For the spider, you might look into this glue here.

Thanks for the glue link. I'm gonna order a bottle now.

But sadly before I rechecked this thread I went ahead and used Krazy Glue.
It worked fairly well but I'm not sure I got it evenly distributed all the way around the spider. I'm also worried that it may be too brittle.

I guess I'll just play it way too loud until it pops loose again and use the "right" stuff.:p

Vette C6.r

Very true on the phase switch Rev. When I move them around the room sometimes they "like" different phases.

I have had two Polk subs that the spider came unglued. Not sure if it was correct either but I used crazy glue. Luckly nobody will see it so you don't have to be an artist with it.