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Determining Speaker Polarity

  Author: Gary L Mace (Venturous)
  Views: 3839     Votes: 5
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Q: I bought a pair of speakers on ebay but they came without instructions and the polarity is not marked on the speaker. Wondering if anyone has installed these or similar speakers who knows which side is positive?

A: Most speaker terminals will have one terminal smaller than the other. The smaller terminal is most often the negative terminal.

If you are not comfortable trusting this, you can do this:

Use a 1.5 v battery to have the speaker react as though it is playing music. AA battery should do the trick. Don't use stronger batteries as it could cause trouble.

Hook some temporary wires to your speaker terminals. Brielfy hold the wires on the battery ends. If the speaker moves OUT when the battery is first connected, the battery is connected in proper alignment. If not, reverse the battery on the wires and it should.

When the speaker moves OUT, the terminal connected to the positive side of the battery is the positive terminal.

Gary Mace (Venturous)

Last update: 09:22 AM Sunday, February 6, 2005

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