wire polarity

rbrodbeck

I'm setting up a new home theater system using Polk speakers and Monster wire ($60 / 100feet, I cant recall the guage) The wire is not marked (as far as I can tell) for polarity, and it's buried behind sheetrock so I can't follow each strand. How important is having the poalarity correct, and is there any way to determine proper polarity upon hook-up?

Robb

HBombToo

Polarity is very important. Do you have a volt-ohm meter by chance? That would make life much easier.

HBomb

rbrodbeck

Can I tell if the polarity is correct by listening to the sound quality?

The speakers are "in wall" and connected already. When I hook them to the reciever, can I try them both ways and see which sounds better, or is really stupid?

Robb

Grimster74

I've been told, although I've never tried so you may want verification before trying this cause there's potential it may harm your speakers although I don't see how. Take a 9 volt battery and take one end of the speaker wire and touch the positive side and take the other end of the wire and touch the negative. If the speaker pushes out, the polarity is correct, meaning the positive on the battery is the positive on the speaker. If the speaker goes inward, then switch the wires around. Not sure I'm making any sence but hope this helps.

HBombToo

Originally posted by rbrodbeck
Can I tell if the polarity is correct by listening to the sound quality?



Robb

Yes you can if you have a settup disk. I have the Avia and it runs patterns for troubleshooting polarity issues.

HBomb

burdette

For your education, Robb, polarity matters in that all the speakers should be the same. If you had the polarity reversed on every pair of speakers, then they'd all be the same and you'd be fine. The problem arises when you have one speaker one way and another speaker another way.

What the test disk will do is this.... if you play a tone through your mains, and they are in-phase, i.e. hooked up the same, then you'll have a stable image smackdab between the two speakers. If one speaker is out of phase compared to the other, then the image will appear to float around the room, and you need to change the wires on ONE speaker. Once the mains are in-phase, then it'll have you check one main vs. the center... same deal, stable middle image or floating around. Then you'll do the same with the surrounds.

I would think the wire IS marked somehow. A tiny colored line on one side.. tiny little dots or arrows.. words of any sort that appear on only one side. You'd still have to pull the in-walls enough to see which is connected to the positive and which to the negative... but you certainly don't have to have access to all the wire. Aren't in-walls designed so there is a permanent part in the wall but a baffle that you can remove? I wouldn't think they'd expect you to have to rip out drywall if the speaker needed a repair.

If you have access to the speaker connections (i.e. can remove the baffle part) but the wires really aren't marked, then all you need is a single strand of wire out in the room, and use only ONE of the in-wall strands. Hook up the wire in the room to one side, hook up one of the inwall strands as the other, and see which one of the in-wall strands completes the circuit (i.e. the speaker plays). Then mark it on each end.

bryanr72

Robb-

Sometimes wire is smooth on one wire and ribbed on the other. In my case, one wire has silver strands and the other has gold strands.

gidrah

If you don't have a test disc, I believe DVDs that have the THX Optimizer thingy also have the polarity test.

cmy330go

By the length and the price I am guessing that you have monster xp 16 guage. If this is the case there should be writing on one side of the cable, most people make that strand positive.

If there is not writing I have seen a few cases where the insulation on one strand will be round and the other strand will be square.

About finding out which is positive and which is negative.....Grimster is correct however I would recommend starting with a smaller battery (AA Maybe) and just tap the wire to the battery. If you hold it too long it will heat up the voice coil too much. If this doesn't move the cone enough to tell then step up to a larger battery. JUST REMEMBER NOT TO HOLD IT!!!!

Hope this helps.
Happy listening.

dorokusai

I am late adding to this post, but I am with what Cmy330go just posted.

Go with the writing, it is normally used as positive(red). It actually has been what I have done for years....perhaps its a given, but I am not sure. I would probably say if it wasn't for writing on cables, and my being drunk, I would have blown alot of speakers.

Airplay355

positive is red or black...not hijacking just curious, and im pretty sure all monster cable has writing on only one side, my 20 yr old monster cable does atleast and so does my brand new stuff