question about speaker wire

[gamelife]

hi all, i've just bought a second hand surround sound system, though it didn't come with the manual

just wanting to know - how do you know which of the speaker wire is the positive (+) and negative side (-) . my speaker wire is one black and the other is black with a white stripe down it??

normally they are red and black so its easier - red (positive) and black (negative)

i don't want to put them in the wrong way - hehe

rich

[mid]

Speaker wire really doesn't care which wire you use for positive, and which for negative. Some people at the more obsessive end of the scale insist that electrons prefer to flow down copper in one direction rather than the other, but its pretty much nonsense.

The only important bit is that you connect the positive speaker wire to the positive output, and vice versa. Actually, even that doesn't make too much difference, as long as you're doing the same with each speaker - flipping those wires just inverts the phase of the speaker cone movement. If you do the two speakers opposite ways round the soundspace goes all weird and unfocussed, though.

If you're unsure if you've done it right, get yourself a disc with the THX Optimode thingy and run through the sound tests on it - it does the in/out phase thing, and its really obvious which is which.

[the shape]

Both are the exact same types of wire. All you have to do is be consistent. So, if you put the striped wire in the negative terminal on the speaker, also put the striped wire in the negative terminal at the amp side.

Should you get one mixed up, you won't do any damage either. The speaker will just be out of phase. There's a handy tool on any THX certified DVDs you've got that helps detect this (THX Optimode) so you can correct it. No worries.

EDIT: Oops! Went off to answer email while replying, came back, hit post, then found the same response from someone else. Soz!

[gamelife]

"The only important bit is that you connect the positive speaker wire to the positive output"

but which is the positive speaker wire?? the all black wire or the black with white stripe??

[the shape]

"The only important bit is that you connect the positive speaker wire to the positive output"

but which is the positive speaker wire?? the all black wire or the black with white stripe??

That's just it: there is no positive speaker wire. You decide which one you'd like to be positive, connect it to the positive terminals at the speaker and the amp, and you're done. Repeat for negative.

[mid]

Ah - I think I should have said "positive speaker connection to positive speaker connection". My bad. You've got positive and negative terminals on both amp and speaker.

Unless this whole thing is that you haven't, and you've got one of those cheapy speaker packages where the wires run right into the speaker housing. Is that it? If so, go with plan B and just be consistent between all your connections. It really doesn't matter in terms of damaging anything, and then test with a calibration disc which way sounds best.

[gamelife]

thanks for that, i think i get it know . its just that on my hi-fi seperates set up the speaker wire i have does actually have a positive and negative wire (which are marked red + and black -)

rich

[Spatial]

Along the same sort of lines, I want to extend the reach of the rear speakers of my surround sound system.

In terms of sound degridation, does it matter if any particular speaker wire is used ? ( ie:- are there varying types of quality ).

Lots of people try to push that `gold` lined wire onto you, but is it just a bit of a con ?

[MartyG]

If you have cable that has a white stripe down then I'm guessing you have some pretty average cables. It's the sort of stuff that comes as standard. Many peeps might be quite content with it, and if you have some reasonable speakers then you may well not be disappointed.

However, just like composite to RGB, there is good amount of milage in getting decent speaker cable and interconnects. You would be amazed how much difference quality cabling can make to sound quality. This doesn't mean you have to spend ?50 a metre on it (although you can) - but do take a look at places like http://www.richersounds.com/ for examples of cabling. You'd really be surprised how much difference a decent cable can make to hifi sound.

Regards
Marty

[Spatial]

Cheers mate

My systems got nice sound quality to it as it stands and don't want to lose any of that if possible.

I'll take a look at getting some semi-decent stuff - though the ?50 option is definately out

[gamelife]

the speaker wire came with the set-up, its cheap and thin cable but it does the job - i only paid ?30 for the whole set-up so there's no point in going out and paying more for better cable - its sounds quite good as it is to be honest

i always invest in good interconnects for my hi-fi etc, and decent cable

[Super Stu]

Some people at the more obsessive end of the scale insist that electrons prefer to flow down copper in one direction rather than the other, but its pretty much nonsense.

Sorry, nothing to add but to lol at that, from a physics point of view.

[mid]

The best part of that, Stu, is when at least half of the people trying to claim as such get the direction of the electron flow wrong anyway. And that is still while you're talking about a DC current, not the AC one that any speaker signal will be

Thinking about it, my cables also say one is for positive and one for negative. The point isn't that you get any difference in sound for using them that way round, but just that on a long cable run you need to make sure you know which is which at the far end.