Need help setting up your speaker system? Check out these free resources I've created for you... Speaker Placement Guide: audiouniversityonline.com/speaker-placement-guide/ Speaker Specs Guide: audiouniversityonline.com/speaker-specs-guide/
Note that classic JBL and Tannoy drivers were built so that if wired CORRECTLY and faced with a positive voltage the cone would retract rather than push outward.
Hi, I'm using 3'rd speaker in standard stereo speakers with common ground/negative pin I added 3'rd speaker between both positive wires of 2 speakers and it's provides surround sound for stereo songs, problem is some songs have badly editing creates noises in that 3rd speaker Would you like to try making video on this? Also if your amplifier has bridge configuration (no common ground for speaker or floating) then you can connect 4 speakers 2 as surround sound speakers
Me to. Here is what I posted: Here is a question I have: I have two older vintage ADS speakers and the back terminals have neither positive or negative (red nor black) indicators. How do I know which to connect my speaker wires too?
Many years ago an audio technician gave me what was a revolutionary clue - adding a third speaker to a stereo pair - wired from the positive output terminal of each, and placed behind the listener, in direct opposition to the stereo pair - created a third channel which reproduced everything in the source material that was recorded out of phase (and would otherwise be unheard), resulting in a VERY three-dimensional audio experience. I loved it and it usually blew friends and guests away. Worked best in a room longer than wide. Did my set-ups that way for years...
I did this some years go. I had a six-speaker setup: two in front, two in back and two speakers on top of each other in a corner facing the wall. For the corner speaker sets, I inverted the top speaker and the bottom one was wired normally. It really enhanced the overall audio experience, especially in low range frequencies. If you ever try this, the perfect song that bring this out is "Revolution Earth" by The B-52's. Part of the song is played out of phase and the corner speakers, with one wired out-of-phase, really makes that part of the song burst out. It is quite remarkable.
audiophile comes in different flavor - not just about how high quality sound is. i used to mess with speaker set up too. i would face certain speaker against the wall and others direct to me. the sound that scatter or bounce from the wall sound remarkable and different almost like its own full phased sounds stage on its own. this was during that time where 5.1 channel was new to consumer. people think i was into something that doesnt make the sounds sound any better. just like i like downward firing sub woofer. now you see a lot of audiophile who would mess with speaker setup the way we do. just like dolby atmos, those speaker have a upward firing to the ceiling. i even used search for song that had only instrument and vocal separately. play one side of the room vocal and other side instrument. it sounded really good.
Hello Kyle. Your posts are very professional and helpful. I also appreciate that you have calm, understated intro instead of a crash/bang/boom one. Many thanks from a subscriber.
@@AudioUniversityI have two 6.5 speakers in the back of my car, how do I wire them to my amp if I want both of them on one channel? I only use them for mids and highs, no bass. I have another amp for my bass
If you've messed with tube amplifiers and "Never realized importance of polarity", you need to get a different hobby, you can't continue to be the luckiest man on earth for ever. "Shocking" in more ways than one.
Polarity works in all kinds of ways, believe it or not we have subwoofer set ups for larger venues that rely on reverse Polarity for specifically placed cabinets to help shield the stage from unwanted reactions and also helps with live monitoring setups.... it weird man...... and very easy to screw up large sound lol....
I had a problem on stage where we had two floor monitors for the lead vocalist. She called me up and said something sounds strange. We ended up removing one of the floor monitors from the stage to continue the show. When I investigated the two monitors at home, I found one of them to have reversed polarity soldered that way from the factory ! I fixed the connection and on the next show the problem was solved.
that's why my car speaker sound ugly, then when i fix it, Thanks to this video, my speaker sound perfect. the sound is clear and the bass, damn it feels good
You touched on polarity reversal on one speaker. There is something else not mentioned and that is absolute polarity in a sound system. Some recordings are sensitive to that, particularly stereo recordings made with a stereo pair of microphones in Blumlein, ORTF, OSS, Coincident pair, and others. I have heard Sheffield Lab Direct to Disc piano recordings that sounded better and more realistic if the speaker set was wired(Both) in reverse polarity. the difference is subtle, but it exists.
@@markrigg6623 Not really. In the studio, we found out that some voices sounded better while recording by switch polarity on the input channel of the board. It is due to the asymmetry of the audio. Other instruments such as kick drums make quite a bit of difference as to absolute polarity. The difference between the initial impulse of the woofer moving toward or away from is definitely audible.
While working as a DJ in the 70s the engineer installed a new turntable and somehow switched the polarity of one of the audio lines. The result was easily heard with the early stereo mixes, examples of which would be early Beatles recordings. The vocals were cancelled out, they could still be heard but weren't up to a true stereo sound. The issue went through the board to the transmitter to the listeners radio! As soon as it was mentioned to the engineer he knew exactly what had happened and fixed it.
03:47 wow, even with my low-quality computer speakers I'd noticed a really big difference. The bass is completely gone when only one speaker was "wired wrong"
@@MyRackley I have some magic wood knobs I'd like to sell you for an outrageous price. It will make your stereo mind blowing. The silliness that passes for knowledge in the audio world is crazy.
@@MyRackley I have done this in the past and it works great for significantly reducing volume while allowing the cones to move. Your neighbours will love you for it.
Most people don't know this. Lamp cord has ridges in the insulation on one of the conductors. That helps you remember which wire is the hot and neutral. Yes, I use lamp cord as speaker wire. If it can carry mains voltage (120v 60hz here in the USA) to a light bulb, it can carry audio signals to a speaker. After all, audio signals are electricity.
Low-voltage lighting wire is even better, it's just oversized lamp cord with 14 or 12-AWG stranded conductors. Removing the pretentiousness associated with "speaker cable" leads to big savings.
@@kc4cvh All the "audiophiles" buying overpriced speaker wire are being robbed. I refuse to pay $100 for something I can get at the hardware store for 25 cents a foot. As the old saying goes, " a fool and his money are soon parted."
Audio signals aren't electricity. They're tiny consecutive EMPs that get inhibited by non-uniform wire components on a molecular level. This is why OFC is so important, and also why you can *hear* the difference, but can't measure it when using silver cables with a perfect crystalline structure. It's lesser known, but the cables should also be free floating so the EMP isn't obstructed by walls or the floor.
There are numerous speaker manufactures that use reverse polarity in their speaker designs, JBL being one of the more famous brands. A lot of 3-way speaker designs use reverse polarity on the mid-range or tweeter. Speaker polarity is not a steadfast rule.......The crossover design can also require reverse polarity in multi-speaker applications. I just modified a Klipsch RF-7 speaker that the new crossover design required reverse polarity on the tweeter, it sounds amazing!
Many years ago i was working in car stereo installation shop.In the car environment the difference of speaker opposite polarity is very well audible because the bass of the sound is hugely degrated.One speaker moves its cone forward while the other moves backward,one pushes the air and the other pulls the same amound of air and the total amound of air pressure in near zero.To fix this is enough to reverse polarity of one speaker to bring speakers in phase,it has no matter how are they connected in the output polarity as long as they have the same polarity wiring.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. Because of your video I was able to figure out the positive vs negative on my subwoofer. I've been asking and asking these guys for help and I just got tired of waiting. Now I can figure this out without anybody's help. Thanks again I sure do appreciate it ;-) take care
Hi Cindy, it is very simple. Red is positive and black is negative. Mostly speaker cables are these colours Or if the plastic is not colour coded then there is other method. In my car one wire is copper and the other is aluminium, tha plastic is transparent. In my car copper wire is the positive and aluminum is the negative.
i never noticed any difference in the sound samples? i guess ill try headphones - i dont understand how i determine which of my unmarked wires is positive and negative from the battery demo?
Proper polarity also helps create proper soundstaging and imaging among a properly set up stereo PAIR of speakers while you're listening to them in their sweet spot. However, unless you're really listening for it, or if you're not at all an "audiophile", and instead you only "listen" to music as "background fill" and you don't really pay attention to it, then you're probably NOT going to ever even notice OR care about any phase or polarity inversions among your speakers OR in the music played through them.
Excellent explanation Kyle! I would like some advice though, on how to stop people from using the term "phase" when referring to the wiring relationship between multiple speakers. Phase can have an infinite range of values. Polarity has only two: In or Out
@@echodelta9 While the audible effect of phase shift and polarity are similar, they are not the same thing. Speakers can reside in two states of polarity: matching or opposite. No in-between. Phase itself can exist in an infinite range of values, as an effect in a studio or in a DAW. Using the correct terms in given circumstances is key to remedying any audio issues that crop up.
Phase has a time element and polarity does not. If you reverse the polarity on a system, the phase is the same and if mixed electronically with the original signal the signal will cancel entirely. IOW the signal starts at the same time, but it is inverted. You can move a signal in time so that it will phase cancel the original sound, but only at one frequency. The other frequencies will be in varying amounts of phase difference and this causes comb filtering and the sound does not completely cancel.
The term phase is important in multiple speaker systems. If you have a dance club with 20 to thirty speakers you want them connected properly or in phase for maximum sound pressure and minimum distortion. If you go into a club and hold an empty beer bottle in your hand close to the dance floor you should be able to feel air being pushed out of the empty bottle. That is how systems were designed in the 80s, not so much now. Phase simply means the speakers are pushing air in the same direction and not canceling each other out.
Note that your position in the room with respect to the two speakers will determine which polarity is "correct," and that will be only for a small range of frequencies. For higher frequencies even changing the position of your head can noticeably affect how the sound is perceived.
I did notice a difference when you switched the polarities by listening to the drums. If the punch starts with a push, the drums sound a little bit more punchy than when it pulls. It will give you the illusion of the sound exploding outwards rather than imploding inwards.
I recently provided PA system for a medium size outdoor event (~150 ppl) having 3 bands playing. I have Yamaha speakers - one pair 15" with horns mounted on poles on top of pair 18" sub woofers. I ran full range sound to the 15" /horn cabinets - used a Rane electronic crossover to send just lower frequencies to power amp driving the subs. I inadvertently hooked the subs speakers reversed polarity (power amp has banana plug type speaker connections making it easy to hook up speakers reversed). The system had a very "full" sound to it...I received many compliments from both the bands and audience. Not until I was done did I noticed the subs were wired reversed polarity. I was surprised in that I thought if speakers were incorrectly wired a risk of blowing out could result (I drove the system pretty hard/ loud.) Because it sounded so good I wonder if I could do it like this from now on? It had such a good overall sound. 😁
* *Ray Bin,* * That's a cool discovery. I have a JVC micro-component system in my mancave where the speakers are 4 ohms. If i wired two more of the same 4 ohm speakers to the original speakers, will I be over-powering the amp? Its a 20 amp. I'm confused by many wiring tutorials on TH-cam and sometimes they conflict eachother. This is a simple speaker add-on to fill my room so it sounds fuller. - Thanks in advance.
Don't bother, this is snake oil. The +/- markings are for convenience in keeping the two sides of a stereo speaker configuration in phase. That's the only thing that matters.
Very complete video about my old question, and i loved it, cause it was more informative than i was thinking, so, that will be a big like and a subscribe to your channel! Good job!
Cool videos & coherent explanation. This reminds me of the time I pulled the carry handle off my Fender Sound Enhancement speaker (16") and, to my amazement, discovered that all the sound was coming out of the back ass end of the speaker itself. Blew my mind! Cheers!
Thus with biamp speakers posts: positive to tweeter to push higher highs and negative to big woofer pull lower lows. Test it you'll be surprise for a free sound upgrade.
I’m into restoring vintage radios and test gear on my channel but I don’t know that much about the audio world. I am hoping to build a valve amplifier this year and learn a bit more about amplifiers and performance. Your videos are a great introduction thanks.
This is a hell of a rabbit hole to go down when you start dealing with multiple speaker setups and deal with effects like mutual coupling that have very complicated effects on sound. Great introduction though, that 9v is money for polarity or just doing a quick test of the speaker for operation
I once ran sound in a club and a band came with 2 dual speaker wedge monitors. Everything was ready, I ran a pink noise test and did a walk-around on the stage and walking past the monitors I pointed out that the 3rd of 4 speakers was out of phase. He was surprised and said they just made them and were proud, how did I know? After a while but before showtime I saw them with a 9volt battery and they had that speaker out and reversed the wires. Now it's showtime.
Not to mention that we never have any idea of the number of phase reversals that occurred during the making of the recording, from the studio to mastering.
To further complicate things if your speakers are apart the distance it takes sound to go 1/2 cycle will be the same as reversed polarity on the wiring. Good day.
Great point, Carl! And to even FURTHER complicate things, that distance will be slightly different for each frequency… th-cam.com/video/0wvlrBx3U4c/w-d-xo.html
Didn't hear a noticeable difference till 1992's Amused to Death by Roger Waters, featuring holophonic surround sound from two speakers. Read in the preview release to play it back with the speakers in phase to enjoy surround sound from two speakers or headphones. David Gilmour showed off quad headphones on Sounds paper in 1983, photo of him smiling with headphones on, article underneath, but never heard any more about quad headphones after that. We had quad on the 8 track cartridges, great sound in the car.
The normal polarity sounds like the drum is going away from ear and punchy. Reverse sounded fuller more resonance on the drum and the sound was actually going in my ears creating a more realistic engulfing experience
Some amplifiers maintain absolute polarity and some don't, depending on their design and the number of gain stages in them. John Atkinson from Stereophile always mentions this in any amp he tests. And, many speakers have some drivers wired in reverse from other drivers, depending on the crossover used, and which wiring gives the flattest and most in phase response. There have been some blind tests done to see if people coud hear a difference when both speakers in a stereo pair were wired reversed, and if maintaining absolute polarity was audible, but I believe the results were inconclusive. IMO, if it were obviously audible, then all amps would be designed to maintin absolute polarity
I have found a few amps wired wrong during commissioning over my career. Its a pain to find sometimes, as you always expect the factory to get it right. Especially with pro gear.
@@no1unorightnow Phase is the actual conversation here. I'm not sure OP grasps this as reversed polarity is exactly 180 degrees out for phase. Any delay in circuitry would be in audible and immeasurable with audio tools.
@@testthisfordecficiencies No, phase is different from polarity as phase is frequency-dependant and can be interfered with by outside things like walls, ceilings, tables, etc. Also, polarity and circuitry are definitely measurable with the right tools.
@@no1unorightnow Yes, but OPs comment implies there is processing gain staging, etc which adds delay thus affecting phase. Polarity is a reversal of circuitry. Which small changes in circuitry cannot be measured with audio tools you would need a oscilloscope. Even though pase amd polarity are not interchangeable, a reversal of polarity will have a 180 degree phase reversal on all frequencies. Relections don't change phase. Its just the reflection will return to the same point out of phase as phase is directly related to time.
Where it gets really interesting: A sound path, that adds up to a mono signal, where the stereo won't give an average, but extinguish each other, especially if the stereo effect is not too distinct. When broadcasting FM/UKW, this is always done, and while music might sound somewhat weird, the mono voice of a speaker will pretty much become unhearable on mono receivers, if the phase of one channel has been connected incorrect along the signal path.
Can't agree more with you. Good, educational vid. To recap: make sure you wire all your speakers the same way, be it correct or reversed polarity. Just make sure all of them are connected the same way. If you don't know how to check it just watch this vid although I'd rather recommend using 1.5V AA cell instead of 9V battery which may burn the coil in your speaker.
@@AudioUniversity You're welcome! It's very difficult to find intelligent, normal folks who have something sensible to say - TH-cam is full of garbage but sometimes you find channel like yours and you can actually learn something. Kudos!
And i recommended that dont keep it connected to the battery more then a second, and that could bee already too long for some cases expecially if voltage is more then 1.5 volt.
Peter, back 40 years ago I was having some D130's re-coned at solutions on Sunset, and the owner made a point of early JBL's having their wires crossed by turning his back to me while talking and stated the brain senses the speaker the same way if wired backward. Does that make any sense? MK
Actually with a ported speaker box reverse works best it doesn't Stretch the speaker out Each time the bass hits the speaker flexes backwards not forward I have hooked up speakers backwards For ported subwoofer boxes On purpose I didn't want my subwoofer moving forward on bass Flex only backwards with a ported box it works best for Paper subwoofers only
The speaker cone moves outward when positive voltage is applied... This is only true for DC or frequencies way below any resonance. Throughout the usable band, this is more often not the case than it is, because a speaker system is resonant and reactive, thus the phase response is rather chaotic, far from an "ideal" linear motor. That's also the reason why dissimilar speaker drivers (or system s) shouldn't simultaneously play the same band for wide portions, the chance of not having cancellation issues at certain frequencies is practically zero. I'm sure you know and simplified it for the sake of argument though. This should be clarified to prevent confusion.
Additionally, not all speakers move outward with positive DC applied. JBL drivers of the 70s and 80s come to mind. The 9V battery test is good most of the time, but will get you in trouble with drivers like the aforementioned JBLs.
Yes, polarity definitely matters. The hyper-real bass drum in much pop music is quite obviously different with a polarity change, with headphones or speakers. The words positive and negative are pretty abstract when talking about sound waves. Pressurization and rarification are more technically correct and more descriptive. A positive wave literally presses against not only your eardrums but, at a sufficient volume, your gut as well. Flip the polarity and the rarification by contrast feels and sounds wrong. Many professional monitor speakers have an exposed woofer which can be clearly seen to move toward the listener first with a bass drum playback. I always know my speakers are wired correctly, but I still do the visual check because there are many places the signal can be inadvertently reversed in the process of recording.
Great explanation, but what was the best is your use of the terms positive and negative. Instead of plus and minus. People love to say plus and minus, when it should be positive and negative. For those who are going to say it's the same thing, it's not!
Since the power to the speaker is ALWAYS alternating, they don't actually have plus or minus as in voltage. Phase is a better word; you want both speakers pushing, or both pulling, but not one pushing while the other pulls. Keep them in phase. Does anyone say "keep them in polarity"? No. You keep them in phase.
I have 4, 15 inch subs, two opposite from the other two. Two of them are connected out of phase so to eliminate standing waves. Doesn't effect the main speakers in my set up. The bass is perfect as you can get.
Ambient pioneer Brian Eno used to recommend using a third speaker in your system in addition to the normal left/right set-up, wired with both cables to the left and right postiive terminals of your amplifier. This produces an out-of-phase effect which may enhance your ambient listening pleasure and which, in my experience, doesn't seem to harm your amplifier.
I have a vintage Fisher X202B Amplifier that has a phase switch to compensate for this without changing the wiring. It can also play only the right channel out of both speakers or only the left out of both. it also has stereo reverse as well as a control to blend mono to full stereo. Wish newer equipment had all these features
Sometimes polarity of a speaker matters a LOT electrically... I distinctly remember a massive subwoofer going haywire when the polarity was inverted (The plug had come clean off the board, which had no silkscreen...), the resulting noise shook the shed pretty hard! When it was wired correctly after un-shitting myself, I could hardly tell it was doing anything - until I realized the neighbors had finished parking their car, and the rumbling / thumping was synced with my music! My guess is that maybe the driver was connected to ground, but that would have shorted the amplifier = no sound (maybe a bang though)...
If it is a stereo, 2 speaker system, then you will have to move your head a millimeter to the left for it to be correct. Only a problem when your head is in a vice ( or headphones ) In a multi speaker per channel system, it can make a difference. If the sub is wrong, the bass will seem out of phase, just have to move the sub back or forwards a little.
I would like you to touch on this same subject but with regards of multi-driver speakers and the problems that a certain driver is wired incorectly. Thanks!
Good idea! It would have a very similar effect to the ceiling speaker scenario I mention in the video. Although, it would be more detrimental due to the proximity of the speakers in a single cabinet. Thanks for the suggestion!
Distance from speaker (s) also affects canceling or other effects. If you are not standing exactly between the two speakers, some canceling always occurs, but luckily the random aspects of multiple waves on top of each other makes us not notice. Perhaps you were simplifying to help people understand.
This is the simplest explanation I've seen yet. The clip with the right channel inverted and the speaker connected to the battery make it far easier to understand why polarity matters. King shit
I wonder if the crossover works properly if the polarity is reversed. All components in the amp are grounded to the negative side. The Crossover components are grounded to negative side. If you wire your speakers to negative, the signal goes to the speaker first, then through the crossover components backwards. I don't know if that makes a difference, most of them are non polar so the signal CAN travel backwards, but I would think that hitting a capacitor or two first, then an inductor, when the crossover was not designed to work that way, would change not only the polarity, but the sound signature as well.
Let me tell you a little story about this...... I write electronic music and have been in many different sound scape room setups. Every room seems to sound different and after 25 years of doing this I can't believe I just got had by this!!!! It's crazy because I literally just corrected this issue yesterday and WOW! What a difference!!!!! So, again I'm in a new room and something is just off... using 6" coned passive monitors and a powered bass cabinet so I can really understand the low end as is needed for this type of music. So.... back to something isn't right..... I ended up reworking this synth line a few times knowing in my head it should be working but it's not...... so I start looking at the speakers for transients that could be taking crossed notes and spiking kinda thing, but the cones were moving inward on the low hits!!!! NOT GOOD!!!!! BUT HERES THE THING! Everything was wired in proper polarity so it struck me as almost odd until I realized that because my sequencer has sort of an out put issue on the right stereo out I ended up just splitting the headphone jack and running into dual 31 band eq's and adjusting levels so the meters looked accurately even. However...... because the right side is outta level with left... the left solo is an automatic MONO out channel if used alone, it wasn't but was still stronger..... so the sound was wrong when the meters said yes! Strange as it sounds, I'm in a temporary set up at the moment so it's a rig job till this room is done for set up... I ended up having to run a split from the sequencer to the eqs.... then input to bbe, then to separate channels on a mixer..... so from the mixer until I can set up the full gear again, I'm playing with a Gemini dps digital recorder... but the stereo ins are screwed... so it's another split from the mixer to the recorder mic channel🤦♂️... I know I know.... it's so wrong, but it's what I have right now... and it's not over yet🤦♂️ Now that I've got my split signal to the recorder, I have to actually hear it lol..... so, now because everything is packed up I've got a small Sony bookshelf stereo I'm using for power lol..... and it has no rca ins lol.... so again another "balanced" cable to the 1/8" input to route sound for my ears...... If you kept count I'm on my 3rd split pathway now lol..... so by the time it gets to the amp it's in reverse again in the chain.... so I literally wired them backwards coming out and they are now in proper phase with the sub and do not cancel eachother out! Actually for as much bs as this set up is going through right now, I unlocked it lol.... it can be done, you just have to know the physical properties of sound and how to fix it. But to be fair, I'm not new at this.... I've ran a 40k watt system for about 20 years now, so trouble shooting sound comes quick 😉 But anyone going through similar issues.... just know, you can get to a point of frustration easily.... but it can be BEAT!!!! 🤘⚙⛓ Great video man..... - PSYCHOBYTE ☆○°▪︎.▪︎°○☆
Changing the polarity. Just changes the phase angle by 180 degrees...So you can change left to right if paired... Doing the same thing to a bass speaker. Just changes the phase angle again by 180 degrees.. Producing different sound depending on how the bass speaker is setup...
5:17 caution for viewers that Don't do that for long period like 3 or 4 seconds else speaker will POP out ( cause you are applying DC voltages to speaker's coil which is very thin, and most of the speakers impedance is 4 or 8 ohms max that will give you straight equ for short circuit current with 9 volt battery)
Thanks for pointing this out! You're right. I've removed the demonstration from the video and will be posting an updated demonstration video with additional information on preventing damage to the voice coil.
My real name is Michael McCluskey. I have an electronics workshop in my basement. I used to fix the older CB radios and vintage audio amplifiers and those that have radio receivers and inputs for some other source as phono table. I have the audio card in my desktop computer connected to a Panasonic RA-6100 auxiliary inputs. I have two speakers on my desk that sound good.
There are speaker polarity audio tests that will play a signal through the speaker and you measure it with a microphone. In fact, there are smartphone apps that you can download for this purpose.
I found that in some very rare cases having one speaker with inverted polarity didn't mean anything at all. i actually went 2 weeks like that before i realized my mistake. Needless to say I'm still trying to understand almost 25yrs later why the wiring mistake didn't make a difference at all. What you described is an OUT OF PHASE effect. And in most cases that's exactly what happens. But somehow I never got this effect with my stereo. WHY????
Maybe your out of phase driver had a specific position in the geometry of the room that worked in your favour , or the driver per se pushed out weak low frequencies by default.
Thanks for subscribing, Dev! I appreciate your comment, too! I'll keep creating videos for you. Are there any subjects you'd like me to cover in future videos?
@@AudioUniversity I would like to see explained the effect on the resultant signal when you put in the same positive cable the left and the right of a stereo signal... Thank you!
![Complete Guide To Speaker Crossovers [Crossover Settings, Active vs Passive Crossovers, & More]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dBNxxA6g-qk/mqdefault.jpg)
Need help setting up your speaker system? Check out these free resources I've created for you...
Speaker Placement Guide: audiouniversityonline.com/speaker-placement-guide/
Speaker Specs Guide: audiouniversityonline.com/speaker-specs-guide/
Very nice quality video thx audio university
Thank you. I learned something.
Glad to hear that, Italjute! Thanks!
Note that classic JBL and Tannoy drivers were built so that if wired CORRECTLY and faced with a positive voltage the cone would retract rather than push outward.
Hi, I'm using 3'rd speaker in standard stereo speakers with common ground/negative pin
I added 3'rd speaker between both positive wires of 2 speakers and it's provides surround sound for stereo songs, problem is some songs have badly editing creates noises in that 3rd speaker
Would you like to try making video on this?
Also if your amplifier has bridge configuration (no common ground for speaker or floating) then you can connect 4 speakers 2 as surround sound speakers
I have spent a hour trying to find out how to find the pos and neg post on speakers. My new speakers came with no papers. Thank you.
sailr8, did you buy those speakers from a guy with a white van on a street corner?
The inputs on the speakers aren't color coded red and black? Almost all speakers and amps are, with red being positive and black being negative
It doesn't matter which post is which as long as you match amp to speaker on both left and right channels, you will be fine.
Me to. Here is what I posted: Here is a question I have: I have two older vintage ADS speakers and the back terminals have neither positive or negative (red nor black) indicators. How do I know which to connect my speaker wires too?
@@natanpierce495 the larger connector pin is positive and the small one is negative.
Many years ago an audio technician gave me what was a revolutionary clue - adding a third speaker to a stereo pair - wired from the positive output terminal of each, and placed behind the listener, in direct opposition to the stereo pair - created a third channel which reproduced everything in the source material that was recorded out of phase (and would otherwise be unheard), resulting in a VERY three-dimensional audio experience. I loved it and it usually blew friends and guests away. Worked best in a room longer than wide. Did my set-ups that way for years...
Klipsch Heresy was originally developed as a center channel speaker to use between a pair of Klipsch Cornwalls.
I did this some years go. I had a six-speaker setup: two in front, two in back and two speakers on top of each other in a corner facing the wall. For the corner speaker sets, I inverted the top speaker and the bottom one was wired normally. It really enhanced the overall audio experience, especially in low range frequencies. If you ever try this, the perfect song that bring this out is "Revolution Earth" by The B-52's. Part of the song is played out of phase and the corner speakers, with one wired out-of-phase, really makes that part of the song burst out. It is quite remarkable.
audiophile comes in different flavor - not just about how high quality sound is. i used to mess with speaker set up too. i would face certain speaker against the wall and others direct to me. the sound that scatter or bounce from the wall sound remarkable and different almost like its own full phased sounds stage on its own. this was during that time where 5.1 channel was new to consumer. people think i was into something that doesnt make the sounds sound any better. just like i like downward firing sub woofer. now you see a lot of audiophile who would mess with speaker setup the way we do. just like dolby atmos, those speaker have a upward firing to the ceiling.
i even used search for song that had only instrument and vocal separately. play one side of the room vocal and other side instrument. it sounded really good.
Hello Kyle. Your posts are very professional and helpful. I also appreciate that you have calm, understated intro instead of a crash/bang/boom one. Many thanks from a subscriber.
Thanks, Dennis! I’m glad you’re enjoying the videos.
@@AudioUniversityI have two 6.5 speakers in the back of my car, how do I wire them to my amp if I want both of them on one channel? I only use them for mids and highs, no bass. I have another amp for my bass
Well that is the best video I have ever seen describing sound waves from a speaker and polarity...good job
Me too but I've only seen this one.
@@x-man5056 lol
As a fellow audiophile I have known this for at least 40 years since reading about it in a magazine called Stereo Review back in the day.
And they say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. You just taught me one. Subscribed.
well put slim. concise yet informative without missing detail.
Glad you enjoyed it!
MAN, this is xcllnt. Been listening to music for 60yrs. (Maranta,JBL,tube amps) Never realized importance of polarity. Tq.
If you've messed with tube amplifiers and "Never realized importance of polarity", you need to get a different hobby, you can't continue to be the luckiest man on earth for ever. "Shocking" in more ways than one.
Polarity works in all kinds of ways, believe it or not we have subwoofer set ups for larger venues that rely on reverse Polarity for specifically placed cabinets to help shield the stage from unwanted reactions and also helps with live monitoring setups.... it weird man...... and very easy to screw up large sound lol....
I had a problem on stage where we had two floor monitors for the lead vocalist. She called me up and said something sounds strange. We ended up removing one of the floor monitors from the stage to continue the show. When I investigated the two monitors at home, I found one of them to have reversed polarity soldered that way from the factory ! I fixed the connection and on the next show the problem was solved.
that's why my car speaker sound ugly, then when i fix it, Thanks to this video, my speaker sound perfect. the sound is clear and the bass, damn it feels good
I’m glad to read this, Jerome!
You touched on polarity reversal on one speaker. There is something else not mentioned and that is absolute polarity in a sound system. Some recordings are sensitive to that, particularly stereo recordings made with a stereo pair of microphones in Blumlein, ORTF, OSS, Coincident pair, and others. I have heard Sheffield Lab Direct to Disc piano recordings that sounded better and more realistic if the speaker set was wired(Both) in reverse polarity. the difference is subtle, but it exists.
Interesting - this is a highly debated topic, but I’ve heard convincing accounts on each side. Thanks for sharing, Yoda8945!
Confirmation bias most likely.
@@markrigg6623 Not really. In the studio, we found out that some voices sounded better while recording by switch polarity on the input channel of the board. It is due to the asymmetry of the audio.
Other instruments such as kick drums make quite a bit of difference as to absolute polarity. The difference between the initial impulse of the woofer moving toward or away from is definitely audible.
Clear and concise - thanks for that..
While working as a DJ in the 70s the engineer installed a new turntable and somehow switched the polarity of one of the audio lines. The result was easily heard with the early stereo mixes, examples of which would be early Beatles recordings. The vocals were cancelled out, they could still be heard but weren't up to a true stereo sound. The issue went through the board to the transmitter to the listeners radio! As soon as it was mentioned to the engineer he knew exactly what had happened and fixed it.
This is called proper education. Thanks bro
Thanks!
03:47 wow, even with my low-quality computer speakers I'd noticed a really big difference. The bass is completely gone when only one speaker was "wired wrong"
The quickest sanity check is point both speakers at each other. If bass suddenly disappears you will know they are wired oppositely.
@@MyRackley I have some magic wood knobs I'd like to sell you for an outrageous price. It will make your stereo mind blowing. The silliness that passes for knowledge in the audio world is crazy.
@@MyRackley I have done this in the past and it works great for significantly reducing volume while allowing the cones to move. Your neighbours will love you for it.
Out of phase, each speaker is working to cancel each other out. The result is the impression of lower bass volume.
Most people don't know this. Lamp cord has ridges in the insulation on one of the conductors. That helps you remember which wire is the hot and neutral. Yes, I use lamp cord as speaker wire. If it can carry mains voltage (120v 60hz here in the USA) to a light bulb, it can carry audio signals to a speaker. After all, audio signals are electricity.
When used as a power cord, the side with the ridges on the insulation is hot and the side without the ridges is neutral.
Low-voltage lighting wire is even better, it's just oversized lamp cord with 14 or 12-AWG stranded conductors. Removing the pretentiousness associated with "speaker cable" leads to big savings.
@@kc4cvh All the "audiophiles" buying overpriced speaker wire are being robbed. I refuse to pay $100 for something I can get at the hardware store for 25 cents a foot. As the old saying goes, " a fool and his money are soon parted."
Audio signals aren't electricity. They're tiny consecutive EMPs that get inhibited by non-uniform wire components on a molecular level. This is why OFC is so important, and also why you can *hear* the difference, but can't measure it when using silver cables with a perfect crystalline structure. It's lesser known, but the cables should also be free floating so the EMP isn't obstructed by walls or the floor.
Lamp cord! Your that guy that irritates pros. Jokes aside, most speaker cable is colour coded, so one should never be using power cords.
Simple, straight-forward and precise! ... your videos are always useful Kyle. Thank you.
There are numerous speaker manufactures that use reverse polarity in their speaker designs, JBL being one of the more famous brands. A lot of 3-way speaker designs use reverse polarity on the mid-range or tweeter. Speaker polarity is not a steadfast rule.......The crossover design can also require reverse polarity in multi-speaker applications. I just modified a Klipsch RF-7 speaker that the new crossover design required reverse polarity on the tweeter, it sounds amazing!
Many years ago i was working in car stereo installation shop.In the car environment the difference of speaker opposite polarity is very well audible because the bass of the sound is hugely degrated.One speaker moves its cone forward while the other moves backward,one pushes the air and the other pulls the same amound of air and the total amound of air pressure in near zero.To fix this is enough to reverse polarity of one speaker to bring speakers in phase,it has no matter how are they connected in the output polarity as long as they have the same polarity wiring.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. Because of your video I was able to figure out the positive vs negative on my subwoofer. I've been asking and asking these guys for help and I just got tired of waiting. Now I can figure this out without anybody's help. Thanks again I sure do appreciate it ;-) take care
Hi Cindy, it is very simple. Red is positive and black is negative.
Mostly speaker cables are these colours
Or if the plastic is not colour coded then there is other method. In my car one wire is copper and the other is aluminium, tha plastic is transparent. In my car copper wire is the positive and aluminum is the negative.
i never noticed any difference in the sound samples? i guess ill try headphones - i dont understand how i determine which of my unmarked wires is positive and negative from the battery demo?
Proper polarity also helps create proper soundstaging and imaging among a properly set up stereo PAIR of speakers while you're listening to them in their sweet spot.
However, unless you're really listening for it, or if you're not at all an "audiophile", and instead you only "listen" to music as "background fill" and you don't really pay attention to it, then you're probably NOT going to ever even notice OR care about any phase or polarity inversions among your speakers OR in the music played through them.
I only could get it from this video from a couple of videos I have watched. I'm totally subscribed. Thanks.
Thanks! I’m glad you found what you were looking for!
Thank you very much, really good lesson, loved the battery trick explanation.
Excellent explanation Kyle!
I would like some advice though, on how to stop people from using the term "phase" when referring to the wiring relationship between multiple speakers.
Phase can have an infinite range of values. Polarity has only two: In or Out
Thanks, @Zickermacity! I’ve attempted to show the difference in this video: th-cam.com/video/KRWhf_L_xYU/w-d-xo.html
180 or 0 degrees. OK. Phase! Well there is some other phase shift but we wont get into that now. Phase OK.
@@echodelta9 While the audible effect of phase shift and polarity are similar, they are not the same thing.
Speakers can reside in two states of polarity: matching or opposite. No in-between.
Phase itself can exist in an infinite range of values, as an effect in a studio or in a DAW.
Using the correct terms in given circumstances is key to remedying any audio issues that crop up.
Phase has a time element and polarity does not. If you reverse the polarity on a system, the phase is the same and if mixed electronically with the original signal the signal will cancel entirely. IOW the signal starts at the same time, but it is inverted.
You can move a signal in time so that it will phase cancel the original sound, but only at one frequency. The other frequencies will be in varying amounts of phase difference and this causes comb filtering and the sound does not completely cancel.
The term phase is important in multiple speaker systems. If you have a dance club with 20 to thirty speakers you want them connected properly or in phase for maximum sound pressure and minimum distortion. If you go into a club and hold an empty beer bottle in your hand close to the dance floor you should be able to feel air being pushed out of the empty bottle. That is how systems were designed in the 80s, not so much now. Phase simply means the speakers are pushing air in the same direction and not canceling each other out.
Note that your position in the room with respect to the two speakers will determine which polarity is "correct," and that will be only for a small range of frequencies. For higher frequencies even changing the position of your head can noticeably affect how the sound is perceived.
I did notice a difference when you switched the polarities by listening to the drums. If the punch starts with a push, the drums sound a little bit more punchy than when it pulls. It will give you the illusion of the sound exploding outwards rather than imploding inwards.
I recently provided PA system for a medium size outdoor event (~150 ppl) having 3 bands playing. I have Yamaha speakers - one pair 15" with horns mounted on poles on top of pair 18" sub woofers. I ran full range sound to the 15" /horn cabinets - used a Rane electronic crossover to send just lower frequencies to power amp driving the subs. I inadvertently hooked the subs speakers reversed polarity (power amp has banana plug type speaker connections making it easy to hook up speakers reversed).
The system had a very "full" sound to it...I received many compliments from both the bands and audience. Not until I was done did I noticed the subs were wired reversed polarity. I was surprised in that I thought if speakers were incorrectly wired a risk of blowing out could result (I drove the system pretty hard/ loud.)
Because it sounded so good I wonder if I could do it like this from now on?
It had such a good overall sound.
😁
* *Ray Bin,* * That's a cool discovery.
I have a JVC micro-component system in my mancave where the speakers are 4 ohms. If i wired two more of the same 4 ohm speakers to the original speakers, will I be over-powering the amp? Its a 20 amp.
I'm confused by many wiring tutorials on TH-cam and sometimes they conflict eachother. This is a simple speaker add-on to fill my room so it sounds fuller. - Thanks in advance.
Refreshing to see a video that isn’t edited every sentence. Do you have anything on voice coils. ?
I don’t have a video on voice coils yet. When I make one in the future, what would you like to see covered?
Years ago I saw at a trade show a speaker cab with 2 drivers facing each other 1 with normal polarity and the other with reverse polarity
Buy the sterophile test cd 2 will provide full functionality, less than 10$ (About 7$).
U learn something new every day , never paid atention on my speaker wiring , quess i have to go and check my wiring.
Don't bother, this is snake oil. The +/- markings are for convenience in keeping the two sides of a stereo speaker configuration in phase. That's the only thing that matters.
Very complete video about my old question, and i loved it, cause it was more informative than i was thinking, so, that will be a big like and a subscribe to your channel! Good job!
Cool videos & coherent explanation. This reminds me of the time I pulled the carry handle off my Fender Sound Enhancement speaker (16") and, to my amazement, discovered that all the sound was coming out of the back ass end of the speaker itself. Blew my mind! Cheers!
It’s great to see young guys interest in electronics and physics. It’s a fantastically well presented video
Thus with biamp speakers posts: positive to tweeter to push higher highs and negative to big woofer pull lower lows. Test it you'll be surprise for a free sound upgrade.
I’m into restoring vintage radios and test gear on my channel but I don’t know that much about the audio world. I am hoping to build a valve amplifier this year and learn a bit more about amplifiers and performance. Your videos are a great introduction thanks.
Great yet simplified explanation of the topic, great video, thanks for sharing it!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
"For this example, it's best to use headphones" (Points to ears). Glad you cleared that up!
This is a hell of a rabbit hole to go down when you start dealing with multiple speaker setups and deal with effects like mutual coupling that have very complicated effects on sound. Great introduction though, that 9v is money for polarity or just doing a quick test of the speaker for operation
I once ran sound in a club and a band came with 2 dual speaker wedge monitors. Everything was ready, I ran a pink noise test and did a walk-around on the stage and walking past the monitors I pointed out that the 3rd of 4 speakers was out of phase. He was surprised and said they just made them and were proud, how did I know? After a while but before showtime I saw them with a 9volt battery and they had that speaker out and reversed the wires. Now it's showtime.
Not to mention that we never have any idea of the number of phase reversals that occurred during the making of the recording, from the studio to mastering.
Kyle you're a good man! Thank you for the explanations in your videos. Quite good!
Thanks, Anthony! Glad you like them!
To further complicate things if your speakers are apart the distance it takes sound to go 1/2 cycle will be the same as reversed polarity on the wiring. Good day.
Great point, Carl! And to even FURTHER complicate things, that distance will be slightly different for each frequency… th-cam.com/video/0wvlrBx3U4c/w-d-xo.html
seek fast
2:34 correct polarity both
2:42 inverted polarity both
3:31 mixed polarity
Didn't hear a noticeable difference till 1992's Amused to Death by Roger Waters, featuring holophonic surround sound from two speakers. Read in the preview release to play it back with the speakers in phase to enjoy surround sound from two speakers or headphones. David Gilmour showed off quad headphones on Sounds paper in 1983, photo of him smiling with headphones on, article underneath, but never heard any more about quad headphones after that. We had quad on the 8 track cartridges, great sound in the car.
I had a quad 8 track in my 64 VW convertible in the early 70s. The Beatles white album in quad was insane!
The normal polarity sounds like the drum is going away from ear and punchy. Reverse sounded fuller more resonance on the drum and the sound was actually going in my ears creating a more realistic engulfing experience
Nice job. I immediately checked my speaker connections!
Some amplifiers maintain absolute polarity and some don't, depending on their design and the number of gain stages in them. John Atkinson from Stereophile always mentions this in any amp he tests. And, many speakers have some drivers wired in reverse from other drivers, depending on the crossover used, and which wiring gives the flattest and most in phase response. There have been some blind tests done to see if people coud hear a difference when both speakers in a stereo pair were wired reversed, and if maintaining absolute polarity was audible, but I believe the results were inconclusive. IMO, if it were obviously audible, then all amps would be designed to maintin absolute polarity
I have found a few amps wired wrong during commissioning over my career. Its a pain to find sometimes, as you always expect the factory to get it right. Especially with pro gear.
The physics of your ear do not permit you to detect polarity (though you can detect the phase issues from mixed polarities).
@@no1unorightnow Phase is the actual conversation here. I'm not sure OP grasps this as reversed polarity is exactly 180 degrees out for phase. Any delay in circuitry would be in audible and immeasurable with audio tools.
@@testthisfordecficiencies No, phase is different from polarity as phase is frequency-dependant and can be interfered with by outside things like walls, ceilings, tables, etc.
Also, polarity and circuitry are definitely measurable with the right tools.
@@no1unorightnow Yes, but OPs comment implies there is processing gain staging, etc which adds delay thus affecting phase. Polarity is a reversal of circuitry. Which small changes in circuitry cannot be measured with audio tools you would need a oscilloscope. Even though pase amd polarity are not interchangeable, a reversal of polarity will have a 180 degree phase reversal on all frequencies.
Relections don't change phase. Its just the reflection will return to the same point out of phase as phase is directly related to time.
This is by far the best video about speakers polarity I could find. Excellent job!
Where it gets really interesting: A sound path, that adds up to a mono signal, where the stereo won't give an average, but extinguish each other, especially if the stereo effect is not too distinct.
When broadcasting FM/UKW, this is always done, and while music might sound somewhat weird, the mono voice of a speaker will pretty much become unhearable on mono receivers, if the phase of one channel has been connected incorrect along the signal path.
Lovely anybody can grasp it as smooth as it gets.
Can't agree more with you.
Good, educational vid.
To recap: make sure you wire all your speakers the same way, be it correct or reversed polarity. Just make sure all of them are connected the same way. If you don't know how to check it just watch this vid although I'd rather recommend using 1.5V AA cell instead of 9V battery which may burn the coil in your speaker.
Thanks, Peter!
@@AudioUniversity You're welcome! It's very difficult to find intelligent, normal folks who have something sensible to say - TH-cam is full of garbage but sometimes you find channel like yours and you can actually learn something. Kudos!
Likewise, Peter. I’m always learning from comments like yours and others’!
And i recommended that dont keep it connected to the battery more then a second, and that could bee already too long for some cases expecially if voltage is more then 1.5 volt.
Peter, back 40 years ago I was having some D130's re-coned at solutions on Sunset, and the owner made a point of early JBL's having their wires crossed by turning his back to me while talking and stated the brain senses the speaker the same way if wired backward. Does that make any sense? MK
Very informational, but I’m still
Left with the question; how do I know which wires are positive or negative coming from the car
If it's not labelled, you might need to try using a speaker polarity tester or a speaker polarity test smartphone app.
Actually with a ported speaker box reverse works best it doesn't Stretch the speaker out Each time the bass hits the speaker flexes backwards not forward I have hooked up speakers backwards For ported subwoofer boxes On purpose I didn't want my subwoofer moving forward on bass Flex only backwards with a ported box it works best for Paper subwoofers only
I thoroughly enjoyed this presentation. Ultra professional. My Heat Light and Sound physics professor could learn from the clarity here !
The speaker cone moves outward when positive voltage is applied... This is only true for DC or frequencies way below any resonance. Throughout the usable band, this is more often not the case than it is, because a speaker system is resonant and reactive, thus the phase response is rather chaotic, far from an "ideal" linear motor. That's also the reason why dissimilar speaker drivers (or system s) shouldn't simultaneously play the same band for wide portions, the chance of not having cancellation issues at certain frequencies is practically zero. I'm sure you know and simplified it for the sake of argument though. This should be clarified to prevent confusion.
Very well said, @WESTEL Audio. Thank you.
Additionally, not all speakers move outward with positive DC applied. JBL drivers of the 70s and 80s come to mind. The 9V battery test is good most of the time, but will get you in trouble with drivers like the aforementioned JBLs.
Yes, polarity definitely matters. The hyper-real bass drum in much pop music is quite obviously different with a polarity change, with headphones or speakers. The words positive and negative are pretty abstract when talking about sound waves. Pressurization and rarification are more technically correct and more descriptive. A positive wave literally presses against not only your eardrums but, at a sufficient volume, your gut as well. Flip the polarity and the rarification by contrast feels and sounds wrong.
Many professional monitor speakers have an exposed woofer which can be clearly seen to move toward the listener first with a bass drum playback. I always know my speakers are wired correctly, but I still do the visual check because there are many places the signal can be inadvertently reversed in the process of recording.
Your TH-cam Channel came along far to late.
You should have been around since 1978 to 1990.
You're Genius!
Great, on the point, informative! Love it! Thanks!
Thanks, Patrik! I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
I knew what to do and check for but I never knew why. Now I do and am grateful for another one of your excellent presentations👍👍
Great explanation, but what was the best is your use of the terms positive and negative. Instead of plus and minus. People love to say plus and minus, when it should be positive and negative. For those who are going to say it's the same thing, it's not!
Since the power to the speaker is ALWAYS alternating, they don't actually have plus or minus as in voltage. Phase is a better word; you want both speakers pushing, or both pulling, but not one pushing while the other pulls. Keep them in phase. Does anyone say "keep them in polarity"? No. You keep them in phase.
Fabulous info given by you sir...many thanks...your channel is a textbook of audio engineering...HIGHLY APPRECIATED..
I have 4, 15 inch subs, two opposite from the other two. Two of them are connected out of phase so to eliminate standing waves. Doesn't effect the main speakers in my set up. The bass is perfect as you can get.
Excellent description of the science in speaker performance
Ambient pioneer Brian Eno used to recommend using a third speaker in your system in addition to the normal left/right set-up, wired with both cables to the left and right postiive terminals of your amplifier. This produces an out-of-phase effect which may enhance your ambient listening pleasure and which, in my experience, doesn't seem to harm your amplifier.
Dude, lets now see a video on quadraphonic setups from the 70s and using one of the 4 speakers phased reversed. Keep up the good work.
Great video, I knew something wasn't quite right in my car!
I hope this helped fix the problem!
Kyle, sir right head on. 👍
It's not all that uncommon in amplifiers to have the speaker purposely wired "backwards" to make up for an odd number of inverting stages.
I have a vintage Fisher X202B Amplifier that has a phase switch to compensate for this without changing the wiring. It can also play only the right channel out of both speakers or only the left out of both. it also has stereo reverse as well as a control to blend mono to full stereo. Wish newer equipment had all these features
Sometimes polarity of a speaker matters a LOT electrically...
I distinctly remember a massive subwoofer going haywire when the polarity was inverted (The plug had come clean off the board, which had no silkscreen...), the resulting noise shook the shed pretty hard!
When it was wired correctly after un-shitting myself, I could hardly tell it was doing anything - until I realized the neighbors had finished parking their car, and the rumbling / thumping was synced with my music!
My guess is that maybe the driver was connected to ground, but that would have shorted the amplifier = no sound (maybe a bang though)...
If it is a stereo, 2 speaker system, then you will have to move your head a millimeter to the left for it to be correct. Only a problem when your head is in a vice ( or headphones )
In a multi speaker per channel system, it can make a difference. If the sub is wrong, the bass will seem out of phase, just have to move the sub back or forwards a little.
I would like you to touch on this same subject but with regards of multi-driver speakers and the problems that a certain driver is wired incorectly. Thanks!
Good idea! It would have a very similar effect to the ceiling speaker scenario I mention in the video. Although, it would be more detrimental due to the proximity of the speakers in a single cabinet. Thanks for the suggestion!
WTF my audio mixer corrected the polarity so it sounds normal in my headphones, i didnt know it did that.
Make very well. Easy to understand.
Distance from speaker (s) also affects canceling or other effects. If you are not standing exactly between the two speakers, some canceling always occurs, but luckily the random aspects of multiple waves on top of each other makes us not notice. Perhaps you were simplifying to help people understand.
This is the simplest explanation I've seen yet. The clip with the right channel inverted and the speaker connected to the battery make it far easier to understand why polarity matters. King shit
Thanks! I’m glad to hear this! I appreciate you watching, @Weebster!
Thanks for that information. New subs here from Philippines.
I wonder if the crossover works properly if the polarity is reversed. All components in the amp are grounded to the negative side. The Crossover components are grounded to negative side. If you wire your speakers to negative, the signal goes to the speaker first, then through the crossover components backwards. I don't know if that makes a difference, most of them are non polar so the signal CAN travel backwards, but I would think that hitting a capacitor or two first, then an inductor, when the crossover was not designed to work that way, would change not only the polarity, but the sound signature as well.
Nope. Doesn't matter. Even a tiny bit.
Exactly what I needed!
I'm glad the video was helpful to you, Alex Moore! Thanks for watching!
Back in the day I read a book on that subject called the wood effect
Let me tell you a little story about this...... I write electronic music and have been in many different sound scape room setups. Every room seems to sound different and after 25 years of doing this I can't believe I just got had by this!!!!
It's crazy because I literally just corrected this issue yesterday and WOW! What a difference!!!!!
So, again I'm in a new room and something is just off... using 6" coned passive monitors and a powered bass cabinet so I can really understand the low end as is needed for this type of music.
So.... back to something isn't right..... I ended up reworking this synth line a few times knowing in my head it should be working but it's not...... so I start looking at the speakers for transients that could be taking crossed notes and spiking kinda thing, but the cones were moving inward on the low hits!!!!
NOT GOOD!!!!!
BUT HERES THE THING!
Everything was wired in proper polarity so it struck me as almost odd until I realized that because my sequencer has sort of an out put issue on the right stereo out I ended up just splitting the headphone jack and running into dual 31 band eq's and adjusting levels so the meters looked accurately even.
However...... because the right side is outta level with left... the left solo is an automatic MONO out channel if used alone, it wasn't but was still stronger..... so the sound was wrong when the meters said yes!
Strange as it sounds, I'm in a temporary set up at the moment so it's a rig job till this room is done for set up...
I ended up having to run a split from the sequencer to the eqs.... then input to bbe, then to separate channels on a mixer..... so from the mixer until I can set up the full gear again, I'm playing with a Gemini dps digital recorder... but the stereo ins are screwed... so it's another split from the mixer to the recorder mic channel🤦♂️...
I know I know.... it's so wrong, but it's what I have right now... and it's not over yet🤦♂️
Now that I've got my split signal to the recorder, I have to actually hear it lol..... so, now because everything is packed up I've got a small Sony bookshelf stereo I'm using for power lol..... and it has no rca ins lol.... so again another "balanced" cable to the 1/8" input to route sound for my ears......
If you kept count I'm on my 3rd split pathway now lol..... so by the time it gets to the amp it's in reverse again in the chain.... so I literally wired them backwards coming out and they are now in proper phase with the sub and do not cancel eachother out!
Actually for as much bs as this set up is going through right now, I unlocked it lol.... it can be done, you just have to know the physical properties of sound and how to fix it.
But to be fair, I'm not new at this.... I've ran a 40k watt system for about 20 years now, so trouble shooting sound comes quick 😉
But anyone going through similar issues.... just know, you can get to a point of frustration easily.... but it can be BEAT!!!! 🤘⚙⛓
Great video man.....
- PSYCHOBYTE ☆○°▪︎.▪︎°○☆
I agree the positive negative polarities does matter a lot in speaker connection.
Great video! I'll be using this with my students. Greetings from Mexico City
Glad to help, Juan! If you have any requests for future videos, let me know! Thanks for watching.
Thanks Kyle! Very informative and well-explained! Keep it up!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!
Superb video; thank you.
What if i have 1 speaker and connect it to +to+ output/Subwofer and -to- right channel is it Ok?
Changing the polarity. Just changes the phase angle by 180 degrees...So you can change left to right if paired... Doing the same thing to a bass speaker. Just changes the phase angle again by 180 degrees.. Producing different sound depending on how the bass speaker is setup...
5:17 caution for viewers that Don't do that for long period like 3 or 4 seconds else speaker will POP out ( cause you are applying DC voltages to speaker's coil which is very thin, and most of the speakers impedance is 4 or 8 ohms max that will give you straight equ for short circuit current with 9 volt battery)
Thanks for pointing this out! You're right. I've removed the demonstration from the video and will be posting an updated demonstration video with additional information on preventing damage to the voice coil.
@@AudioUniversity New video upload or will you update this one?
I noticed that my timestamps were offset 16 seconds suddenly :)
Finally i found the solutions, what i am searching for.
Thank you sir
Happy to help! Thanks for watching!
It is referred to as being in phase(same polarity) and out of phase(opposite polarity)
My real name is Michael McCluskey. I have an electronics workshop in my basement. I used to fix the older CB radios and vintage audio amplifiers and those that have radio receivers and inputs for some other source as phono table. I have the audio card in my desktop computer connected to a Panasonic RA-6100 auxiliary inputs. I have two speakers on my desk that sound good.
Thank you sooooooo very much brother , I was just going through the very same problem , thank you .
How come I can hear the difference between correct polarity and mixed polarity, but not inverted polarity when balance is set to 100% R?
How can I test speaker polarity if I don't see the speakers, like they are hidden by a non-removable curtain?
There are speaker polarity audio tests that will play a signal through the speaker and you measure it with a microphone. In fact, there are smartphone apps that you can download for this purpose.
great video, extremely clear instructions, thanks!!
Thanks for watching, Max! I'm glad it was helpful!
I found that in some very rare cases having one speaker with inverted polarity didn't mean anything at all. i actually went 2 weeks like that before i realized my mistake. Needless to say I'm still trying to understand almost 25yrs later why the wiring mistake didn't make a difference at all.
What you described is an OUT OF PHASE effect. And in most cases that's exactly what happens. But somehow I never got this effect with my stereo. WHY????
Maybe your out of phase driver had a specific position in the geometry of the room that worked in your favour , or the driver per se pushed out weak low frequencies by default.
Suscribed. very clear explanation and deep technical knowledge put simple. Thanks and keep it up!
Thanks for subscribing, Dev! I appreciate your comment, too! I'll keep creating videos for you. Are there any subjects you'd like me to cover in future videos?
@@AudioUniversity I would like to see explained the effect on the resultant signal when you put in the same positive cable the left and the right of a stereo signal... Thank you!
I think this post I wrote might be helpful: audiouniversityonline.com/polarity-vs-phase/
Let me know if that helps! Thanks, Dev!
Thank you. Really helpful why my speaker does not play vocals of songs .
Super clear concepts! Thanx!
Thanks for watching, Flavio!