Polarity issue

Well Agang I'm happy to report all is well. Thanks to all who shared there knowledge and advise. That is what this hobby is all about.

If these spkrs are indeed connected via a cap would the battery test hurt anything?

No. The only problem with the cap coupling is that capacitors block DC which means the cone won't move and you wouldn't be able to determine the polarity using the battery method.

I may have to just unhook the spkr wires from the amp end and do the meter thing as suggested by the other Agon members.

You'll have to do that even with the battery test. Otherwise the amplifier's output will look like a short to the battery and all the current will flow through the amp rather than the woofer like it should.

Good luck!

se

Wow thank you all for info and instructions. I especially like the advise from steve@q-audio. With my rig being a somewhat tight setup it would be easier to use the battery option. I guess my only other concern is the possible cap connection on my spkrs(epos els3). If these spkrs are indeed connected via a cap would the battery test hurt anything? I may have to just unhook the spkr wires from the amp end and do the meter thing as suggested by the other Agon members. Thanks again, Bret

If I understand your post you can't access both ends of the wire so a meter isn't going to do you any good. The battery idea is your best bet.

Your meter should be equipped to test continuity. Touch a spade at one end of the anticable with the black lead and a spade at the other end of of the anti cabel with the red lead. If it beeps, you have it, if it is silent, try the other spade.

i am no electrical expert, but i would think that you could place an ohm meter across the ends. if they are ends of the same wire, then there would be essentially no resistance; if you had one end of each wire, then the resistance will be infinite.

Couple of things you can do.

You can just connect the cables to the amp arbitrarily. Give them a listen, taking note of the bass response. Then reverse the leads at the amplifier for one channel. Listen again. If the bass increases, they're now wired in phase. If it decreases, they're reversed so flip the leads around on one of the channels.

If it's not a big inconvenience, this is best done with the speakers as close together as possible.

If you're also concerned about absolute polarity, and if the woofers on your speakers don't have a capacitor connected in series with them, you can take a battery, preferably a 9 volt but a D or C cell will work too, and hold one of the speaker leads to the negative terminal of the battery. Then take the other lead and touch it briefly to the positive terminal of the battery while taking note of what direction the woofer cone moves.

If the cone moves out, then the polarity of the leads are the same as the polarity of the battery, i.e. the lead you're touching to the positive terminal is the positive lead and vice versa.

If the cone moves in, then the polarity of the leads are opposite those of the battery.

se

Set your meter to read resistance, and use the lowest setting at that.

Touch one of the ends of the speaker cables (speaker side) with one of the probes from the meter, and then make contact with the opposite end (amp side) of the speaker cable (one at a time, obviously) with the second probe. When the meter needle (or display, if digital) reads "0" then you have isolated a single wire. Mark accordingly.